Recipe - Roast Beef Al Pastor

See instructions

From: The Only Texas Cookbook, Texas Monthly Press, 1981 By: Linda West
Eckhardt

John Casey has spent a lot of time in South Texas and has watched the
Mexican cowboys cook over an open fire. Here is the way he says to make a
perfect al pastor roast beef. First of all go to the best butcher you know
and buy a good quality roast beef, a rump roast, that weighs between 6 and
8 pounds.

Next, you go to the hardware store. Get a steel rod 45 feet long and 1/2
inch in diameter. Have one end of the rod sharpened so you can drive it
into the ground. Drill 4 holes 6 inches apart at 2 feet, 2 One half feet, 3
feet, and so on. Each hole must accommodate a goodsized cotter pin, which
is inserted through the hole at right angles to the rod. Thread a big flat
washer onto the rod and let it rest on the cotter pin. These pins and
washers keep the meat from sliding down the rod. The various holes allow
you to adjust the distance between the meat and heat source, as necessary.
Salt and pepper the roast, then impale the meat on the rod. Fix the washers
below and above the meat, drive the rod into the ground at a 60 degree
angle, and you have an alfresco spit.

Now here is the way Casey says to build the perfect outdoor fire. Get the
kids to find 2 logs that are well seasoned but not rotten. They should be
about 3 feet long and at least 4 to 6 inches in diameter. Butt these logs
into a right angle. Build a hardwood fireoak, hickory, or pecanin the
crotch or the joint of the logs. Keep the meat on the rod which is hanging
out over this fire about 3 feet above the heat. Turn the meat from time to
time, Casey says the fire will smoulder in the logs and that if you have
everything positioned just so, you can go away at dawn and by 2 o'clock in
the afternoon have a good dinner waiting.
Posted to bbqdigest V4 #027

From: "Garry Howard" g.howard@ix.netcom.com

Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 13:08:44 0500