cooking a pig over an open pit help

[mrpink]

when my grandpa was alive we cooked a pig every summer over an open pit. he died when I was seven. a few times after that someone in the family cooked one. all of the men that helped are dead now as well. I want to do one for labor day. from what I know the pig was split on the underside so that it was flat. it was wrapped in wire with hickory poles extending out the sides that rested on blocks. the pig was cooked over a pit with hickory coals. turned every so often and rubbed with a salt water mix. does anyone here do that today? how deep do i need my pit? how much hickory wood do i need? how often do i turn it? I do know that my grandpa said if you couldn't hold the top of you're hand between the pig and the coals for a minute then it was to hot.any thoughts from anyone?

greg

[Ken Scharabok]

Lots of information here:

http://www.3men.com/bbq_whole_pig.htm

[cowcreekgeeks]

I'm not helping...I wasn't invited!

Try this link. It's probably close to what your family did.

[mrpink]

Originally Posted by cowcreekgeeks

I'm not helping...I wasn't invited!

Try this link. It's probably close to what your family did.

did i leave off the invites sorry my mistake all ht'ers are more then welcome to come.

thanks for the links so far. my mom says her dad always used a pig about 150#
greg

[Micahn]

It all depends on so many different things as far as how much coals and such you will need. The size of the pig the wind speed how cold it is or hot and so on and so on.

I would have at least 2 times as much wood on hand as you figure your need. Nothing worse then needing more and not having it.

I see in one of them links posted they said it takes about 6 hours. Well I have done a few over the years and I never seen one ready to eat that fast. I would figure on 8 to 10 hours if not more. Just like any BBQ cooking it low and slow seems to give the best results. I seem to remember most of ours running around 12 hours of cooking time, that is 12 hours over the coals not including prep time and such.

Just thinking about this topic is making me dream of doing another one :-)

[Ken Scharabok]

For those which aren't experienced be aware liveweight and roasting weight are different. Once de-haired (if that is a word) and gutted a hog carcass will be about 60% of liveweight - give or take. Thus, a 150 lb liveweight hog may hang at about 90-100 pounds. That is still a WHOLE lot of roasted pork. Be prepared for cutting and freezing the extra.

When I still lived in Ohio and was involved with a social group we did a pig roast a year for maybe ten years. I was the lead cooker. Once finished the cut off head was placed in the middle of a large platter and the cut up pork placed around it. One guy in the group always took home the head for the various parts therein. I remember my father periodically cooking raw hog brains and eggs for himself and head cheese is basically all of the flesh and parts from the head processed.

At these events almost always someone would come up and ask how long it took to cook the hog. I would reply, "Between a six- and 12-pack, depending on the size of the hog.

[mrpink]

Originally Posted by Micahn

It all depends on so many different things as far as how much coals and such you will need. The size of the pig the wind speed how cold it is or hot and so on and so on.

I would have at least 2 times as much wood on hand as you figure your need. Nothing worse then needing more and not having it.

I see in one of them links posted they said it takes about 6 hours. Well I have done a few over the years and I never seen one ready to eat that fast. I would figure on 8 to 10 hours if not more. Just like any BBQ cooking it low and slow seems to give the best results. I seem to remember most of ours running around 12 hours of cooking time, that is 12 hours over the coals not including prep time and such.

Just thinking about this topic is making me dream of doing another one :-)

i'm thinking closer to 18 hrs cooking time as my memory goes we killed the pig early one morning (would have had it cooking by early evening) and ate at around lunch the next day

greg

[taterman]

i have cooking bbq for 30years the way you do it is to lay the hog on the pit skin side up and cover it up with old refrigerator boxes and fire the whole the 1st hour after word only fire the shoulders and hams.as far as time goes its like this185 to265 lbs and for realbbq it takes20 to 24hrs oh by the way to tell when the hog is turn over look at your hams there will to white circles about the size of a quarter on them . also rub it down with a little salt and after you turn baste it with favorite sauce every hour that you fire the hog. hickory wood only you will have to put coals under it every hour. thats the old way and to hell with the new crap. i live in west tn have all my life.

[Ken Scharabok]

There are a variety of ways to bbq/roast pork - some of which are shown on the three men and a pig site. I encourage those who do it themselves to post pictures showing and describing their method.

One of my earliest memories is when we lived on a dairy farm in SE WI. One Sunday Dad roasted a pig for a family gathering. At that time there were a number of ethnic festivals in Milwaukee and apparently roasting on a spit was quite popular.

I suspect whole carcass roasting was the dominant method in Europe. Doing it by butterfrying seems to be an Cuban (and possibly Spanish) method.

Spit roasting lives on as I sell about 100 units a year over eBay. Shipping out three units later today.

[Jolly]

We cook in front of the fire...it's the common way down here.

The pig is killed and cleaned. Take your knife and make a pretty good cut down either side of the backbone behind where the head was...say 6" long or so. Then take your knife and make long cuts all the way down the body, about three inches apart, just deep enough to get through the fat but not down in the meat. Make a couple of cuts down the hams, same depth.

Season well with your choice of seasonings (black pepper, red pepper and salt will do), making sure you rub the seasonings inside and out and down in your cuts.

Lay your pig flat, and run a couple of rods through him, one through the front legs and shoulders and one through the back legs and hams. Some people hang their pig after this, but I also like to wrap the pig in a wire rack. My rack is made from concrete reinforcing wire.

We hang them on a dog chain before the fire, hams down, very low to the ground...just where they'll turn without dragging. Cook a couple of hours and then swap ends, then continue to cook and swap. You can turn the pig with a long stick, but most of us use a pig turner, made from an old bbq pit rotiserrie motor or some such.

The pig is done when he just about quits dripping. The hardest parts to get done are between the shoulders and hams.

Some awful good eating, though....