How to Deep Pit a Turkey

There are a number of ways that you can cook a turkey. Baking, grilling, smoking and deep frying can all produce an excellent and tasty bird. But, if you want the meat to simply fall off the bone, cooking it in a pit is the best. It can a little labor intensive and time consuming, but the results are incredibly worth it. There are many recipe variations, but the following directions cover the basics.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A pit about 3' x 3' x 3'
• 15-20 medium sized rocks
• Turkey
• Assorted spices and vegetables
• Aluminum foil
• A 3' x 3' square of wire mesh
• A wet sheet or section of burlap
• Wood

Prepare Your Pit

1. In general, you want your pit to leave about a foot on each side of the meat you intend to cook. For most turkeys, the pit will most likely be about 3' x3' x3'. As you dig out the pit, put the dirt into a wheelbarrow or several buckets so you can dump them quickly when the time comes. You may also want to cover them in case it rains or you get a heavy dew. You don't want to poor mud on your hot rocks or bird.

2. Lay the rocks along the bottom to form a flat surface (or as flat as possible). Make sure that you don't use stone from a river or stream. Some of them will crack and crumble or may simply explode when they get too hot. Leave a small trench on one side of the rocks so you can push some of the coals off to the side.

3. Build your fire. Some people use charcoal, but with that method you have to keep adding coals. Since the turkey is not being smoked and shouldn't actually be flavored by your combustible material, regular wood is fine. Keep it going fairly briskly.

4. Depending on when you need your bird done, you may need to build your fire the night before and keep it going through the night. Most of the time, if you have a good fire going, you can dump some wood on and leave it burning all night. Check on it in the morning, before you begin to prepare the bird. The wood should be burned down to coals by the time you are ready to cook.

Prepare Your Turkey

1. It's best if your turkey is still about 1/4 frozen. Make sure to remove the neck and the giblets (my Mom forgot this once and, let me tell you, that was an interesting turkey). Peirce the outside of the turkey in a few places so any marinade or spices you use will be able to get to the meat.

2. Feel free to use whatever kind of spices you like for flavor. You can stuff the turkey if that is what you want. You can use lemons for flavor, onions and carrots or anything that tickles your fancy.

3. Wrap the bird. Some people go all out and get collard or banana leaves to surround their bird. I like aluminum foil. Either way you do it, you need to put on about three layers and make sure that the meat is entirely covered. You also want to make sure that you know on which side of the bundle is the breast (the 'top' should face down, against the rocks).

4. Once you have all your spices in and the bird wrapped up, take the wire mesh and wrap it around the package to hold it all together. One thing you might want to do is use pieces from metal clothes hangers to tie the mesh together and create handles (don't forget to keep track of where the top of the bird is).

Time to Cook the Turkey

1. Clear the larger chucks of wood and coals from the fire. Some of them can be pushed into the trough, but some of the really big chucks that might be left need to be taken out. Be careful. The pit is going to be very hot. The rocks have been soaking up heat for a good six to ten hours and can melt the soles of your boots in seconds.

2. Once the rocks have been cleared off, lower your bird (breast side down) onto the rocks. Quickly cover the bundle with a wet bed sheet or wet piece of burlap. Then, again as quickly as possible, fill in your pit. You don't want to give the heated rocks and coals time to dry anything out and start it burning. Go ahead and pack the dirt down a bit by walking over the area.

3. Relax. While it is possible, it is very hard to overcook a turkey this way. You probably have about six hours of wait time at this point, but do not succumb to the temptation to dig it up every hour to see how it's doing. This will just release the heat and add a lot of extra, unneeded work. If you do this, you will probably end up having to finish cooking the bird in the oven.

4. Dig up the main dish. As you dig the dirt back out, take care not to hit the bundle. A turkey with shovel marks in it isn't very appetizing. Carefully pull the dirt out around the bundle and then roll up the sheet or burlap to expose the package. Using a good pair of gloves or oven mitts, lift out the turkey. Carefully unwrap the bundle. You may want to do this outside or spread something on the floor to catch extra dirt that may still be on the package.

5. Serve and enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• Keep in mind, everything is hot. Even after you dig up the bird, the rocks are still going to be generating a lot of heat. It may even take a couple of days for everything to cool down completely. Don't use a hose or water to cool it down. If you have some good rocks, you may want to use them again and wetting them down may ruin them.

• If you are unsure that the meat is done, check the temperature of the turkey with a meat thermometer. If you have pulled it out a little too soon, a little oven time won't hurt and it's better than eating raw turkey.