A whole hog can be roasted in a pit, but this is not recommended because of the irregular shape of the carcass and the necessity for turning the pig while cooking. Turning the pig on a rotisserie spit or roasting it in a smokehouse with circulating air provides uniform cooking.
When pit cooking, extreme care must be taken to prevent the pig from being contaminated with dirt or sand. Cooking in a pit works best for boneless cuts of wrapped meat. When roasting a pig in a controlled temperature smokehouse, place the pig on a large tray or in a large pan suitable for carrying the finished pig before cooking. Once properly cooked, the finished pig is fragile and will tear or fall apart if handled roughly.
A sheet of thoroughly scrubbed corrugated roofing metal makes transporting to the serving site less difficult. Do not use aluminum metal for this tray and the carver can remove major portions from this position. You will also need a large stock pot to catch the drippings from the pig. This will avoid a messy cleanup of the smokehouse floor after cooking. Smoking the pig is not necessary.
However, some people prefer to smoke the pig while cooking because it provides additional flavor and produces a pig with a golden-chestnut brown color. If you use a rotisserie hog roaster as shown in Figure 1, you will need 80 to pounds of good quality hardwood charcoal. The charcoal should be placed on the sides and to the rear of the roaster, and not under the hog. A can of charcoal lighter fluid will be necessary to start the fire. The roaster must be positioned near an electrical outlet for the rotisserie.
This adds a distinctive flavor to the roast pig. You will need a clean table covered with foil or corrugated roofing metal for turning the hog out on after removing from the spit. Gloves white are often preferred will also be necessary to handle the hot spit as well as other metal parts on the rotisserie roaster. You will also need a stock pot or pail to catch drippings which may be as much as one to two gallons from a pound carcass. Many rotisserie roaster are equipped with a drain for the drippings.
Plans for a pit barbeque are shown in Figures 2 and 3. Hardwood fuels are recommended because they burn clean and give hotter coals. Do not use creosoted wood. Plan to have a stock of wood, well-seasoned and dry about three times the volume of the pit to burn down to coals. Dry gravel or coarse dry sand is necessary to cover the coals. Sheet metal with steel pipes or posts can be used to cover the pit. Cover the metal with inches of dirt to hold in the heat.
Regardless of the method of barbequing, pork should be cooked to a standard internal temperature of degrees F, as measured by a meat thermometer. The skewer style thermometer measures temperature at the tip or point; therefore, the tip should be in the coldest portion of the carcass.
After removing the pig from the cooker, the meat will continue to cook and the temperature will rise degrees F. Meat will fall from the bone at degrees F, or higher. Because of variations in size, shape, weight, air current, water and method of cooking, a rule of minutes per pound cannot be given.
In a temperature-controlled smokehouse, a pound carcass pig can usually be roasted at degrees F overnight. If internal temperature is at degrees F, the pig should be held at degrees F until carving. If it is below degrees F, the house temperature can be raised to degrees F or degrees F to finish off the pig. Cooking times will be hours for a pound carcass, or hours for a pound carcass if the temperature is maintained at degrees F in the rotisserie.
When using a rotisserie hog roaster, the temperature inside the roaster should be maintained at degrees F. Avoid temperatures of degrees F or higher. Begin with 20 pounds of charcoal. As the coals burn down, add 7 to 10 pounds of new charcoal at a time. A greater share should be added to the part of the roaster containing the shoulder area of the pig.
After 1 to 2 hours of roasting, the hog will appear to sweat. Be sure the pig is securely attached to, and balanced on the spit. A wire mesh can be used to secure the pig to the spit. Often the pig will shrink and come loose from the spit after 2 to 3 hours of roasting. Maintain a distance of 25 inches between the hog and the coals. Usually, there are trays for the coals attached to the side of the roaster.
If the coals are directly under the hog, drippings may catch on fire. Fire in the roaster or on the hog should be avoided. A fire can be extinguished in a rotisserie by closing the doors and smothering it. Avoid extinguishing flames or cooling this system with water. After cooking is complete, the coals should be extinguished by closing the doors and smothering. When roasting boneless roasts in a pit, it will take hours to prepare a proper bed of coals.
For roasts weighing pounds, allow hours for the meat to cook. How is the hog cooked? We can also cook on site depending on your location. How much space do you need? A surprisingly small area! We only require a space of 3 x 3 metres. How many people will a hog roast feed? It depends on the size of the pig. A hog weighing 50kgs will feed people.
Once we have your final numbers we can arrange a suitable sized hog. What happens if it rains? Firstly it probably won't! If it does rain we are not affected as we cook in our marquee, the food can then be transferred and served indoors which makes sure you and your guests are not inconvenienced.
How long do you stay for? We usually serve for up to 1. We find after this time no one else wants to eat but if you want us to stay longer then we can. Is leftover food taken away? It's up to you. All remaining meat, rolls, salads etc are usually left for the organiser to continue with their event or if requested we can take it away.
What will the organiser need? Access to a domestic electricity supply is helpful but not essential let us know beforehand and thats it! We dont know our final numbers but want to book anyway. We ask for the final numbers 1 week prior to the event date as we know things can change over a long period of time.
The deposit secures the date. How many people can you cater for? Can we choose different meats? The chicken roasting device that I created is a bit crude, but works very well. The photos above show them getting loaded up - they look as if they are going to escape The key feature of the chicken roasting level is to have whatever is there be basted in the juices of the pig roasting above it.
Chickens roasted in pork drippings are some of the best chickens around. The second photo above shows the chickens getting secured to the spit using just a simple BBQ skewer that passes through a hole in the spit rod. Many options here, do what's easy and exciting for you. With all the animals affixed to their respective spits, it's time to put them over the fire and begin cooking. At first, watch the roasting process closely and get a feel for how hot your fire is. You don't want to burn the outside of the pig before the inside comes to temperature.
Move coals away from the pig if things get too hot. Add coals with a shovel if things look like they aren't hot enough. You'll know the fire is too hot if your skin begins to crack or get crispy in the first hour or two.
If you are using a commercial spit then the motor will turn the pig constantly at a slow speed the entire time. Until recently I had only roasted animals on non-mechanized spits. The same effect can be achieved by rotating the pig every 15 minutes or so. Set a timer and remember to keep it close by. This process sounds tedious, but it's really not. Checking back in with the pig on this kind of basis is probably a good idea to make sure everything is proceeding as planned, and if given the choice between motorized and manual rotation, I think I'd choose manual just because it's fun to hang out with the pig for a while.
Basting the meat while it cooks is important to add flavor. I like to mix up a simple cuban inspired mojo of sorts made from olive oil, fresh garlic, fresh oregano, salt, pepper, orange juice and lemon juice.
Baste the roasting animals every time you rotate the spit, or more. There are many possibilities on marinades here and very few rules. In general, I have stayed away from typical BBQ sauces since they are thick and don't penetrate the meat very well. Additionally, you don't want to put anything on the outside of the pig that will burn over the many hours of cooking, so it's best to stay away from sticky, sweet glazes until the very end. If you do decide to glaze, keep in mind you'll only be treating the skin and not the meat.
Instead, I usually save the sweet sugar, tomato or honey based sauces until after the pig is carved, and pour them over the meat before serving, or let people serve themselves sauce as a side and just serve the meat un-sauced. As the pigs, chickens and ducks roast over the fire and the end of the cook time starts to approach, it's time to start cooking all the other side dishes.
Potatoes can be wrapped in tin foil, thrown directly into the fire, and cooked for 35 - 45 minutes turning them from time to time. Corn can be soaked in water and then grilled in the husk over some extra coals from the fire on a wire grate.
Nice side dishes include roasted veggies, home baked bread, beans, salads, cole slaw, and of course as I said before, plenty of sauce for the meat. After anywhere from 4 to 8 hours have passed since you started roasting the pig, depending on the size of your pig and the temperature of the fire, the pig will be done cooking.
The skin should be dark golden brown, and very crispy. Joints should wiggle freely, juices should run clear, and when you place a thermometer into the thickest parts of the pig you should get an internal temperature of at least degrees F. What temperature to cook your pork is up for debate depending on what you've learned. I cook pork to around Remove the spit from the fire and place it back on the work surface wash all your surfaces first. Use a wire cutters to cut and remove all of the bailing wire from the front and back legs and free the pig from the spit.
Remove the spit rod by sliding it out of the pig. Take the wire cutters and snip every stitch along the pig's belly. If you pull the wire it will simply rip through the delicious belly meat and make a mess. Instead, take each stich out individually with a needle nose pliers.
Pretend you are a surgeon and the pig is your patient. A clean pair of work gloves, some clean towels, and a little patience helps a lot with this step, and the next. The pig is piping hot, everyone wants to eat and the whole party will be watching your every move, so you've got to do it right. Once the body cavity is opened up remove all of the stuffing and herbs.
If juices begin to flow and collect on the worksurface, place a rock underneath one of the table legs to create an incline on the table.
Then, take a pot and place it under the low point on the table to collect the juices. This step is a little tough to do for the first or even second time.
I've taken a pig butchering class from Meats in San Francisco, CA and I still have trouble breaking whole animals down quickly and easily. The important thing to remember is that the meat will be tasty no matter how it comes off the bone, so have a drink, don't stress, work fast and dig in.
First, sharpen a knife, or two, and find an extra person or two to lend you a hand. Work the knife between the shoulder and hip joints to remove the four legs from the roast. These roasts can be treated as their own discreet pieces and handed off to another carver. By far the most meat will come off of these pieces which include the pork shoulders and boston butts. This contains the belly, loins off of the back, tasty marbled meat from the neck and jowl, and the also delicious, but hard to work for rib meat.
Save the skin and begin to carve out the loins as that's the most easily accessible and edible meat that will come off this section. After that, go after everything that's left sorting the parts into different serving platters and pots.
Skin is good to snack on - people will eat it so don't throw it away! Bare bones make a great soup stock. Dogs like cartilage and strange off-cuts not suitable for serving. The best meat should go onto platters for your guests. It can be useful to cut the ribs with a hack saw off of the spine.
If you are pulling the meat and don't want to serve "on the bone" pork, just work the meat off the bone by hand. I leave the spine relatively intact once the loins are off - there's definitely some meat along their but it's best to pick at it with some friends rather than try to spend the time removing it so you can be served.
Place a knife between two of the neck vertebrae just behind the ears and cut the head of the pig off. For some reason, everyone really likes playing with the pig head. Once you've gotten the legs and carcass carved up pretty well, serve your first round since you can always continue carving as people begin to eat so that the meat doesn't get cold.
In general, it's taken me between 30 minutes and 1 hours to carve up all the pork and chicken and people's mouths can only water for so long, so best to serve and then keep working as people begin to eat. This is the easy part, load up all the side dishes and meat platters on a big table and ring the dinner bell! Once all the meat is carved up it's important that as the host you remember to enjoy yourself.
At the roasts I've put on, me and my friends have been working literally all day by the time everyone is eating and the music starts up, so I try to remember to put the pig parts down, wash my hands, grab a cold beer, and have some fun. For some reason people are really really fascinated with pig head. No one wants to eat it, but everyone wants to play with it and wear it as if it were their own head. I think this is because secretly inside, a lot of us really wish that we were animals instead of people.
It doesn't happen often, but sometimes, once we've had a few drinks, and are in close proximity of a roasted pig head, this desire comes out for all the internet to see. There's surely more to say about roasting pigs, but this is a good start, and I'll do my best to update the Instructable with all the good tips that I'm sure will come in as comments.
Best of luck on your pig roasting adventures and be sure to invite me - I'll be looking for the fork in my door. Found this as I'm looking to do my first pig in a couple weeks. Experienced q'er Kamado and charcoal are two of man's greatest inventions. Helped with a few, eaten many but this will be my first cook of a whole pig. Wanted to say a word about the head - lots of good tender meat on there!! The jowls, even the ears!! Question 3 years ago on Step 9.
When you say. Reply 5 years ago. Reply 4 years ago. Next time you are out on a hike in the woods bring a small hand saw and cut some downed and dried Bay. Please don't cut from a live tree. A basic basting sauce has 1 Oil, so meat won't dry out 2 Acid, to help break down meat muscle and 3 spices.
Olive oil, lemon juice, salt,pepper, thyme, rosemary. Reply 6 years ago. I'd like to do it with the head off. I don't want to look at a face. Yeah, I know, call me a wimp. Would also help get the weight down. Has anyone done that?
Any trouble getting it to stay on the spit? This man knows his stuff most important advice he gives is buy a young pig , smaller size the better.
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