How can it be? 25 hour Butts


 
Steve Whiting

Steve Whiting

TVWBB All-Star
So I was watching an old rerun of Man-Fire-Food hosted by Roger Mooking and he was in Mobile Alabama at a BBQ restaurant called The Brick Pit (http://www.brickpit.com/home). The pit at this restaurant is a three shelf wood burning brick pit. Sounded okay until the owner claimed that he cooks the butts for 25-30 hours at degrees and the ribs for approximately 12 hours also at 225. How can this be? How can someone cook butts and ribs for so long without grossly overcooking them? The only thing I can come up with is that the cooker is designed so that the heat barely comes in any contact with the meat. I doubt thats the case though but I would sure love to hear some legitimate explanation as to how this is possible.
 
Steve... might be the same kinda of thing like thinking Bobby Flay knows how to assemble a WSM... ;)
 
Maybe he's fibbin'... some half-truths... protecting trade secrets... a little hype to increase biz.
The proof would be in the pudding - not necessarily how it was cooked.
Is the Brick Pit still there?
 
He's full of it. My current neighbor's son saw me packing in my smoker and other grills in my backyard when I moved in. He said he loves to bbq and just cooked some baby backs the other day that were "the best ever" - said it took him 8 hours to cook. Yeah, uh-huh. Sounds like jerky. Some people get off using hyperbole.
 
Yes, the Brick Pit is still there. All three of my sons graduated from the University of South Alabama in Mobile so I've had the pleasure of visiting the Brick Pit on many occasions. Jerry, the pit master,, is always there to answer your questions and show off the pit. It's not a brick pit anymore. About 20 years ago they built this metal, three tiered pit. It's huge, probably hold about 600 pounds of meat. Their choice of wood is a mixture of hickory and pecan. They don't season any of meat (they only serve pork butt, spare ribs and chicken) with anything other than smoke. No salt, no pepper, no rub.... just good old smoke. As far as the cooking times go, Jerry said the spare ribs go at least 9 hours and sometimes longer. The butts go 20 hours and sometimes longer. The chicken anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. The pit temp runs between 200 and 230. They do use the cooler section of the pit to hold meat, much as we do using an ice chest. In my picture, you'll see pork butts foiled and being held. That may account for some of the additional time in the cooker. Pork butts are the only thing that gets foiled by the way and that's only if they need to hold it prior to serving. At any rate, the food is great. I did think the chicken was sometimes a bit dry but the pulled pork and spares were to perfection. Do they cook every single butt for 30 hours? Probably not, but they probably smoke it a lot longer then we do. If you get a chance, visit the place. The food and the people are first rate.





Jerry, the pit master.







Interior of the Brick Pit



My wife and my mother. Go Jags!

 
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