Repost of an old Post - One of my Favorites (Long)

Jethro

I was searching some old e-mail the other day and came across where I e-mailed a great post from the forum to a friend. I couldn't remember the original poster - I was thinkin it was Elder Ward, but he said it wasn't his. For those new to the forum and those who saw it before I hope you enjoy it and let me know if anyone remembers the author.[p]I just got back from a funeral in the town of Butler Alabama(pronounced "Butlah" by the locals). While there I was taken to visit
the Butler Volunteer Fire Department. They seemed a little taken a-back when I hardly looked at the new half-million dollar ladder truck and walked mezmerized out the back door to inspect a large 30'X10" barbieQ PIT that was waist high.[p]There was an electric hoist on a steel track above the pit. It had
several sliding steel doors on one side. There was a stack of
2-1/2'X6' square expanded metal cooking grates beside the pit. The pit
had a metal roof just above the hoist track. There were also 2 4' high
sections of heavy pipe, drilling casings I think, off to one end of the pit. These pipes were a half inch thick and had a trap door down
toward the bottom.[p]I asked one of the guys what gives? He said they do fund-raisers about
three times a year by cooking over hickory and selling plates to the
people of the town.[p]This is were it gets good! He actually asked me if I had ever had a
Boston Butt that had been cooked for 16 hours over natural hardwood
coals.. HHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa! It was as if I had been stranded in a
strange land with nothing visually or audibly recognisable, and all of
a sudden,, everyone starts talking English,,, and with a southern
drawl..[p]They travel 80 miles to get the part of the hickory logs that are waste. It's the outer bark and a couple of inches of solid hickory
that is left when they square a large log and they are about 5 to 8
feet long. They stand these large sticks up in the pipes and burn them
down into coals. Then they shovel the coals into the pit and form a
deep layer of hot coals that coveres the entire bottom. Then they
place the cooking grates over the entire surface, and put on, what
must be a hundred seasoned Boston Butt roasts. They have these large
metal covers, that look like ship hold covers, that 2 men lift and
move over the meat. They insert thermometers in several places during
the cook to see what the temp is and try to keep it from going to 300.[p]If they need more heat, they just throw in a few hickory sticks. They
say that it takes from 12 to 18 hours usually and the pulled pork is
ready. They use the electric hoist that has 4 cables with hooks on the
ends to lift the heavy segments of grates with the meat on it, and
roll it off the end of the pit where 4 guys grab it with heavy gloves
and move to a prep table. People come from 60 miles away, and more,
just for these cooking events.[p]Then I told them how we do the same thing on a smaller and more precise scale on the Big Green Egg.. All they wanted to know was,,,,,
what the hell is a Big Green Egg?[p]One guy remarked how he always wanted to do a single or double butt
for his family, but couldn't figure out how to do it on such a small
scale without building a mini version of the monster at the fire
house. He asked, "where do these eggs come from?" I answered, "they
keep them in heaven. You have to pray for one." Then I told him "Santa
brought mine to me!"

Painter

Jethro, Great story. Never seen it before. They know how to cook on a grand scale, but they only do it 2 to 3 times a year on a monstrous setup like that. "Wow" They definitely need to be introduced to the backyard friendly cooker.
Painter

Char-Woody

Jethro, King-O-Coals was the author!...Here is his old e.mail[p]E-mail: badkins100@usa.net