Southern culture requires that you have access to some source of pit cooked bar-b-que. Most communities have at least one good restaurant where vinegar based bar-b-que with black and red pepper can be bought!
Many of our good Southern Boys prefer to cook their own with guarded family or newly concocted sauce recipes. Pits come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and styles. Gas cookers have gained a lot of popularity since they can be portable and the temperature can be controlled fairly easily. Many gas pits are constructed on an axel with a platform to hold the grill and also the gas tanks used to cook the bar-b-que. Some include space for a gas burner to cook pots of chicken and rice to enjoy during the cooking. Others use mostly charcoal with some wood, but the old standard is hickory or oak wood in a stationary pit under or above ground.
The pit is usually a rectangular box shape with 4 walls and an opening to allow feeding of hot coals for the cooking. It can be as simple as putting up 4 pieces of tin roofing with a metal frame that holds the pig. Some type of cover is needed which can be another piece of tin or a sheet of plywood. Normally the pits are constructed of brick or block. These may be stacked on each other or actually put together with mortar. A metal frame of some type is needed to lay the meat on the pit! A portion of at least one side is removeable to deliver the coals during cooking. It is most helpful to design it to slide back and forth for ease of firing the pit and closing afterwards. Firings have to be done at regular intervals to maintain the temperature needed to cook the pig. Temperatures range in the mid two hundreds fahrenheit. The goal is to keep the meat dripping but not hot enough to burn it.
Another style of pit is actually dug in the ground. Dimensions approximately 3 feet wide and 5 feet long. The depth of the pit around 32 to 36 inches. The idea is to limit the distance between the coals and the meat. The further the distance, the more coals are needed to cook the meat. Of course, two close will, in most cases, burn the meat.
A burn barrel is also needed which is a 55 gallon metal barrel with the top cut out and an opening at least a foot square in the bottom to allow access to the hot coals. A framework of something like rebar is used to make a shelf about a foot from the bottom. Wood is placed on this frame and burned to make the coals needed to fire the pit. A square shovel is used to get coals and distribute under the pig. Wood is cut in small lengths, maybe 16 to 18 inches and split into smaller pieces to burn easily to make plenty of coals.
The pig may be purchased from the local packing company already prepared for the cooking. It is butterflied to allow it to be spread on the grill. Head and legs cut off and kept by many customers to use to make a southern delicacy called Hoghead Cheese. (More on that at a later date). The pig can be salted before cooking or the salt may be in the sauce. The grill top has a sheep of some type of metal grating with holes. The pig is laid out on this grating and the top place on the grill.
The traditional way to cook the pig is to lay it with meat side down. A layer of fence wire is laid under the pig to be able to turn the pig when cooked and starts separating from the skin. At that time, another layer of wire is added to the top of the pig to enclose it, so it can be turned by two people and set with skin side down on the pit. Care has to be taken to control the flip by using a type of tie to hold the sheets of wire together. Unfortunately, pigs have been thrown on the ground when improperly flipped. This makes a bad day!
When the meat is cooked properly and is browned and the meat is separating from the skin, it is flipped as mentioned above, with skin side down. The pit is continued to be fired to finish cooking and to cook the skin, which is highly favored by many. This is the time now where the favored bar-b-que sauce is added to the meat side. It is usually added at a slow pace in intervals, allowing the meat to take it in. Most cooks have a method of choice for mopping the sauce on the pig and dipping off the grease and some of the sauce with the juices from the meat to make red gravy.
When the bar-b-que reaches perfection, the firing stops and the pig-picking starts or the meat can be torn apart, bones removed and sauce added to taste and placed back into the skin for serving. A true Southern Tradition!