In an age of WiFiRE® technology, Ninja electric grills, and $12k community grills, it’s good to know someone out there is still keeping old traditions alive.

Hole, stones, fire, leaves, meat. (That’s it, that’s the entire recipe.)

But the question is… is it worth it to build your own traditional barbacoa?

Luckily, Mike Diago from Eater built one for himself so that we could find out. Short answer: yes… mostly.

Turns out the process of building a backyard barbacoa is about as simple as you could imagine. Let’s break it down:

Dig

Yeah, so we’re starting with the hardest step first. You’re going to need about a 3’ x 3’ hole somewhere in your yard. And you’ll be surprised at just how much earth that really equates to. Bonus points if you plant some garden boxes or do something creative with all that dirt.

Stone

Wait, this step is kind of hard, too…

You’re going to need a bunch of stone. Cinder blocks & refractory brick. And you’ll need to be creative with where you get it, or else this whole thing gets kinda pricey. Mike’s got a great story of (literal) back-breaking work in his piece that makes this whole thing sound a lot less romantic than you want it to.

Fire

Now, this is where the project gets good. Sure, you’ll need to wake up quite early in the morning, but the thought of a pre-dawn cup of coffee and nothing to do but sit in the yard and watch a fire burn down to coals sounds like a weekend dream.

Meat

Soak your lamb in a delicious adobo marinade and wrap in agave leaves. Bury that sucker in a bed of coals, let it sit all day, and call the boys over for a cookout like no other.

The whole project is a lot of work, and potentially a lot of money, but when was the last time you stopped to think about what all this technology has taken away from our experience? Like sipping a cup of coffee in the dark by a real fire…

So what do we think, Dead Meat Society? Time to build the backyard barbacoa of your dreams?