Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

D.L.
If you're talkin' Hot stuff in a hole, "Kiwi Style"I am soooo, gunna do that!
Love to know how!..

.....be interesting to find out how DL is doing it - or the Kiwis

In New Guinea.......the natives dig a hole in the ground (depth depends on how much meat/fish you need to cook)
Gather a lot of volcanic rocks - must be vulcanic in origin because they won't blow up when they are heated.
Heat them in a fire until they are hot - but not too hot because ..........
In the meantime wrap all the meat or fish in banana leaves (could use alfoil here)
ok.....hole is dug.....stones are hot....meat is wrapped
place a layer of stones in hole....(don't use bare hands please unless you are a witchdoctor)
layer of banana leaves over stones add another layer of b'leaves crosswise
place the wrapped meat (1/2 pig.....yumm) or fish in this layer
another 2 - 3 layers of b'leaves - should make a dense layer - for obvious reasons...keep heat in and top layer of soil out
cover with soil
open up bottle of homebrew....& another & &
after about..... well......depends on the homebrew....about 3/4 - 1 hr.
reverse the above procedure.......handle meat/fish with care - as mentioned above - it should slip off the bone.
open up another homebrew and enjoy

"Witchdoctor" or cook that has already completed steps 8,9,10,11,12,&13

Hey Heka,
I have access to materials suitable for making freezer rooms.
If I was to strip internal paint, would it hold enough heat to cook?
or does the method rely on hot ground from having a fire pit?

Suddenly I'm smelling melted polystyrene instead of baked banana

The fire pit (hungi) method of cooking is used throughout Polynesia and Micronesia.... from Papua to Hawaii....

Covering the pit basically turns it into a high pressure cooker... the meat and vege are steamed by the moisture from the banana or cabbage leaves that wrap the food, soaked muslin or white sheets that the wire baskets are lined with , or wetted hessian/burlap bags and .... the soil mound on top acts as a pressure steamer lid....

Some are buried, others are actually done at ground level with a heaped mound... same difference....

Similar to a "clambake" .... for our American cousins....

Rupe,
So what you're saying is, Fill the esky with beer, and dig a hole

Bring two eskies...

One for digging the hole... and the other for sitting on having a few beers while the hungi cooks....

Makes a good seat while you eat your food as well.... and have a couple of beers....

Hi Dicko,
I made a cooker very like yours.
In 1998 I was asked to provide BBQ meat as in smoke & roast to the public by The Macedon Rangers Wine Festival group. We had seven two tooth sheep cut into legs and some rolled shoulders plus normal forequarter cuts.
This all fitted into my cooker. I started cooking 10pm Friday night and served the first meal at around 11am Saturday.
At the end of the day we put all the meat into a number of eskies to keep warn until Sunday morning.

The meat was again placed into the cooker at 6am (it was still warm). In total we served around five hundred meals from that cooker over the two days. At the end of the day the meat fell from the bone YET IT WAS STILL NICE and PINK.
I took my first built unit a small cooker with us as a backup but it was not required.
The chef we had working for us wanted the small one right or wrong and in the end I weakened and let him have it.

Why I have related this story is that the comment was made by a number of people that the meat was as good as that cooked in the Hungi or Polynesian style. So you have at hand the cooker to do just that. The secret is to keep a good supply of water in the oven whilst you are cooking. In the US some have a ball valve keeping the water level up. My cooker has water in the bottom about 100mm deep at the deepest point and the full length of the cooker.
Food and Fish was up for a visit the other day and was most impressed with the cookers/smokers.
Alex

Hi Alex,

Yes I agree, Lots of moisture is the key element.
It not only stabilizes temperatures, but flavours from the moist smoke will get deep into the meat leaving the "Pink Ring" when carved.
I also spray the meat regularly on all sides with apple juice out of a pump pack spray bottle.

Talking about meat falling off the bone, One of the family lunch favourites is pulled pork,
cook up a pork shoulder, when it's ready, grab the bone, give it a wriggle, and gently slide it out of the meat!
Then just pull the meat apart with a pair of forks!
put a pile of the shredded meat onto a soft bread roll, Bit of sauce, salt, pepper, what ever you want!

Mmm

Yum-O, can't wait.
Dicko,
Thanks for all the tips in your previous posts.
I went to the local LPG conversion place today and picked out a couple of cylinders for my smoker.
I'll pick them up tomorrow after they "decommission" them. (i.e remove fittings and punch a hole in the end)

Hi Dicko.....when you talk about material suitable for making freezer rooms......is it ONAZOTE (black) or similar?
(I was working on coolrooms many,many, moons ago.) This stuff is excellent for cold/freezing temp.- it would shrink/smoke at the temp. needed.
Better to use rockwool/glasswool if you want to insulate the pressure vessel.
Scott just mentioned a s/h LPG tank....yeah... you could do away with digging a hole in the ground.
You could cut one dome end off - install 1 or 2 wire grid shelves...bottom could have tray for water evaporator...put hinge on dome end...insulated handle. .. a clip or clamp to hold it tight/shut.
Alternatively you could cut it in half length wise & put hinges on. The only problem I can see is the seal either on the dome end (or lengthwise) but then I don't think internal pressure is that important. You'd need a pressure relief valve etc.
nahhh....keep it simple.
Do away with volcanic stones......use LP gas burner....if you insulate the outside with rockwool/glasswool you'd need something to protect the rockwool.....maybe SISALATION, (double sided alfoil) the stuff they use under roof sheeting could be used.
I would suggest to install a thermometer as well.....better than guessing the temp.
Put the whole unit on steel frame and you have got a "moo-moo".
That's what the natives in PNG call an earth oven.
Yep.....they knew how to cook their meat..... they were cannibals after all.

hope that doesn't put you off .......your next project
You nearly have talked me into building one now

HeHe, Heka, you just described my smoker to a tee!

Cool room stuff was aluminium polystyrene sandwich panel, probably not really suited
I do have a few beer kegs floating around that I can cut up
Might look into that! Thanks

We've used the hot rock method. And a concrete pit with a steal plate over the top. Bit of dirt and then a fire. Cooking times range from a couple of hrs to a day. Container of water. Don't drink too much and forget there a meal under the fire.

So what internal and external temps do you get your meat to? I've read conflicting advice