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Posted: 8/4/2005 4:05:45 PM EDT
A friend and myself are doing our first pig roast this Saturday.
We have borrowed a home made stainless steel roaster from a local Pub which has both Gas and charcoal options. There is one gas burner gone and the Publican said that gas cooked the pigs too quickly. We are going to go with the charcoal option anyway. Now I get the impression pig roasts are more common over there in the good ol US of A And you guys may have some great pointers/tips to help things go smoothly The pig we have ordered is 110 pounds Absolutely any advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance Taffy |
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Mmmmmmm......pig roast!!! I'm there!
Oh wait. You're in Great Britain. Guess I'll have to pass on this one. Can't really help you with the cooking as I've never been in on that part. |
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If you can get your arse over here....there's plenty of food to go around Someone out there must have some good ideas Taffy |
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Ask MAG162 he does the piggies at the NY shoots and does a GREAT job
And if you ever get stateside try and get in a shoot. Steve 'Cityrepo61' |
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I built a pig pit and used charcoal for my test runs but only cooked briskets, ribs etc. I didn't think it would work using only charcoal, but it did and the results were fantastic. IIRC, we planned on at least 6 hours for the small amount of meat we had and added charcoal about 4 or 5 briquettes at a time. The plan is to get the internal temp to about 170. Doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get there!
I'll see if I can dig up the pics and information and EDIT the post with the results. ~m38a1 Good Luck! ETA: Not having any luck in getting a URL to load from here. Dammit. But here's the URL's http://m38a1.com/Other/'03PigPit/roasting_pit.htm http://m38a1.com/Other/'03PigPit/030615.htm |
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We used to roast pigs every 4th of July at my uncles place.
Here is how we did it: Dig a pit in sand about 6 feet wide and 10 feet long and 5 feet deep and line it with large rocks. Put in large dried oak and pine logs in the center and lite it up. Keep adding logs and let it burn for about 6 hours so rocks get really hot. After fire goes out line the rock with banana leaves and lay the pig on it (lots of mojo sauce on the pig). Cover the pig with more banana leaves. Cover the entire pit with one large cotton canvas and cover the edge with rocks and sand. You want to keep the heat and moisture trapped in the pit. Take it out 12-15 hours later. You'll never find better pork. |
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I never have cooked one over charcoal. Anything that big should be cooked over wood IMO. I would be worried that the pig would take up the taste of the charcoal as it was being added.
Here is the way I would cook it. First build a good fire in the pit with a large amount of elm or oak, then when I was about to throw the pig on I would throw in a little Mesquite and Pecan just to round out the flavor. I wouldn't give it more than an hour of smoke from either the mesquite or the pecan because they have a strong taste to me. If I was burning the wood in a burn barrel and shoveling the coals under the meat, I would use whatever was plentiful of the above mentioned woods. The night before I would season the meat with copius amounts of salt, black pepper, paprika,and garlic powder. Then I woud rub them down with a little worchtershire and some Zesty italian dressing. The next day when my fire was ready, the larger cuts would be thrown on first. Oh by the way I wouldn't cook the thing whole. I would throw the hind quarters on first, after about 2 hours I would throw on the front shoulders, then in about another 1 1/2 hours the backstraps would go on, next the ribs and the tender loins. After about another hour and 1/2 I would wrap the meat in foil and await serving time. During the cooking I would baste the meat every thirty minutes with a mixture of this ratio: cup vinegar, cup vegetable oil, 2 big onions coarse sliced, two big lemons sliced thin, salt, pepper, 4 or five cloves of garlic 1/2 cup worshertshire and one can of Rotel tomatoes. Bring this to a boil before basting and then continue to simmer. The ribs and the backstrap and tenderloins are your gauge tools, they will not need long on a 110 pound pig if that was live weight. If the pig is 110 cleaned then you are going to have to adjust your time up. Don't put the ribs on more than four hours before you intend to serve unless they are just huge. If the pig was just huge I would consider a total cooking time on the hindquarters of 9-11 hours. With pig, time is relative, you can't just say 6 hours or eight, but you can judge the ratio of thickness and size of the cuts and get it all done at close to the same time. You should aim to cook at no more than 225F degrees. You don't want to dry that pig out too much, especially if it is wild. When the hind leg bone starts drawing out and you can sink a fork to the hilt you know its good and damn done. Dont be afraid to wrap early if you have too much smoke. All this being said you can borrow from my way to cook your whole pig, the baste will serve you well and the seasoning, keep that baby slicked with sop. Commit more of your fire to the largest density of meat, the ribs can coast on the fire from the front and back. Consider starting your charcoal in another pit or bucket and wait for it coal before shoveling it in the pig pit to avoid any charcoal taste. Good luck on the porker rooter |
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Although I've never roasted one, I've eaten some...and they always use wood when I've seen it done.
We take pig roasting seriously here in VA...check out this link, and the institution from whence it came: www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/foods/458-001/458-001.html good luck...hopefully the po po won't show up and shut you down...there's got to be 4 or 5 laws against this kind of activity in dear old Blighty these days. |
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Thanks very much for all your replies. I'll go check the links now.
I know a few of the po-po and they are only likely to turn up scrounging food...I'll hide the donuts I'll post some pics of how we get on Cheers Taffy I can alomost taste it now |
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Did you invite some islamic people at your pig party? |
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I used to do a pig in the ground every 4th of July when I lived in Montana.
I dug an 8x8x8 foot pit and filled it with wood. Lit it off and let it burn down to coals. We took the biggest sow we could get, gutted it, and cleaned it up. Then I took a couple of turkeys and stuffed in the pig. Then I filled in the holes with brookies. You then wrap the pig in wet burlap bags, the wrap that in chicken wire. Shovel a layer of dirt onto the coals and insert pig bundle. Cover the whole thing up with dirt. Let it cook for about 2 to 2 1/2 kegs.....thats about 12 to 14 hours for you flatlanders. Dig it up, hose it off with clean water, and open up the bundle. I did this several years running.....never had any complaints......of course everybody was really drunk and hungry by the time it was done. I'd do it again with a beeve or Elk, stuffed with a pig, stuffed with turkeys, stuffed with brookies... I do hire out for this sort of thing.... |
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HS1 |
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Funny you should mention that....I DID offer to send some to the local mosque thingy... It got a laugh but we were not gonna waste it on them....it was real tasty looks like we might have these more often...I'm trying to persuade them to go for some venison next time Taffy the Infidel |
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I'm very interested in doing something like this.... How long did you have to burn the wood to get it to coals? What's a brookie? what are burlap bags? What's a keg?.. Sorry for a ll the questions but us Brits don't translate well When you cook a pig this way do you still get a crisp outer skin?/crackling? Anyone out there cooked Boar? How does the taste differ? cheers Taffy This is addictive |
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That's legal in britian? Ben |
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why wouldnt it be. |
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+1 Or are you just shit sturing |
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The wet burlap bag should keep the outer skin moist so it shouldn't turn crispy. Boar, when cooked this way should be just as tasty and tender as a fat sow. As long as they ate pretty much the same feed then taste wouldn't be too different. |
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Taffy223: Yummmy. IF I ever get to the UK, I've got to go by your house, and I will even bring the Whatney's.
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It's not complete until you stick an apple in it's mouth before digging in. http://www2.seasite.niu.edu/PicDB/Phil/00163.jpg |
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I've had pit roasted a few times on Guam and lechon in the PI, frankly the Guam pigs were best. The Guam pigs were pretty much done in the pit lined with rocks method. Get the rocks hot and use that latent heat on the pig, and minimal seasoning added. Add your own at the end. The PI pigs were good but they were seasoned ahead of time and also picked up some wood flavor, probably more of a direct heat method.
The first time was when we had a Unit Active duty on Guam for an exercise and got there on the morning of a day they were throwing a big Hail and Farewell at the Q we were berthed in. Told us to grab a few hours of sack time and come down for the eats. Walked around the corner and there was a BIG BIG pig smiling on the table (bigger than those shown) , and some mahi-mahi sashimi that was less than two hours out of the ocean. Caught, cleaned on the way in, iced, brought up to the dinner, and sliced for serving and iced again. That was a great meal. One of our unit members was from Guam and we got to a couple of family festivals that had pigs too. Good stuff Maynard, made me glad to be a carnivore. |
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That looks good Taffy 223! Anytime you are cooking with pork fat, life is good!
Cheers to you and all of Britain as we unite against those that want to harm us!! |
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Easy Method I have used:
-Build a pit with cinder blocks, closed on 3 sides, open on one. roughly 4 feet high, 6-8 feet length/width. The open side simply gives you some control over the logs adn access to the pit for flare-ups. -Place 4-5 metal barb wire fence poles across pit, perpendicular to open end of pit. -We don't do it, but you can take bricks and put them down in the base of your pit. Then place pig wire on top of that. The logs go on top of the pig wire so grease and ash fall below the fire, preventing flare-ups. We don't do it because we like the flare-ups, see below. -Use large oak logs as fire source, 1-3 foot diameter. Start around 6-7 pm. -Take a nice sized pig, 100 lbs dressed or larger (we go for 150-200 lbs dressed), and wrap pig in pig wire. Place on top of fence poles around midnight. The nice thing about wrapping the pig in pig wire is that you have the pig in a cage. You simply grab the cage to flip the pig throughout the night. -Stay up and drink all night, have a garden hose handy and douse flames from flare-ups. They can get to be BIG ASS grease fires. We enjoy the "raising hell" aspect of it more than anything so we are in it for the drinking and grease fires. They are easy to prevent by doing the brick lining described above. -Spend morning and day dousing pig in apple juice/cider vinegar/spice mix. Let the coals slow burn during the day as you marinade. -Excellent. I have also had the "hot rocks" method and think it is excellent, it is a different method that steams the meat instead of cooking over direct flames. |
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You know you're a redneck... when you line the luggage area of a 2-door sports car with newsprint and crushed cardboard boxes in order to bring lechon to a graduation party. <---- Yes, I was a party to this. hippie.gif |
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The most important part of a hog roast is to impale the head on a nearby fence post to watch over the party.
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You're Flip huh? That's the only way to roast a pig. The Vietnamese one's don't even come near. I savor the skin and the Viets let it blister which I don't like. You have to keep the skin smooth. |
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We had to remove the head so it would fit our roaster but as for impaling on a fence post We did not want to scare the natives/kids Taffy Looks like there could be a UKARF.com pig roast in the future Any info will be made available to the hive |
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Sleeping..... I'll sleep when i'm dead We started the pigroast a midnight...there's no room for sleeping It's 2am again... I'm off to bed Taffy |
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Just be goddamn careful heating rocks! River rocks can have trapped moisture in them which can cause them to explode from the steam pressure. Exploding rocks are guaranteed to ruin the fun, and can kill yer ass! |
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The pig looks to be nice and done, what kind of lashing was used to tie the hindquarters up?
When my dad was a young man( he's 80), they would dig a trench 4 foot wide and 6 foot deep and fill it with wood and burn it down. Then they would put big grills across the pits to cook the meat on. The length of the trench would depend on how many people were expected and how much meat would be needed. Congrats on a job well done. |
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There is NOTHING one can't learn from the VCE! |
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We just used butchers string ...criss crossed over the whole pig as well, so that nothing fell off as it finished cooking Taffy |
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I bet they were fighting over that back strap, I wonder if I could build a rotiserie to fit my pit, I have about 5 foot of grill room, but there is a smoke stack in the way. Maybe just rotate 1/4 or 1/3 turn every thirty minutes.
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i can only answer a couple questions... the burlap bags are like a huge heavy open weave canvas bag that you might get potatoes or other veggies transported from the farm. the keg is a keg of beer. the rest is up to the experts here! |
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Burlap bags are made of jute (or hemp, if it was not all but illegal). It is a strong, course, thick (and itchy) bag. Used to buy feed it them, the co-op would recycle them, but now everything is paper or plastic.
Thought Brookies were stream trout, but that does not add up to me. |
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Can anybody tell me how long a pig will be for it's weight? I'm planning a pig roast in early Sept. and the size of the cooker I can get will determine the max size of the pig. I'm thinking 40-65 lbs or so.
Thanks, Merlin |
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That's a neat little roaster just like the one we used but not enclosed Very nice.. Cheers Taffy |
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Merlin it all depends on the temperature There's a lot of sites out there with the info on. I'll have a look for you and then I'll tell you what we did. I got to scamper for a while....bbl Cheers Taffy |
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I don't know what temperature has to do with it. This is what I get for posting at work: I'm not clear enough and I end wasting people's time. Clarification: I'm going to rent a BBQ from the local Army base MWR. It has a certain max cooking dimensions, of primary interest to me is the length, which is unknown, but I will find out by the end of this week. That length will determine the longest pig I can cook. However, you order pig by the weight, not by length. Therefore, what I'll need to know is: If I have XX cooking surface length, what is the YY max size pig, in weight, I can cook on it? I hope this clarifies things. Thanks, Merlin |
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Easy man, I'm ragging on ya. Can ya buy airsoft? Ben |
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You can buy them still...if you are quick before the ban comes into force. Although I hear there may be appeals. Cheers Taffy anymore ragging and you'll be know as a raghead.... |
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