Cooking Underground

[Dieselnutts]

I am looking for recipes, cooking times, and methods for cooking meat underground. I have ate pork, turkey, venison, and beef that was cooked
underground and it was excellent. I am looking for a book or web-site that deels with this.  Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jamie

[jerrl]

Well, I have been waiting for some one to reply to this post and doesn't look like they are going to help you.  I am far from an expert on the subject but I can tell you what we do every fall before deer season.  We start early in the morning by stacking hardwood pallets about 6 or 7 feet high and lighting them off.  While they are burning, we dig a pit about 3-4 feet wide and 3 feet deep.  we line the pit with fist sized dry* rocks.  At the same time we assemble the food.  Everybody chips in their favorites.  Some bring chickens with carrots, onions, and whatever in foil pouches, others bring venison, geese, corn with husks on or etc.  When the pallets burn down into coals we line the pit with them, chunk in the chow and cover with more coals and then we party!  Timing here is pretty crude with our bunch and is dictated by how long the coals last.  At least so far nobody has died from either botulism or stumbling to their death in the hot coals.  I can't wait for November!  :-D  :-D

*Use dry rocks. one year the lake level had fallen and someone picked up a bunch of wet rocks from the shoreline and those suckers exploded when they got hot.  Heck of a mess!

[Dieselnutts]

Thanks Jerrl I have posted this question on a couple other sites also and
nobody else has replied. I have done about the same thing as you with
a turkey and it was the best turkey I have ever had. You could actually
just pull all the meat off the bone with your hand. But if you under cook
a turkey it is easy to through it in the oven. What I really want to do is a
1/2 a pig, 1/2 a deer , or a goat and if you under cook one of those there
not going to fit in the oven. And I dont want to waste good meat.

Do you wrap your meat in foil only or do you wrap it in burlap also?I have
also heard that people wrap there meat in leaves of some sort.

Thanks
Jamie  :lol:

[jerrl]

Generally we use foil but we have thrown in a couple of venison hams and put coals directly over them.  They get burned on the outside and you have to pull the burned part off.  Honestly, I don't like whole deer hams cooked in any fashion because the fat on the inside makes for a pretty "gamey" taste. Up
in the northeast they use seaweed and/or wet burlap but they are steaming seafood and not something that needs thorough cooking.  We do have some old tin roofing we put over the coals to help hold in the heat.  I think that practice was first adopted because of rain.  Again, I caution you that my job at these events is tending bar and I am usually not allowed near the food till time to eat!

[Lead pot]

Dieselnutts.
I have a Hog roast here at my place for the neighbors and friends every year.
At times I dig a hole big enough for a 125 Hog and Deer hind quarters.I use about at least 75 lbs charcoal or more and get them all glowing,than I use big rocks fist size and as big as your head,compleatly cover the coals.I put a down spout pipe on each end of the hole to keep the coals going a little longer after you cover the hole.After a few hours I pull them out.This starts at about 6am.get them hot.
Take the hog and put all of your favorite vegies in it.I like to use a lot of cabage and unions.
I wrap the hog with chicken wire,it will get verry tender and fall appart when you get a hold of a leg bone and try to lift it.Get the Hog with the hide on,Just have the butcher rub the hair off,it helps hold the hog together and keeps it moist.Then I wrap it in damp burlap and green corn stalkes.Also cover the hot rocks with the corn stalks.Cover that with a old blanket or bed sheet put a layer of dirt on it about 2"and let it set untill late afternoon,roll out a keg and a little stomping music and git to it.It is Gooood.Lp.