Cooking a whole steer?????

[HDRider]

I have done it. Take a while and a lot of wood.

We need to have a big CT rendezvous and you can show us how it's done.

I have always wanted to do that.

 

[101]

I've cooked up to 600 # of beef in a pit if that would help ya, Always in roasts 10 -14#, never with a bone in, don't think I would do that with the way we do it, let know if you want info. Good luck 101

 

[Bigfoot]

I've cooked up to 600 # of beef in a pit if that would help ya, Always in roasts 10 -14#, never with a bone in, don't think I would do that with the way we do it, let know if you want info. Good luck 101

Making sure i'm following you. You cut everything in to roast bone out 10-14 pounds, and then smoked it like it was boston butts or shoulders? If so, that sounds like it would work.

I'm afraid people are committed to spit roasting this thing. It would be cool to do, I'm just afraid of a catastrophic failure.

If my math aint wrong, the carcass broke down in quarters works out to 80 pounds each. Four of us, could take a quarter, and cook it at our house, in whatever our prefered method was. I've got a cabinet smoker. I'd cook mine in that.

 

[M-5]

I personally don't think it will be very good . In order to make it worth eating nothing will need to be cooked past med rare. You can not achieve that on a whole qtr. IMO. Its not like a whole hog that has the fat to keep it all moist as the thicker parts reach desired temp. I may be completely off base because ive never done it but my simple mind cant wrap around how you accomplish making it palatable.

 

[HDRider]

I personally don't think it will be very good . In order to make it worth eating nothing will need to be cooked past med rare. You can not achieve that on a whole qtr. IMO. Its not like a whole hog that has the fat to keep it all moist as the thicker parts reach desired temp. I may be completely off base because ive never done it but my simple mind cant wrap around how you accomplish making it palatable.

I think you are right.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

You will have cuts that suit everone. Some will get cooked more that other. Just figure on a lot of time.

 

[Bigfoot]

I personally don't think it will be very good . In order to make it worth eating nothing will need to be cooked past med rare. You can not achieve that on a whole qtr. IMO. Its not like a whole hog that has the fat to keep it all moist as the thicker parts reach desired temp. I may be completely off base because ive never done it but my simple mind cant wrap around how you accomplish making it palatable.

Your probably right. The steer is a gift, so might as well go all in.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

Beef is my favorite food group. That said, if I was calling the shots on this feed, I'd trade the gifted calf for enough cash to buy a couple fat hogs and make the good Christian cowboy folk happy about dinner. If you do roast that calf, stay up front in the chow line and let us know how the loin is! May the Lord bless your gathering, no matter what's on the menu.

 

[barnyard]

I cooked a whole steer for my daughters wedding this past spring. It hung at 530lbs. Had local beef packing plant hang for10 days. We put it on a spit just like you would a hog, wrapped wire around it at 1-2" spacing, cooked it over wood, took 12.5
hours and came out great. I was very nervous as we were serving 300 people without a backup plan, but it could not have come out any better. Just make sure your help does not drink to much cause when its done is when you need all the help!!

 

[barnyard]

We did not serve individual cuts, we cut and pulled it mixed it all up, the served is 3 ways, plain, barbeque sauce, and a mushroom sauce.

 

[HDRider]

Good deal barnyard. I am glad to hear of such success.

Go for it BF.

 

[101]

Bigfoot, yes we make boneless roasts on ours, we do a marinade, mostly salt, pepper, garlic salt, liquid smoke, let rest at least 3 days, is a marinade we come up with can help if wanted, backhoe a pit at least 6" deep, long enough so that you can set roasts in without touching each other, we burn enough good hardwood to fill pit 1/2 full of red coals, cover with damp sand about 2-3 inches, roasts double rapped in heavy foil with own marinade sealed as tight as you can, then rapped in soaked burlap and tied, set on sand in pit, cover pit with tin, then cover tin with damp sand to seal, all you are doing is making a big oven, If you do it like I said your pit will settle down at about 220 degrees about an hour after sealing and will run down to about 200-210 at the 11 hours, this will be the total of your cooking time, this will make roasts 8-10 # well done and your big roasts in the center 140 degrees which most folks like best, good roast will be very tender and very juicy, If you want more I will help sure help ya. Good luck 101

 

[Bigfoot]

Bigfoot, yes we make boneless roasts on ours, we do a marinade, mostly salt, pepper, garlic salt, liquid smoke, let rest at least 3 days, is a marinade we come up with can help if wanted, backhoe a pit at least 6" deep, long enough so that you can set roasts in without touching each other, we burn enough good hardwood to fill pit 1/2 full of red coals, cover with damp sand about 2-3 inches, roasts double rapped in heavy foil with own marinade sealed as tight as you can, then rapped in soaked burlap and tied, set on sand in pit, cover pit with tin, then cover tin with damp sand to seal, all you are doing is making a big oven, If you do it like I said your pit will settle down at about 220 degrees about an hour after sealing and will run down to about 200-210 at the 11 hours, this will be the total of your cooking time, this will make roasts 8-10 # well done and your big roasts in the center 140 degrees which most folks like best, good roast will be very tender and very juicy, If you want more I will help sure help ya. Good luck 101

Great info. Thanks

 

[cow pollinater]

Bigfoot, yes we make boneless roasts on ours, we do a marinade, mostly salt, pepper, garlic salt, liquid smoke, let rest at least 3 days, is a marinade we come up with can help if wanted, backhoe a pit at least 6" deep, long enough so that you can set roasts in without touching each other, we burn enough good hardwood to fill pit 1/2 full of red coals, cover with damp sand about 2-3 inches, roasts double rapped in heavy foil with own marinade sealed as tight as you can, then rapped in soaked burlap and tied, set on sand in pit, cover pit with tin, then cover tin with damp sand to seal, all you are doing is making a big oven, If you do it like I said your pit will settle down at about 220 degrees about an hour after sealing and will run down to about 200-210 at the 11 hours, this will be the total of your cooking time, this will make roasts 8-10 # well done and your big roasts in the center 140 degrees which most folks like best, good roast will be very tender and very juicy, If you want more I will help sure help ya. Good luck 101

I've worked with a couple of permanent pits that always gave amazing results. We would sink a 48" concrete weir in the ground to where the lip was just above ground level. Burn a bunch(I mean a bunch!) of oak down in the bottom to coals and then lower a rack onto bolts drilled into the concrete above the coals. Wrap the meat in foil and then again in moist newspaper or burlap and wire it up tight and put it on the rack. Cover the pit with a metal lid and shovel moist soil over that lid. If you see any smoke at all keep shoveling. You want it sealed tight or the fire stays lit and burns up the meat. Let it sit overnight or longer depending on how much meat you put in and open it back up and enjoy.
I have yet to try it here in OK and am concerned about the ability of the soil here to hold heat but it was amazing in CA where we had clay.

 

[TexasBred]

Bigfoot, yes we make boneless roasts on ours, we do a marinade, mostly salt, pepper, garlic salt, liquid smoke, let rest at least 3 days, is a marinade we come up with can help if wanted, backhoe a pit at least 6" deep, long enough so that you can set roasts in without touching each other, we burn enough good hardwood to fill pit 1/2 full of red coals, cover with damp sand about 2-3 inches, roasts double rapped in heavy foil with own marinade sealed as tight as you can, then rapped in soaked burlap and tied, set on sand in pit, cover pit with tin, then cover tin with damp sand to seal, all you are doing is making a big oven, If you do it like I said your pit will settle down at about 220 degrees about an hour after sealing and will run down to about 200-210 at the 11 hours, this will be the total of your cooking time, this will make roasts 8-10 # well done and your big roasts in the center 140 degrees which most folks like best, good roast will be very tender and very juicy, If you want more I will help sure help ya. Good luck 101

I've worked with a couple of permanent pits that always gave amazing results. We would sink a 48" concrete weir in the ground to where the lip was just above ground level. Burn a bunch(I mean a bunch!) of oak down in the bottom to coals and then lower a rack onto bolts drilled into the concrete above the coals. Wrap the meat in foil and then again in moist newspaper or burlap and wire it up tight and put it on the rack. Cover the pit with a metal lid and shovel moist soil over that lid. If you see any smoke at all keep shoveling. You want it sealed tight or the fire stays lit and burns up the meat. Let it sit overnight or longer depending on how much meat you put in and open it back up and enjoy.
I have yet to try it here in OK and am concerned about the ability of the soil here to hold heat but it was amazing in CA where we had clay.

Saw that exact method used. Watching on tv and it was an annual fundraiser at some small town in the Texas Panhandle. Looked out of this world but took a lot of work.

 

[101]

I enjoy reading the way you do it also, I live in western SD and a lot of our soils can have big cracks deep in the ground, We ended using Fire Trucks wetting down the soil and sand, yes the secret is to properly seal the pit or the meat will over cook, if it's sealed you can leave it in hours longer and all will be ok. This works good if you have some help, we've cooked for over 1400 folks once, was fun and we had good help, if your cooking a lot of meat I sure would want to go this way, have helped with hole hog in cookers and the work starts when the meat is done, always seemed like a lot of waste, in a pit with roasts there is no waste. Good Luck 101

 

[greybeard]

I've worked with a couple of permanent pits that always gave amazing results. We would sink a 48" concrete weir in the ground to where the lip was just above ground level. Burn a bunch(I mean a bunch!) of oak down in the bottom to coals and then lower a rack onto bolts drilled into the concrete above the coals. Wrap the meat in foil and then again in moist newspaper or burlap and wire it up tight and put it on the rack. Cover the pit with a metal lid and shovel moist soil over that lid. If you see any smoke at all keep shoveling. You want it sealed tight or the fire stays lit and burns up the meat. Let it sit overnight or longer depending on how much meat you put in and open it back up and enjoy.
I have yet to try it here in OK and am concerned about the ability of the soil here to hold heat but it was amazing in CA where we had clay.

I would like to hear more about this 'concrete weir'.
I have some big concrete boxes, 3" wall and bottom thickness, and various sizes. I'm guessing 30" up to 36" wide and 3-4 feet long. 2-4 feet tall. I think they are called collection boxes--something to do with storm water piping?. Will they work?

Have you ever had trouble with the heat from the oak fire causing concrete chips to go flying off?

 

[Bigfoot]

Will concrete explode, when you get it hot enough?

 

[cow pollinater]

I had one small one crack but it was a little two footer I put in my back yard that was in rough shape when I put it in.
Greybeard, mine were the same thing except round. I doubt it makes much difference. In CA they were all over the place but there was no such thing as storm water so they were used for irrigation water. :lol:

 

[Bigfoot]

Ok, this project changed, and flipped, and flopped, and reincarnated itself a half dozen different times over the last several weeks.

Here's what we ended up with. A longhorn steer. I have no idea how old the thing was. Well over 5 years old. Thing was huge, as you can see from the carcass. Guy that slaughtered it, couldn't get a weight on it, because it's head was touching the floor.

This is not an optical illusion. No telling what this thing weighed:


Decision was made to cut as many steaks as could be made, and grind the rest. I ate several, and the quality was pretty consistent


Had cowboy races for entertainment, before we ate. Everybody had a nice time, and I saw several new faces.