BBQ of the Day. 100% timber. No messy cleaning up after, no charcoal....puts itself away afterwards.
Do not use near your house.

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It must be my British sense of humour. Not a single laugh?
Damn.....say.....imagine Mr Bean....taking his wooden BBQ kit home....building it.... using it.....hey the whole thing goes up. Yeah? Nothing to clean after? No mess other than ashes to sweep on the garden? I think I'd better offer a discount...ok..... 50% off mail order only LOL! I presume you all know Mr Bean?

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<blockquote>It must be my British sense of humour. Not a single laugh?
Damn.....say.....imagine Mr Bean....taking his wooden BBQ kit home....building it.... using it.....hey the whole thing goes up. Yeah? Nothing to clean after? No mess other than ashes to sweep on the garden? I think I'd better offer a discount...ok..... 50% off mail order only LOL! I presume you all know Mr Bean?</blockquote>

Looks like a typical fire we'd start to cook pig here in North Carolina. Course we'd let it burn down a lot..

<blockquote><blockquote>It must be my British sense of humour. Not a single laugh?
Damn.....say.....imagine Mr Bean....taking his wooden BBQ kit home....building it.... using it.....hey the whole thing goes up. Yeah? Nothing to clean after? No mess other than ashes to sweep on the garden? I think I'd better offer a discount...ok..... 50% off mail order only LOL! I presume you all know Mr Bean?</blockquote>

Looks like a typical fire we'd start to cook pig here in North Carolina. Course we'd let it burn down a lot..

</blockquote>
Tell me.... How long to cook a pig on fire like that and what weight would the pig be? We been thinking about doin it this summer but its a bit of a lost skill here.

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</blockquote>
Tell me.... How long to cook a pig on fire like that and what weight would the pig be? We been thinking about doin it this summer but its a bit of a lost skill here.</blockquote>

Well once the fire is down to a nice bed of coals we would throw an 80-110 pound split pig on a grill meat side down. We'd tend it to keep the flame down and the heat low. After a while we'd turn it meat side up. In North Carolina we would inject the meat at this point with a Vinegar based Sauce every so often

Of course to do this properly we get up about 4 or 5am and eat around 3pm if we get the pig over the heat by 5 or 6am.. Charcoal is best, especially if mixed with peices of Water soaked Oak or Hickory. The soaking produces the smoke.

The party that starts when the pig is served is called a Pig Pick'n, because we spend the next several hours pick'n the meat off the bones.

I am sure that you will get other ways of cookin whole pigs, but that is the North Carolina way.. I'll be happy to come over there and do a Pick'n for you, but it will cost you the Airfare :)

</blockquote>
Tell me.... How long to cook a pig on fire like that and what weight would the pig be? We been thinking about doin it this summer but its a bit of a lost skill here.</blockquote>
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I have a neighbor who built a sheet steel box, about 4' x 6', and 4' high, ....it collapses and stacks for transport. Built in is a spit or rotissiere for the pig.

He uses fairly small pigs and his instructions are similar to the concrete block method from Virginia Tech University below......... only he spits the whole pig instead of cooking a split pig.

(An accurate meat thermometer is a very good safety tip..)

Whole hogs, carcass halves or wholesale cuts can also be easily roasted, oven style, in an above ground, concrete block pit. The pit should be constructed on level ground with two parallel rows of blocks placed wide enough apart to accommodate the width of the carcass (Figure 1). Best results are achieved by making the pit three blocks high with an expanded metal screen placed between the second and third layers (Figure 2).

Twenty pounds of charcoal briquettes can be placed on either or both ends of the pit. They should not be placed directly under the carcass to avoid flare-ups from the dripping grease.

After the coals are hot, the carcass should be placed on the screen fat side down. Barbeque sauce can be applied on the lean surface and on ribs. Meat thermometers should be placed in the ham and shoulder.

At this time, the ends of the pit should be closed with blocks that can be easily removed for the addition of more charcoal. Corrugated steel roofing material should then be placed on top of the pit to completely seal it for an oven effect. The intensity of the heat can be controlled by the amount of charcoal used in the pit.

Once the blocks absorb heat, the pit will completely cook any large carcass. An 80-pound carcass half will need about 7-8 hours of roasting depending on whether one or two charcoal fires are utilized. The finished internal temperature of the meat should be 160°F. During roasting, the shoulder portion of a carcass will generally cook slightly slower than the ham. Therefore, the hotter charcoal fire should be built on the shoulder end of the carcass to ensure even cooking. If only one fire is used, it should be built at the shoulder end.

Advantages of using this pit system are many. Besides being easy to construct, it is inexpensive and portable. Once placed on the grill, the carcass does not have to be turned or flipped. Less charcoal is necessary than for traditional open pits and, if the coals are placed correctly, there should be no grease fires or charred meat.

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Happy pig eating....

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Our Pig Cooker was destined to be a 250 gallon oval home heating oil tank. It was split in half along the long portion of the tank but not quite in the middle to give it depth. The halves were then hinged and rebar was welded into a large grid pattern inside the larger half about 3 inches below the split. Heavy Medal Grid Fencing was them place on the rebar grid. On each end a hinged door was cut to allow for the addition of more charcoal and for cleaning. Large holes were cut into the cover for smoke ventilation.

Our cooker can cook two 100-120 pound whole pigs or about 50 chicken halves.

We have one of these on wheels too, but it's smaller. It's for the occasional Pick'ns we cateer..

I might just give this a try. Thanks for the tips and guidance. We have Victory in Europe celebs coming up soon. The whole country will be street partying.....and this would be a great thing to put on for folk. Thanks again.

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