Hello! I am planning to cook a suckling pig for easter. I called a highly rated butcher in my area (who I haven't used before) and had a 25lb one set aside. I picked it up today, still in the box it came from the distributor in. When I got home and opened the box, I saw that the pig is just in a plastic bag. It's not vacuum sealed like I expected it would be. Should I be worried, or is that normal? The ones I was looking at from Wild Fork are vacuum sealed. They're also only about 10lbs max, which is why I went with the one from the butcher. Just don't want Easter dinner to be a flop!!
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25 lbs is pretty big to vacuum seal. Also, if the farmer is local, and the meat fresh, maybe no need to seal. I assume the meat was cold enough and presumably a highly-rated local butcher would know how to handle the meat properly. Seems like everything is good to me. -
Welcome to the out from Chicago! I have never tried this before, so I am interested to hear what others have to say and how your experience goes.Comment
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I can't help, but welcome to The Pit.Comment
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Sometime back I ordered in and received a 34 lb suckling pig. Came in frozen, loose plastic bag, cardboard box. All fine.Comment
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No biggee on not being vacuum sealed. A biggee is the fact that most pork outbreaks of Salmonella are associated with whole hog cooks for a few reasons.
1. The skin contains most of the bacterial contamination, apart from any obvious enteric pathogen contamination due to improper sanitary dress.
2. It ain't the easiest thing to cook a whole hog.
3. Many people are doing it for the first time.
4. Alcohol may be involved.
I personally observed #'s 3 and 4. Nobody got sick, but the shoulders were still raw. Therefore we ate high off the hog and some of the hams.Comment
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Welcome to the pit from the Florida Suncoast. Good luck with your cook.Comment
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Interested in following, I've always wanted to try this. Good luck with your cook.Comment
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thanks all! I will update on how it goes! All your comments are very reassuring.Comment
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Sounds like a blast! Pics, we soo love pics.....and pigs! Soooweeeeee!Last edited by Alan Brice; April 11, 2025, 07:42 AM.Comment
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Welcome to the Pit!Comment
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Welcome from central Texas! I’ve cooked several piglets but they have all been feral-wild pigs. I’m aware that there’s more chances to get a pathogen when leaving the skin on so I skin them. I place several strips of bacon over the piglet to ack as a moisture barrier and it adds nice flavor too. I normally separate them at the rear of the rib cage, rub in MMD, and smoke front and rear sections for about 2 hours at 275 F to get some nice smoke flavor and color on them. Then I put each section in a Reynolds oven cooking bag, like you would bake a turkey in, and bring them into the oven to finish up at 250 F for another 4 hours. You will get very good tasting, melt in your mouth pork.Comment
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Before I read through, the first thing that came to mind was how does it smell? But it’s frozen, so you are good. To echo the comments above, if you trust your butcher/fabricating team, then a fresh pig will be fine.Comment
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I’ve made suckling pigs several times and I’ve only ever gotten them in just a plastic bag. This is a Portuguese butcher and they’re always fresh so I think you’ll be fine. The size is the real issues as you need one small enough to fit in whatever you’re using to cook it with.Comment
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