First pig roast attempt

[mrteddyprincess]

Nice job! Thank you for sharing with the rest of us who haven't done whole hog. I appreciate the info and your experience.

[MikeySmoke]

I will be doing my second attempt in 2 weeks on my caja china. First turned out great, but needed to crisp the skin more. Caja China seems pretty easy too.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

Looks spectacular! Great job, man, and thanks for the writeup. I don't know if I could find a place around here to rent a rotisserie that big. I've love to try it sometime, but honestly, I think we will probably do a buried pit cook on one sometime this summer (I hope!).

[bardsleyque]

That looks good!Pigs a little big for your cutting board though.

[steve_woolston]

I've experienced similar issues with ash buildup. I do think the accumulated ash inhibits air flow around the burning charcoal. I had some grates made for my cooker that allows the ash to fall through to the bottom. With a rented device like you used, you probably don't have that luxury, unless you have some expanded metal lying around you could put in the cooker with a couple of bricks supporting it. The other option could be to take your burning coals off and put them in a metal bucket, scoop out the ash, and put your burning coals back in, and add some more coals. The few minutes it takes to do that shouldn't set your cooking back significantly.

[DWCowles]

Nice

[HorseDoctor]

Daunting? Nah... it’s really not all that tough. Really hard to screw up cooking a big chunk of pork/pig. Really, very forgiving!!’

[RonB]

Lookin' mighty good.

[shify]

Those streaks are the juices the dripped through the slit in the belly and other areas once the skin split and then were subsequently rolled around the pig as it spun and then burned/caramelized from the heat.

[Spinaker]

Nice work. This is a daunting task to under take. Kudos to you for even trying it. I have done one on a homemade Caja China and it was spectacular.

[Sweaty Paul]

Nicely done

[HorseDoctor]

Looks good! I wouldn't worry about getting rub on the meat before the cook. As Frozen Smoke has discovered, there is little difference if you add it after the cook. Try stuffing the next one with a good sausage stuffing recipe! That will make a medium pig feed a lot more folks and is always well received. Could also cook a little longer and pull rather than chop. Only thing I see wrong is you forgot an apple for piggy's mouth... Congrats on a great first pig!

[MeatMonster]

Great idea.

[Troutman]

Great attempt, maybe wood splits would have done you better for the heat source. Just curious what that streaking is on the pig skin, your marinade injection? Nice work, I'm sure it was a great feast!!

[shify]

This past weekend I hosted my first ever pig roast. For the occasion I ordered a 50lb pig from a farm and rented a rotisserie spit. Upon picking up the pig, it turned out to be a 45lber. I picked him up Friday covered him with a nice layer of salt and then wrapped him back up in a big garbage bag and put him on ice.

I intended to inject the pig a marinade but unfortunately work got in the way and I just ran out of time. The next morning despite a forecast of rain, we got started around 8:45am. After resalting and rubbing the pig with MMD, it went on the spit around 9:45. 45 min of rain (or about 10 min of rain before we could get a canopy up) set up back a bit but then it was smooth sailing. The pig took about 5 hours to cook. I tried to bump up the heat at the end to get the skin crispy but was having trouble getting the temp up. All the used charcoal piled up an incredible amount of ash and I think that inhibited the airflow and prevented the coals from getting really hot. I wasn't prepared for that amount of ash so was caught off-guard (I should've known better but never used 50-60lbs of charcoal) with not many good options. If I do it again, I'll either be prepared to dispose of the ash or use lump charcoal vs. the KBB I was using

That being said, the meat was good and tender and cooked well. We crisped up some of the skin and the ears on a gas grill. Favorite parts were the ribs and the tenderloin. I pulled it/chopped it by hand and mixed it with a vinegar sauce. I also made a KC style sauce for those that don't dig the vinegar stuff. Also made mustard slaw, regular cole slaw and pickled jalapenos along with potato rolls. I probably ate most of it while standing over the table cutting it up but a bun with some chopped pork, mustard slaw and pickled jalapenos was my second preferred serving method.

Really fun time and not bad for my first attempt. Will likely do it again but maybe go the Caja China route as I couldn't get a ton of rub on the legs/hams as the pig wasn't split open fully, so it was hard to really rub it down.