by The Smoking Canon » 19 Mar 2013, 16:18
If I'm cooking in the woodland, or at a home party , then I've a very simple set up.
Essentially I've two metal bandstands with folded corrugated 8ft troughs side by side
This has a long square section spit or a flat mesh sandwich gate to hold the beast within.
We load the pits with wood and fire it up, stacking the wood for the whole burn underneath so it becomes hot and totally dry.
The whole thing has a folded tin roof, which bounces back the heat - cooking the animal slowly in the hot smoke. It gets a regular turn and spray with Kent Apple juice near the end.
( pork is digital probed and the legs removed near the end- these get boned and close cooked on a grill rack seperately)
The lamb is best nice and pink, though the legs are best off toward the end too.
Different parts are ready at different times, so food slowly appears from the grill over the day ,into the evening. Baked roots and potatoes in foil cook in and around the embers.
I encourage a no alcohol rule for the fire man ( usually me ). Lest we topple onto the hot embers at the critical moment, it's fun but respect is needed when a whole beast is on the rack.
Lastly, a tray of homemade sauce is cooked slowly over the fire , infused with the smoke.
Roll on the spring lamb I say.
"Hail to the smoke"