Whole hog roast

[Beebers]

We are planning on having a hog roast in the next month or so. I am an experienced bbq type and can say I've cooked just about everything there is. i have not however, cooked an entire hog. We will probably be renting the grill. Just wanted to know if there is a better way (ie: trussed on a spit vs flat on a grill). What people use as far as rubs, marinades, stuff for the inner cavity if trussed? Inject or don't inject? What to inject with? Success and "what not to do" would be appreciated. Thanks.

[plowjockey]

My friend has roasted, probably hundreds of hogs.

He always cuts, or has them cut quartered, for easier handling, not whole. Puts 85 pounds of charcoal in his roaster, made from a fuel oil tank. Roasts about 12 hours. injects marinade into some of the hog if desired, before roasting. Otherwise it's pure roasted pork, which is the "proper" way, IMO.

Starts drinking beer.

That's about it, until it's done, then it's cutting and pulling apart.

Then eating!

[MO_cows]

There is a BBQ forum at www.bbqbug.com. There are some real pro's who frequent that forum, you should get some good advice there.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Doing a whole hog, I always liked to cook them in the ground. I start with a hole about six feet long, about 2 1/2 feet deep and 3 ft wide and a buuuuuunch of firewood. fill pit with wood and light off, let that burn down to coals, then refill, let burn down again, refill. While this is going on you are blocking your hog into nice sized chunks. Rub them down with the spices of choice... you can buy pork rub at the store if you arent sure what recipe to use. Wrap all your pieces in foil, and have ready when the third set of wood has become a bed of coals. I like to drop a slice of pineapple and a few orange slices in each package while wrapping. Once the coals are ready you lay a piece of sheet metal roofing tin over them, and lay out your packages one layer deep across the sheet metal... cover with more sheet metal, and cover with about 3 inches of the dirt you dug out of the pit. once you have it covered, check for any smoke escaping, and toss a shovel full on the spot till no more smoke escapes. Once its all sealed up for the night, you go back to the party and enjoy. Tomorrow.... 12 to 14 hours after you covered it up, go back and dig it up and let the feast begin! Not only do you have excellent food to serve your guests... you get to party the night before as well as the main event.

[Curtis B]

I have a grill I built for roasting hogs out of a 500 gal diesel tank. I just take a hatchet and split the spine a bit and a little on the back end from the inside. I split just enough to make it lay semi flat on the grill all four legs splayed out. I don't inject, I just sprinkle some roasted garlic on the inside and a bit on the outside. I spray with apple juice throughout cooking, usually just when I add coals to the fire. Make sure to leave the head on, some of the best eatn there. Mine usually takes 10-12 hours.

Make sure to have plenty of beer, it is hard work watching it cook.


If you cook on a grill and want it to look pretty make sure to cover with foil about the final 6 hours.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Same as regular BBQ just on a bigger scale. Add some real wood for better smoke flavor and aroma, don't use green wood, don't let it flare up, (I put my fire off to the sides, not under the meat). Baste with something to keep it from getting too crusty, the formention apple juice is good, so is vinegar. I just mix vinegar, salt, black and red pepper, and that is all the spice I use. Give your self plenty of time to make sure it gets to falling of the bone perfection by serving time. 225-250 is a pretty good temp to cook at IME.

[SusanC]

My husband has two ways of cooking a whole hog, depending on the event. When we cook one in the ground, it doesn't have to be watched, we can go about our business and dig it up when it's time. Start it in the early morning for an evening event. We line the hole with stones or bricks first, to hold in the heat from the fire, and we wrap the hog in old wet towels...which suprisingly don't burn, just char around the edges...then do the same thing Yvonne's Hubby does.

The most fun way is to roast it above ground. DH uses babybed springs that he can usually find at the scrap metal place. He buys two, cleans them, and sandwiches the pig between them and wires it together. He sets up a system to suspend it on (no set way, just figures out something with what's on hand) so that it can be lifted and flipped. The drawback is that you have to tend it, but it is great when the cooking is part of the gathering.

Either way, he leaves it whole just for fun.

_______________________________

http://homesteadingstewards.com

[Ken Scharabok]

Check out www.3men.com (three men and a pig).

Roasting spits are sold on eBay and other sites.

A take off on turdunkin is to put it inside a medium size pig. Can be ordered frozen.

Typically the center of a roasted pig needs to get to 155 degrees F.

How long does it take to roast a pig? Up to a 12-pack, depending on the size of the carcass.

[Beebers]

So if you cook it flat you wrap the entire thing with foil after the color is good? Or just the loose ends and extremities (ears, legs, thinking the skinny midsection too)? If it is on a spit how do you secure it to the spit so the pole doesn't slide as it turns.

A friend told me he pulls up the hind skin and shoves some onion/garlic between the meat and the skin?

My understanding is you don't want too much sugar on the outside as that will burn. I was thinking if we truss it I want to fill it with kielbasa, onion apple, garlic and some "special seasoning."

Don't think the pit will be in order...this time, but may be in the future. Yes I can imagine the beer will be flowing.

[gila_dog]

Here are some real pig roasting experts...



I took this pic in a small Filipino village, many years ago during shore leave while in the Navy. The kid in the green shirt was basting the pig with a leafy branch that he was dipping in a can of some kind of sauce. That pig was delicious!

[Jolly]

Down here, opening day of squirrel season is also the start of pig roasting season. A pig roast or as some folks call it, a cochon de lait, is done above ground in front of a hardwood fire.

Pigs can vary from around 30 pounds (dressed) to around 65 pounds. You should make a few cuts on the hams and either side of the backbone at the base of the neck to help the cooking process. Some folks like to inject their pig, but seasoning can be as simple as red pepper, black pepper and salt, rubbed in well.

Start you fire at least 45 minutes to an hour, before you hang your pig. The pig is usually placed between two pieces of webbed wire (like concrete reinforcing wire) and hung in front of the fire, hams down to start, as low as he will hang, very close to the fire. You can turn the pig with a rotiserrie motor, or you can take a long stick and turn him by hand. Swap ends with your pig every couple of hours.

Folks say you roast the pig until he quits dripping, but that's not quite the truth...there'll still be a drip every so often, just not much. The bigger the pig, the longer he must cook. Some people help the cooking process by putting tin around the fire for heat reflection, etc. I'm guessing 8 or 9 hours cooking time will do most pigs.

Alternatively, some folks use a coonass microwave. I don't like them as well because you don't get a crisp skin from cooking that way.

And if y'all are curious, I'll tell you how we used to roast them in the swamp, with the hair on...

[nobrabbit]

I come from the land of pig pickings in southeast NC. Split hog, no rub, vinegar based sauce. Here a good explanation of how we do it there.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Pork/PigPickin.htm

[Oldcountryboy]

Originally Posted by Jolly

Alternatively, some folks use a coonass microwave. I don't like them as well because you don't get a crisp skin from cooking that way...

Jolly, is that the same thing as a cajun microwave. Where you lay the pig, meat, etc. down inside a metal box or brick block box and place a metal cover on top. Then build a fire on top and keep it going till the meat is done.

If so I've done it this way. I dug a pit and placed a box from the inside of a electric range oven down in the pit. I had made a grill rack to fit about half way down inside the box to hold the meat on. Then using the inside metal off the front door of the electric range, I placed it on top of the box and built my wood fire on top of it. I also place hot coals down inside the box floor to give the meat a smokey flavor before building a fire on top.

This method worked great, but I never cooked anything in it with the skin on. I need to build another one as the box rusted out after a couple of years worth of cooking in it.

[Jolly]

Originally Posted by Oldcountryboy

Jolly, is that the same thing as a cajun microwave. Where you lay the pig, meat, etc. down inside a metal box or brick block box and place a metal cover on top. Then build a fire on top and keep it going till the meat is done.

If so I've done it this way. I dug a pit and placed a box from the inside of a electric range oven down in the pit. I had made a grill rack to fit about half way down inside the box to hold the meat on. Then using the inside metal off the front door of the electric range, I placed it on top of the box and built my wood fire on top of it. I also place hot coals down inside the box floor to give the meat a smokey flavor before building a fire on top.

This method worked great, but I never cooked anything in it with the skin on. I need to build another one as the box rusted out after a couple of years worth of cooking in it.

Same thing.

I get to use the more "earthy" term, since I'm about half cajun. (the other half is redneck, so I don't know if I'm a coon-neck or a ...well, never mind...)

[Curtis B]

Originally Posted by Beebers

So if you cook it flat you wrap the entire thing with foil after the color is good? Or just the loose ends and extremities (ears, legs, thinking the skinny midsection too)? If it is on a spit how do you secure it to the spit so the pole doesn't slide as it turns.

A friend told me he pulls up the hind skin and shoves some onion/garlic between the meat and the skin?

My understanding is you don't want too much sugar on the outside as that will burn. I was thinking if we truss it I want to fill it with kielbasa, onion apple, garlic and some "special seasoning."

Don't think the pit will be in order...this time, but may be in the future. Yes I can imagine the beer will be flowing.

You don't need the whole thing wrapped. I just lay foil over, and then just tuck in under to hold it in place. I have put foil on in stages, starting with the ears, nose, legs, then whole head, and later the rest of the body. The foil on it will help with "juicyness" by not letting all the moisture escape also Putting other things under/inside will give flavor also, as they cook the steam and flavors will permiate the meat. All this talk is making me hungry for roast.

BTW, if you put sugar on and it "burns", you have way too much heat anyway. At the most you want it to carmalize, which will happen anytime you use sugar, and brown sugar works best for BBQ/smoking.

[English Oliver]

Here is one I did a couple weeks ago...
Whole hog roast
Rubbed it down with sweet brown mustard inside and out then a coating of salt, black pepper, red pepper, paprika, and rosemary



four hours later


Total time in the cooker was 13 hours.

"O"

[Ken Scharabok]

What was the carcass weight?

[English Oliver]

Originally Posted by Ken Scharabok

What was the carcass weight?

150 lbs.

"O"

[Ken Scharabok]

Thank you. From the cooking tie I guessed it had to be a big one.

Do you have a rule of thumb on how much pork per serving?

As aside, can headcheese still be made from a cooked hog head?

[English Oliver]

Originally Posted by Ken Scharabok

Thank you. From the cooking tie I guessed it had to be a big one.

Do you have a rule of thumb on how much pork per serving?

As aside, can headcheese still be made from a cooked hog head?

The 150 weight included the head and feet which were removed to make Souse. Don't have a rule of thumb on servings, just have plenty and send some home with everyone if any is left over.

"O"