Vintage L.A. barbecue
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| ©Glenn Koenig / LAT |
19th century Los Angeles cattle ranchers knew how to party. They threw massive barbecue orgies that lasted for days. They dug huge pits deep into the ground, and slow smoked 65,000 pounds of beef at a time for thousands of guests.
Charles Perry of the L.A. Times dug through historical archives to unearth this style of cooking seldom seen in our paved-over City of Angels. It’s a great food anthropology story, and a fabulous-sounding meal recreated by modern day food adventurists. Read about it here.
November 4th, 2006 at 4:55 am
Read the article Wednesday with my stomach getting antsy. So when is the 4Q team going to pit roast a side of beef? I’ll be there and even bring the beer.
November 5th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Wayne, do you know a patch of pasture out your way where we might dig a pit? With any luck, a cow might fall in…
November 8th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Sure I do, but since the soil around here is over saturated with the major bovine byproduct, I don’t think we would want to eat anything smoked in that pit… oh well, there is always Joey’s.
November 9th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
UPDATE:
The L.A. Times ran reader responses to this article, and one reader pointed out an annual celebration of this style of cooking in Murrieta. Thanks to Charles Perry for alerting me to this exciting news!
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From the LA TIMES:
“THEY are still doing it the old way out in Murrieta. Hundreds of pounds of meat, thousands of people. I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but when I moved out here in the ’70s, the Murrieta Volunteer Fire Department had a huge pit barbecue every year as a fundraiser. Even though it is not a volunteer department anymore, they still do it every April.”
PHIL VAN CAMP
Murrieta
“The 60th annual Murrieta Barbecue will be held April 15, 2007. For more information, call the Murietta Fire Department at (951) 677-5511.”