Pit Cooking
Ingredients
whole chickens, hams, turkeys, or roasts
Cooking Instructions
Although it takes time and effort to dig the pit and prepare the coals and ingredients for pit cooking, after the food has been placed into the pit and has been buried, all of the hard work is done. Food wrapped in foil or placed in a Dutch Oven cooks well in a pit. This is one of the few methods of cooking large items such as whole chickens, hams, turkeys, or roasts. By layering foods in the pit: meat, then potatoes, vegetables, then even desserts, a whole meal can be cooked underground. Dig a hole two to three times larger than the Dutch Oven or the total size of the foil packages that will go into the pit. Remember that there should be room for rocks, and that the smaller packages of food should have two or three inches of coal between each of them. Line the pit with flat rocks. Build a fire in the pit and let it burn rapidly for at least 1 hour. The pit should be almost filled with coals and is now ready for the food to be placed in it. Prepare foods for the pit while the fire is burning down by wrapping them several times in aluminum foil. Food should always be placed on the shiny side of the foil, and the drugstore wrap should be used for sealing food. Remove the coals from the center of the pit and place them to the side of the pit. Place each wrapped item in the pit according to the length of time they require for cooking. Each item needs to be completely covered by coals. Two packages that touch each other will not cook well. Items requiring a longer time for cooking should be placed near the bottom of the pit, whereas those requiring a shorter cooking time will cook more slowly near the top surface of the pit. A thin layer of dirt may be shoveled over the coals between two items of food to cut down the heat. Cover coals in the pit with 4 to 6 inches of dirt. Allow meat about the size of a chicken to cook from 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Subtract or add time to this amount for smaller or larger items. When time is up, carefully remove food from the pit with a shovel. For easy removal of large foil packages wrap them with wire long enough to protrude from the top of the pit. This will assure location of the package and will also act as a marker for your buried coals.
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” (Psalms 42:3)