Using Black Iron Pipe for Cooking Spit

Black iron pipe? As long as you burn off or remove the coatings, no.

tarzan1105-

You can do it, just like you can do about anything you want. I would never use black iron pipe for anything I was going to eat. A piece of black iron pipe is coated with a varnish which is poisonous to eat. Also if it is threaded there is cutting oil both on the threads and inside the pipe. Black iron pipe rusts, more so when it is heated and in damp atmospheres. All these will get into the food. The combination of these, and there are many more, could result in a real painful and perhaps fatal stomach conditions. Just the rust alone when it hits the hydrochloric acid of the stomach will result in excessive belching, flatulence and all sorts of reactions in the stomach. Of note hydrochloric acid, the same as in the stomach, is used to clean steel prior to electroplating.

Don't personally know what type of varnish is used but varnish doesn't sound to appealing to the esophagus let alone good for your health. Never drank cutting oil, know that it has some natural oils in it but it could work like castor oil. Reservations to the water closet would be helpful in that case. Also the threads contain metal chips which do a horrendous job on anything.

If you want some rot gut, get some Ripple or Night Train Express.

In conclusion, DON'T.

Good Luck, Old Salt

I want to use cast iron pipe rings to cook individual servings of mac and cheese probably 3 inch by about 2 inches high so it will crisp on all sides. Of course I will burn off all residual oil and any impurities on metal probably at least 3 times.will it still be more toxic than cast iron pans?

Best way to kill someone with a cast iron skillet is to whack 'em with it..
Or have I got the wrong idea about this thread?

I'm with you.. burn it off wipe it with cooking oil.
Del

Lyn-

Being a lover of grilled food and it being the only method I know how to cook---->please help me with my gastronomical questions.

I understand the need to remove the exterior coating , presumably a propane or oxyacetylene torch, and then wiping it down probably with a rag or steel wool. What I don't understand is how is this going to be done on the inside of the pipe unless it is at least a piece of 2"? I can see using a boiler tube cleaning brush to do this but a piece of piece pipe large enough to do this on is going to be too large a dia. to put the food on. The vapors from the inside would come out of the pipe and get on to the food.

My next question is that cast iron is not the same material as steel pipe. Yes, they are both mostly iron but also different. It has been my experience, whatever that's worth, that whenever I put cooking oil on my cast iron grates it quickly burns off and I'm left with the same old rusty grates after one use or so. Can't stand this because the rust crunches on the crowns when I chew, almost like chalk on a blackboard. Pull out the wire brush, stainless works the best, and back to the scraping! Since I got the Stainless grates all I have to scrape is the residual food and barbecue sauce.

I know how to take care of the cutting oil and the thread chips, most people can 't imagine how this can be done, but I've got some angus burgers waiting to go on the grill. Thanks for your assistance. I'm getting hungry!

Good Luck, Old Salt

Lyn-

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

I guess having worked in an industry where everything is made out of stainless has biased me. The basement "stock collection" hardly ever rusts.

Still going to stay away from that cutting oil, anything that could react like castor oil is out of my league.

Thanks,

Good Luck, Old Salt

Once again, you give me too much credit.

I put coat hangers into the fire to burn off the black paint, when they were metal, before I roasted weenies or marshmallows, back when. Plastic won't work.

Back on the farm, we used "sticks", made of wood, cut from whatever was growing in the area to roast hot dogs, etc. Like Mark suggested for the pig.

Sometimes, the stick would catch on fire and the hot dog would fall into the fire.

Cheers.

Lyn-

Yes, very familiar with those roasting utensils. The food was best if put on a stick, "Y" shaped was the best. Everything was better unless you stupidly got poison sumac or something similar to put the marshmallows on. If all else failed take an old "whip style" car antenna (wonder how many participants don't know what they are) and put the food on them. Used many an old one but the hot dogs tasted better if it was one broken off a nasty neighbors car.

Good Luck, Old Salt

I understand the need to remove the exterior coating , presumably a propane or oxyacetylene torch, and then wiping it down probably with a rag or steel wool.

Steel wool might not be a good idea, the steel fibers may magnetically stick to the pipe.

I understand the draw of roughing it out in the wilderness, but a propane fired pig cooker, (with side burners), can be rented fairly inexpensively. It also gives you a lot more control, so half the scouts won't be eating raw pig, and the other half, shoe leather.

Even if you get all of the crud off the cast iron pipe, this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Propane????????????????????

Propane?????????????

You're kidding, right?

Real men don't cook with propane. Propane is for sissies!

Real men cook with wood.

Propane comes from under the ground in a pipe. Then it is put into a steel tank.

You can see where wood comes from, trees.

It's the Boy Scouts, not the bridge club!

Yeah right.

I also used to be a Scout, and cooking with real wood over an open pit, doesn't work like it does in the cowboy movies.

Sounds like you're just bitter cause you never got your camping merit badge.

This ↓ is what it would have looked like if you had gotten one:

Hint: Boy Scouts cook with real wood.

You're too easy!

Things got a little strange with the scouts in my town.

Everything started out fine when we were young, but it eventually turned into building explosives and burning down small forests. Adults weren't involved; these were side projects. Booms were cooler than badges...we didn't need no stinkin' badges!

We were all little angels when the parents were around.

Where were the parents?

Our scouts never did anything without adult supervision.

But, small town, long time ago is different.

Alec was in Scouts for three years, then discovered football, and women. (14 you know)

Scouts got too much bad publicity about that time, but that didn't influence my decision to take him out.

These weren't sanctioned scouting missions, we just happened to be in the scouts.

The parents would tell us to get outside and go do something...so we did.

We're talking rural Ct. Nothing but woods, cows and fields. It was the old days.

We could buy black powder and fuse at the sporting goods store; the hardware store had everything else. Kinda hard to believe, since we were on bicycles.

I was buying booze by 16.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cooked-meats

The government has just declared that grilling is dangerous to your health, and under the ACA laws, if you grill,......you are no longer qualified for health insurance. :0

Real men eat beef raw.....

I'm having a cannibal sandwich as we speak.

Real men use Binford.

MORE POWER!

Whether the flames are emitted from wood, charcoal, gas or camel dung, I'd rather have the pig swinging on a 316 stainless steel shaft.

Go down to the boat yard and ask if they have any old prop shafts, these are 316 stainless usually between 5/8"-3/4" (inboard ski boat) to 1 1/2" (Large motor cruiser) the shafts get replaced due to prop strike or bearing failures none of which are an issue for spit roast duty. The average length is around 5'-6' (ski boat), aside from a quick wash and some fabrication you'll be good to go.

Cut down a sapling, remove the branches, ram it through the pig, drive two Y shaped branches on either side of the fire, place pig in center, and cook with an occasional rotation.

Any kind of metal pipe is cheating.

You don't cook a pig on a spit.....You bury it over a bed of hot coals....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMmgVRVHN2Y

Thanks Guys for the responses. Informative and Entertaining.

The theme of the Scout camp out is Medieval, thus cooking the pig on a spit over open coals. The reason for questioning black pipe VS stainless is that I wanted to minimize cost to the troop but avoid contaminating the meat.

thanks again.

GA. For realism, actually.

I think we need a Risk Analysis on this project.

The project goal is, How do we go about removing the coating on black pipe.

We need to have a meeting.

btw, what was initially goal here?

Have your people call my people... my diary is clear about April 2014. Although my Daught' is gettin' hitched next year... so I've no idea what's going on.
maybe get your people to call Mrs Cat
Del

Congratulations......

As far as this other issue, I'll get my people right on it. If we're lucky, no one will ever recognize this problem when we're through with it. Problem then solved.

Why would you want to cook spit?

Because you don't want to eat it raw.

I like mine extra crispy!

The pig won't like it no matter what you choose.

Form a committee of the parents - should not take more than a few weeks to sort out the arguments of why you chose who to be on the committee.

Discuss the plan for the cooking of the pig - plan for about 2 months of discussion.

Take up a collection from the committee, and take all the scouts out to eat a the "Outback"