Flexibility Of The Different Open Pit Barbeques

There are various different types of barbeque pits, with open pits being one of the most popular methods of barbequing. There are two main types of barbeque pits the traditional open pit barbeque and the modern open pit barbeque.

The traditional open pit refers to digging soil out of the earth then filling it up with either coal or wood on which you will set fire and then finally hold the raw ingredients over the fire on a skewer. You can choose to cook the food directly or you can cover the food in foil then cook. This method was used in the past by cowboys and was used in southeast, both of which were used to cook large pieces of meat.

The modern open pit refers to the building of a pit above the ground out of either brick or stone within which the wood or coal would be placed. A grill would then be placed above the built pit at a distance that will ensure that the meat will not be burnt.

In order to adjust the cooking temperature coal or wood would be placed at the one end of the pit while the other end cooks the food. This method of barbequing was most popular between the 1950's and 1960's until more recently it was replaced cooking with barbeque pit smoker.

Cooking Techniques

With open pit barbeque there are two ways of cooking food: indirect and direct heat cooking.

Indirect heat cooking basically uses the remaining temperature to heat and cook the food (usually taking a longer time to cook) whilst direct heat cooking is the use of direct fire or coal heat over which the food can be placed for faster cooking.

Indirect cooking is also known as pit cooking. This method of cooking is similar to cooking using an oven. First you have to allow the fire to startup and allow the pit to store the heat. The fire is normally built to heat rocks and stones at the bottom and around the pit. The fire is then put out (or when it is no longer burning) the food or meat would be placed above it allowing the heat stored in the rocks to cook the meat.

Unique Open Pit Barbeque

Cooking using open pit barbeque allows the combination of heat and smoke to be absorbed into the meat, which can taste fantastic. This method of cooking is very popular for roasts and meat of large sizes. However, since the meat you may be cooking are big (sometimes even whole or halved cow or pig), the process can take up to 10 hours.