Hi all! I posted on here about suckling pig quality, now I'm thinking about how to smoke it. It's 25lbs, 25" long. I have a vertical propane smoker that I found by looking through reviews on here: cheap but it keeps a very solid temperature and I love it. It's a thermotemp, and it has horizontal racks.
Any suggestions on what I might do if I wanted to hang the pig in there to smoke it? I'm not really worried about uneven temps because I've used it a lot and tested temps in different places and it's been very consistent.
Thank you!!
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
Equipment:
'88 Vintage Fire Magic gasser with over 4000 cooks to its credit
Large Big Green Egg
18 Inch Weber Kettle (Rescued from neighbor's trash)
Rotisserie for 18 inch kettle
Dyna Glo propane smoker
Pit Barrel Cooker
Smokey Joe with mini WSM mod
Garcima paella burner
Anova Sous Vide
Slaiya Sous Vide (gift)
LEM grinder, sausage stuffer and meat slicer (all gifts)
I've never tried to hang a pig, but I regularly smoke sausage hung from a rod that sets on the brackets where the grates normally are in my propane smoker. You might do similar, you'd have to find a way to lash the pig's hind legs to the rod.
If this doesn't make any sense, I'll try to find a picture of the sausage in the smoker
Does your Thermotemp have a crossbar at the top off the cooking box? If so, I'd guess a pair of stainless steel hooks through the back legs of the pig should let it hang just fine.
Currently own:
Weber 22 and 26 Kettle.
Regular gasser with rotisserie.
Custom built horizontal stick burner.
Custom built duel fuel "whole hog" cooker.
​​​Many other tools of the trade.
I was thinking you could wrap it in chicken wire (fit to size) then hang it by the wire. This would keep it together and avoid any parts of the pig to detach during the cooking process. Just a thought.
Donw yep, that's where I got the idea from, cooking whole hogs. Been a part of many of those cooks through the years. Good point about the flare ups. My SIL is Cuban and cooks hole split hogs in a china box. With that the coals are on the outside of the box, on the metal top. No flare ups. No smoke flavor either but it's an entirely different type of cook. Flavor comes from all the garlic cloves inserted in the pig. Oops, off on a tangent lol.
Gave up on hanging it, decided to just cook it in oven, and then the power went out! So back to the smoker it was. Ended up just cramming it in, 250 degrees for 6 hours, turned out great!
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