24th July Celebration in Ramah, New Mexico

We went to Ramah, New Mexico for the 24th of July Celebration.  They had an inground BBQ pit where they cook large quantities of meat for ward dinners with the 24th being their largest.

They inserted a 3'x4' cement pipe in the ground with the top level with the ground.

There is 18" of washed river rock in the bottom of the pipe.

They had 2 thin metal round sheets with handles 2/3 the size of the pipe and a heavy gauge steel lid that will sit on the top of the cement pipe.

Procedure:  to heat- take the 2 thin metal sheets out of the cement pipe.  Start burning wood in the pipe.  Hardwoods and cedar are good.  They started burning the wood at 10am until 2pm.  There will be about 12" of coals and the cement pipe will turn white.  

Put the 2 thin sheets of metals on the coals.

Season the meat (they used pork roasts) and put into the turkey bags and tie.  Wrap the bags in soaking thick multi-level newspapers.  Place bags into soaked burlap bags and crisscross tie the burlap bags with bailing wire.

Put the burlap bags in the cement pipe on top of the thin metal sheets.

Put the lid on top and cover with3 feet of dirt.

They had everything in the cement pipe at 4pm Friday and served dinner at 5:30pm Saturday.  The meat cooked for over 24 hours.  It was delicious and very tender.