Instructions: 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 4-5 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 1/2 feet, 3 feet, and so on. Each hole must accommodate a good-sized 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 fire-oak, hickory, or pecan-in 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 oclock in the afternoon have a good dinner waiting.

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