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Where I grew up in Northern NM, those are called Matanzas - Spanish for “killing” or more applicable in this case “slaughter”. I've attended ‘em where they cooked pigs, beeves, or goats (cabrito), wrapped in wet burlap. We never had the luxury of a backhoe though. Always was a great party though.

Our place had an old stone fireplace that my Grandpa built probably in the 20’s that we used to roast meat and corn on. Since it was on an apple farm, we had plenty of apple wood for that. I learned to peel the bark for the apple wood (difficult) because fire with the bark on it seemed to make the meat taste bitter to me.

I once took an old 1930’s refrigerator that was laying around the farm and turned it into a smoker. It worked great. I dug a 3’ fire pit like you described, sized so I could fit an old Weber Kettle grill lid over it (~22”) and lined it with stones (basalt).

Then I laid Terr's cotta pipe in a trench from the side of the pit about four feet and elbowed it up through the bottom of my fridge, with a woodstove damper set into the top of the fridge. I ripped all of the lining, insulation, and rubber seals out of the fridge so they wouldn't smolder and kill us. It leaked smoke like crazy, but it worked like a charm. Being a fridge, it even had built-in racks you could adjust any way you wanted.

I just built a roaring fire in the pit until I had about a foot or two of coals, then covered it up and adjusted the airflow w/the pit lid and fridge top vents, adding wet wood for smoke and dry to keep the heat right.

It was pretty redneck, the whole thing was built from scrap and didn't cost us a dime to build, but it worked. We smoked the ribs and chops from the hog we butchered that year - awesome - then when I left for the Army, my mom tore it down and hauled it off to the dump because it was so ugly.

Someday, maybe I'll try it again. Gotta find a fridge that's not 1/2 plastic though.

It was pretty redneck

That's me, and exactly what I'm talking about. I think they did use burlap, as that was readily available from grain bags and wouldn't really impart a flavor.

I still like cooking most things over a wood fire, including fish, and smoking ribs and chicken. Hot dogs, hamburgers, everything tastes better cooked on a fire.

Everything, of course, but steak.

"It was pretty redneck, the whole thing was built from scrap and didn't cost us a dime to build, but it worked. We smoked the ribs and chops from the hog we butchered that year - awesome - then when I left for the Army, my mom tore it down and hauled it off to the dump because it was so ugly."

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If that doesnt define the differences between the sexes, I dont know what does LOL