I did a search on the site to see if this has been discussed before and I didn't turn up anything specifically. Please forgive me if I missed an old discussion on this topic.
I have a 48 inch offset that is supposed to be able to smoke a whole hog up to 70 lbs. I've read up on the matter and I'm really interested in doing a whole hog sometime. I've had whole hog BBQ and I agree that it's the gold standard when it comes to pork BBQ.
But yesterday I was in the grocery store and the thought came to me about what if I just purchased most of the pieces that are in a whole hog and smoked them individually? That gets around the problem of different parts of the pig cooking at different rates and makes life a lot simpler not dealing with one 70 lb hog.
I was thinking that I would buy a pork shoulder, pork belly, loin, tenderloin, ham, spare ribs, and any other "parts" I could get. I would probably simulate half of a whole hog. I'd give each piece the love they would get when I cook them individually, and I could pull each part off of the smoker as it reaches its finished temp. Then I would pull/chop everything, mix it, and offer a Carolina style sauce on the side.
What I want to know is, if you have tried this, what did you think?
There probably is something to keeping the skin on in terms of moisture retention and fat insulation with whole hog that I'd be missing with smoking individual pieces, but the question would be can I pull all those pieces, combine them, and it turn out as a good approximation of whole hog? Or maybe it the end result isn't as good as if all those pieces are cooked together on the carcass?
I'm thinking someone has tried this and I would appreciate any input on the matter.
Brian
I have a 48 inch offset that is supposed to be able to smoke a whole hog up to 70 lbs. I've read up on the matter and I'm really interested in doing a whole hog sometime. I've had whole hog BBQ and I agree that it's the gold standard when it comes to pork BBQ.
But yesterday I was in the grocery store and the thought came to me about what if I just purchased most of the pieces that are in a whole hog and smoked them individually? That gets around the problem of different parts of the pig cooking at different rates and makes life a lot simpler not dealing with one 70 lb hog.
I was thinking that I would buy a pork shoulder, pork belly, loin, tenderloin, ham, spare ribs, and any other "parts" I could get. I would probably simulate half of a whole hog. I'd give each piece the love they would get when I cook them individually, and I could pull each part off of the smoker as it reaches its finished temp. Then I would pull/chop everything, mix it, and offer a Carolina style sauce on the side.
What I want to know is, if you have tried this, what did you think?
There probably is something to keeping the skin on in terms of moisture retention and fat insulation with whole hog that I'd be missing with smoking individual pieces, but the question would be can I pull all those pieces, combine them, and it turn out as a good approximation of whole hog? Or maybe it the end result isn't as good as if all those pieces are cooked together on the carcass?
I'm thinking someone has tried this and I would appreciate any input on the matter.
Brian
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