Suckling pig tomorrow

[gijsveltman]

I’m smoking a suckling pig tomorrow for the first time! Here it is brining in water, salt, apple cider vinegar, rosemary, onions and apples, per Aaron Franklin’s brine for whole hog. I’ll post pics of the process tomorrow.

[dahcopilot]

Mr bones beans, a suckling pig.,......,.what is happening here

[EdF]

Nirvana!

[Corvus]

Please post details and results of your cook when time allows. When my new Blazin Grillworks GI arrives, I'll do the same. All the best!!!

[RonB]

Lookin' forward to the results.

[gijsveltman]

So, results time:

The whole cook lasted about 3 hours, maybe a little more. It took 3 hours to get to 145f in the deepest part of the hams, so I took it out and let it rest for about 15 minutes. I didn't notice, however, that the skin was not crispy, but really chewy. While I did enjoy the flavor of the meat A LOT, next time I need to put it over some direct fire for a few minutes to get that crispy texture on the skin, which was my aim. Sadly I couldn't put it back because we had already cut it into pieces, and that was my guests' main compliant, the lack of crunchy skin.

So, positive on the flavor, negative on the skin texture. The meat was so incredibly juicy though, that some of my guest thought it was undercooked (it wasn't, I triple checked with a Thermoworks). But since most people (especially down here) are used to dry, flavorless pork, they were confused. Some even refused eating after someone said it was undercooked.


Oh well, I'll have to try again!

[Spinaker]

Barktothebone

[Spinaker]

Can I get this brine from you, Please?

[Troutman]

I've only done a couple of sucklings but was given this advice prior to;

1) Get the heat up and really try to crisp the skin, otherwise it's shoe leather low and slow. Over live fire is best !!
2) Try to get the fat layer off the back of the skin....PITA but it helps a lot
3) Think about torching or pouring hot oil over the skin after the cook
3) Remove the skin at the end and either deep fry it or cut it into strips and put it back on high heat

It's one of those conundrums like poultry skin, difficult to do right. Your's looks great, I'll bet the meat was delicious regardless !!!

[gijsveltman]

Thanks as usual Troutman! I got the heat up to about 400f for the last 5-10 minutes of the cook, but apparently it needed more. I think next time I'll put it over a roaring wild fire, because I do want to leave the skin on. I guess I'll just keep going with the trial and error! Thanks for the advice!

[EdF]

I'm drooling!

[Spinaker]

Wow! Awesome cook!!! How cool!

[gijsveltman]

It was pretty fun! Will definitely be repeated soon, perhaps for a little holiday gathering!

[Donw]

Well done my friend. Looks delicious.