Mackay Free BBQ - 2015

This past weekend our little town held it’s annual, FREE BBQ.  For free, you get a BBQ’d beef sandwich with all the fixin’s.  If you want a drink, corn on the cobb, desserts, etc….you can purchase them at one of the many booths surrounding the park area.  Plus, while you are eating, free entertainment is provided.
My daughter, grandson, son-in-law, daughters friend, and her two children  arrived at our home on Friday.  That evening around 9pm, we went to the park where the BBQ is always held and watched them put all the roasts in the brick oven.  Prior to putting the roasts in, there is a wood-burning process that takes place the previous day to heat up all the brick.  Right before adding the prepared roasts, all the ashes and hot coals are removed from the oven.

The heat is so intense inside the oven that the firemen actually need to go to an area at the right-hand side of the oven and get hosed down.  When they come to the area to get hosed down, their fire protective clothing is actually smoking.

When all the ashes and coals have been removed from the brick oven, the process of loading all the tin-foiled, wrapped roasts into the oven begins.  People come from everywhere to attend this event so there are tons (LITERALLY) of roasts prepared to go in the oven, a total of 2,000 pounds.

First of all, a ramp is placed in front of the oven.  This ramp is used to roll the five-layered cart into the oven. 

Next, a five-layer cart is rolled to the front of the ramp and the process of loading the meat begins.

 

Three layers of roasts are loaded and topped with a thick layer of rock salt to prevent the meat from burning.

The cart is then pushed into the oven (with lots of man power) and the other two layers of roasts are loaded.

Once everything is loaded, a big metal plate is set in place and mudded around the edges to seal in all the heat and the chimney flue is sealed off.  Now all there was left to do was shut and seal up the heavy metal doors and let the roasts cook all night.

Let the BBQ  and entertainment begin………………

 

 

 

It was a perfect day for the BBQ……  Our little grandson didn’t want to hold someone's hand to go walking and he kept running off so we resorted to going back to our vehicle to get a retractable leash.  We hooked the leash on him and away he went running.  When he hit the end of his rope, he turned around, gave us the most pitiful look then sat down and gave us another look like….what just happened here.  Ha – this was actually really funny, for the adults!

If you would like to read the history of the Mackay Free BBQ that started in September of 1935, GO HERE.