I went to a stag on the weekend where I was told there was supposed to be a firepit, and I asked you guys for tips on how to do this. Well, me and a buddy just winged it more or less, and it turned out great.
We had to dig out the hole a bit so it got to be about a foot deep. The cottage was on a beach so it was just sand to dig through. We lit briquettes and about three big soaked sticks of hickory on there (we figured we needed quite a bit more than a couple of chunks since nothing would keep the smoke inside). It looked alright at first, so I put a 22 1/2" grate on top of the pit, and put the ribs on top. After a while, we thought there was a whole lot of smoke coming out, and it turns out that the wood had caught fire and charred the rub way too early - but only on a few pieces that were directly over the wood pieces. We trimmed the burnt crust off, reapplied some rub, sprayed the wood pieces with some water, and just waited for the flames to die down. From then on in, it was smooth sailing. To finish them off, we took the ribs off the pit and placed them on a gas grill, put the finishing sauce on, grilled for a few minutes on each side, and they turned out amazing. The others there just said that we should have cooked more of them.
So, it seems to me that this method works great, the main thing is just to be patient and wait for a good while before you put meat on the grate, and putting more wood on to get the smoke you need... By all means, go ahead and try.
We had to dig out the hole a bit so it got to be about a foot deep. The cottage was on a beach so it was just sand to dig through. We lit briquettes and about three big soaked sticks of hickory on there (we figured we needed quite a bit more than a couple of chunks since nothing would keep the smoke inside). It looked alright at first, so I put a 22 1/2" grate on top of the pit, and put the ribs on top. After a while, we thought there was a whole lot of smoke coming out, and it turns out that the wood had caught fire and charred the rub way too early - but only on a few pieces that were directly over the wood pieces. We trimmed the burnt crust off, reapplied some rub, sprayed the wood pieces with some water, and just waited for the flames to die down. From then on in, it was smooth sailing. To finish them off, we took the ribs off the pit and placed them on a gas grill, put the finishing sauce on, grilled for a few minutes on each side, and they turned out amazing. The others there just said that we should have cooked more of them.
So, it seems to me that this method works great, the main thing is just to be patient and wait for a good while before you put meat on the grate, and putting more wood on to get the smoke you need... By all means, go ahead and try.