Jeffrey and I have known each other now for about 22 years. We email and talk once in a while, meat up from time to time and reminisce when visiting Jack. This last weekend was Jeffrey’s turn to host a meal, he was hesitant. See, all he has is a little gas grill. He knew it came dreadfully short of adequate and mentioned something about picking up a weber kettle.
Nice offer, but those rigs are $130 and up. There must be a better (less expensive) way. Come with me on a little adventure wherein Biggles totally kicks a gas grill’s ASS with a hole in the ground.

Yup, that’s right, a hole in the ground. I figured since Jeffrey was sittin’ on 20 acres, we could surely just dig a shallow pit and throw a grate down and cook that way. And this is just how it went down.

Jeffrey found me a shovel, they are useful for digging holes. This got us down about about a half inch very quickly. The hills in Calistoga seem to be mostly golfball sized rocks with dirt thrown in here and there. Armed with a freshly located pickaxe, the rocks slowly gave way and we had our shallow pit. Next up one needs to find 3 same sized rocks with flat tops (holds grate all steady like).

As with any unfamiliar or new grill, it’s good to burn a fire through before you start cooking. This will burn out any nasties, get things warm and you can get a feel for how the heat lays. Plus it gives you time to have another cool & refreshing beverage.

A 14 dollar grate from the hardware store, wood, meat and we’re cooking. The fire was so mellow and seared so nicely. I was able to grill bacon directly without any flareups or straight on grease fires. The wood charcoal burned well for quite some time. I thought for sure having the pit all open (no lid), I’d be feeding it constantly. Nope, it puffed right along and was able to do 2 grates worth of food with only mild fire tending. I did notice that sprinklin’ the fire with hickory chips created little bon fires throughout. So, I made a pile to the side, barely touching the edge of the fire. This allowed the chips to burn slowly without catching fire and throwing flames in to our meaty love. Oh, and having a chair or something handy to sit on is required for any good distance grilling. Crouching for several hours makes your joints mad, very mad.
To sum it all up, holes totally rule. Not only are they inexpensive to erect, they’re also wonderful cooking devices. Holes are always within reach and don’t fall over when nudged. If they get dirty? Dig a new one, it’s that simple. My favorite part though? Is when you move, you don’t have to take it with you. Holes are our friends.
Thank you Jeffrey for hosting and sorry about the car.
Biggles
ps – Check this out,

it’s a bacon fat soaked rock. That, is so cool.