Smokin_all_night,
Your last post brought back many fond memories. I grew up in eastern and central North Carolina and the method of pit BBQ that you describe is the one we used. My Dad and others (and me later) always had two fires going. One was the pit the other was the "feeder" fire. We always and only put embers into the pit... and needless to say, the result was consistently wonderful.
However, after I was married and living in a suburb of Atlanta, it was a little hard to do the "Pit" method. So I got interested in the El Chepo approach and acutally produced some really good Q. I also did a lot of grilling with my Weber and also some gas fired units. I now live on the coast of north Florida and within the last year, I became interested in smoking per this forum. I bought a Char Broil Silver Smoker and I'm still trying to master it.
This past spring I was determined to do a brisket. Using Jeff (Florida) and Jeff (Tulsa) and the web site, I turned out one of the finest briskets I've ever eaten. As Florida Jeff says, I could cut it with a fork ... just like budda.
Let me hasten to add, however, that I have ruined some nice chickens and some really nice ribs. This was in my effort to learn how to reach and maintain temperature. It was really frustrating. As a youngster, we could do it with the two fire method much easier it seems than the off set barrel type.
Two things have now happened. With the benefit of Tulsa Jeff's BBQ 101 course, I have found several modifications that should help tremendously with the temperature mtc. problem. So I'm working on getting the metal pieces cut. The second thing is that I bought a GOSM during the July 4th weekend. I tried some ribs as my first effort and they were tremendous! I get consistent great results.
This is a lot of rambling but the points I'm getting at are this.....there is a rich tradition in our hobby and the more we know about it, the more we can appriciate our results.....whether it's from a GOSM, an old fashoned "Pit" or from an all wood off set, if it works for an individual, then it must be good. I sorely miss those days when we used the two fire "Pit" method. Things seemed so much simpler then .... or perhaps I just remember through the eyes of a youngster. It would be interesting to have the openess/site to build one of those pits and try it again. I believe I could do it.
To close, I'd like to second some other opinions I've heard on this forum.... that is, I'm so glad to have found it. I feel like I've learned a lot but most importantly, I feel like I've made a lot of friends. Thanks to all and especially the two Jeffs!!
Bill