Piedmont wrote:
> Dave,
>
> At the the Owensboro, KY Q festival, they use about a 4 x 5 foot by 8
> inch deep metal cooker (you would call it a grill, I call it a
> pit)that they burn old oak skids down to coals with, starting first
> of the day. These metal beds are shallow, yet they are full of hot
> coals a few inches deep.
>
> They sandwich 4-6 pound chunks of meat between two metal contraptions
> much like the hot dog cages you see. They butt up one grill next to
> the other until they extend half a city block. Then flip the meat
> cages over until they reach the end which makes it ready to sell by
> 3:00 PM.
> They cook this meat directly over the hot and very close coals, all
> day long and mop often. I call it pit cooking not grilling. This
> technique is a take off of the pit in the ground.

8" isn't all that close, and if the coals were at true grilling temp, 4-6
pound chunks of meat wouldn't take till 3:00pm to get done. Mopping
wouldn't slow down the cooking. It is close to the way the traditional pits
I've spent time with in North Carolina operate. They are commonly referred
to as an "open" pits, rather than what most of us use which are "enclosed"
or "closed" pits.

> I classify grilling as a technique of cooking the same as above but
> your using thin cuts of meat that are gonna cook fast, whereas the
> larger chunks are cooked the same way, hot coals, close proximity
> between meat and coals, but requiring a mop application.

Some folks refer to tri-tip "barbecue", but in reality it is a combination
of grilling and roasting. Open pit methods of 'Q is a different animal than
what you'd do in a closed pit.

--
Dave
Dave's Pit-Smoked Bar-B-Que
http://davebbq.com/