The First Pit — 1948
FROM THE CEDAR BOX
It started with a folded piece of paper.
Among the photographs, recipes, letters and clippings inside the Cedar Box, Louis and Jon found an old drawing.
The paper had been folded and unfolded so many times the creases were beginning to separate.
THE LETTER
But the drawing wasn't the interesting part.
It was the letter folded around it.
EARL,
I thought you might want to know about Grandpa.
He's getting pretty weak now. Some days he doesn't say much at all.
But yesterday was different.
I was helping him go through some old things when we found a folded piece of paper tucked underneath a stack of photographs.
I opened it up and asked him what it was.
He looked at it for a few seconds and smiled.
“That's the first pit.”
He said you two drew it in 1948.
Apparently, you had already been cooking together for years, but the two of you finally decided you needed a proper pit of your own.
Grandpa said the plan was pretty simple.
Find enough steel.
Build something that would hold a fire.
Leave enough room for the meat.
And have a few cold drinks while you figured out the rest.
He said it didn't stay a two-man project for very long.
Once word got around that Merle and Earl were building a barbecue pit, men started showing up.
Some brought scrap steel.
Some brought tools.
Most brought advice.
Grandpa laughed when he told me that part.
He said some of the advice was good.
Some of it was bad.
And apparently the quality of the advice went downhill as the afternoon went on and the cooler got lighter.
By the time the pit was finished, everybody in the neighborhood seemed to have an opinion about how it ought to work.
So you did the only sensible thing.
You built a fire and found out.
Grandpa got quiet for a little while after that.
Then he said the funny thing was, he couldn't remember everything they cooked that first day.
But he remembered the people.
He remembered everybody standing around that pit waiting to see if the thing would actually work.
He remembered the smoke.
He remembered the laughing.
And he remembered you standing there telling him the firebox was too small.
Grandpa smiled and said,
“Earl was probably right. Don't tell him I said that.”
I thought you'd like to hear that.
I folded the drawing back up when we were finished, just the way I found it.
I figured someday somebody ought to know the story behind it.
Take care of yourself, Earl.
— Merle's Grandson
AND TUCKED BEHIND THE LETTER...
A smoke-stained recipe.
Folded into the same bundle was a handwritten recipe. No name. No explanation. Just ingredients, a few cooking notes, and one line scratched across the bottom:
“Don't rush the pork.”
Whether this was what they cooked on that first pit in 1948, the Cedar Box doesn't say.
But it was tucked in with the story.
THE RECIPE
MERLE & EARL'S PIT PORK
From the Cedar Box
For one bone-in Boston butt or pork shoulder, about 4–7 pounds.
THE RUB
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pinch cinnamon
Mix it well. Rub it all over the pork. Don't be shy with it.
THE MOP
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Stir it together and let it sit while the fire settles.
After the first couple of hours, mop the pork lightly about once an hour.
Tangy. A little heat. Just enough mystery
THE COOK
Build a fire with hickory or oak and settle the pit around 250°F–275°F.
Put the pork on away from the direct fire, fat side up.
Keep the smoke clean and the heat steady.
After the first two hours, begin lightly mopping the pork about once an hour.
Figure roughly 1½ hours per pound, but don't cook by the clock alone.
When the pork reaches about 200°F–205°F and the bone pulls clean and easy, take it off the pit.
Let it rest 30–45 minutes before pulling.
“Don't rush the pork.” — M.
A NOTE FROM LOUIS & JON
We found the original recipe the way you see most things in the Cedar Box — incomplete, stained, and written by someone who apparently assumed everybody already knew what they were doing.
We’ve added measurements, temperatures, and a few details to make it easier to cook today.
The ingredients, the method, and most importantly, the spirit of it remain the same.
As Merle wrote at the bottom:
“Don’t rush the pork.”
We couldn't have said it better.
— Louis & Jon
Caretakers of the Cedar Box