NYE pig on a DIY rotisserie spit

[anders]

Ever since I did my first pig last summer, I've wanted to do it again, but this time on a rotisserie spit.

Since I like to build things, I made a DIY spit and used the Weber rotisserie motor from my kettle. I figured that it theoretically should have enough torque, but doing a test drive first felt prudent, so I loaded the spit with 15 kgs of slightly off-set weigths, and that ran OK.

The pig was a smaller 12 kg one, mounted it on the spit, cut it for better crackling and rubbed it with BBQ spices.

The firepit was a simple one, ran it with a combination of charcoal and oak, and covered the pig with half a barrel, in the hope that would help with smoke infusion and heat.

It took about 4 hours to get ready, and once carried in I helped the crackling along with a Searzall. After that, pride and general happiness ensued.

... and here's a maybe not 100% sober narration of the roasting:

 

[ChuckO]

You da man! That is an inspiring amazing cook

And the gal in the red dress is a show stealer

 

[Rich G]

Great engineering, and a very nice cook! Whole pig is on my bucket list.....may actually get to do one as we're relandscaping our backyard this year, so there's no reason I can dig a hole!

So, Anders, how did it taste? How'd you serve it?

Rich

 

[anders]

You da man! That is an inspiring amazing cook
And the gal in the red dress is a show stealer

Just for you, Chuck.

 

[anders]

So, Anders, how did it taste? How'd you serve it?

It tasted absolutely wonderful. A good piece with meat, fat and some crackling on was some of the best tasting meat I've ever had.

Serving wise we simply let people have a go with the carving knife, and everyone was happy.

 

[Joe V]

Simply fabulous - and I agree with the narrator - that is one happy looking pig. Fantastic cook!

 

[Rich G]

It tasted absolutely wonderful. A good piece with meat, fat and some crackling on was some of the best tasting meat I've ever had.

Serving wise we simply let people have a go with the carving knife, and everyone was happy.

Thanks, Anders! That's what I was envisioning, a group of friends standing around a pig, beverage in hand, and a little juice dripping from their fingers....

Rich

 

[KevinJ]

Wow, Great cook and thanks for sharing

 

[Jim Bounds]

that is cool. i've done that before using a spitjack rotisserie over coals.... on a NYE. it was quite an effort of time and engineering.

how long did it take for the cook and what type of prep//seasoning on the pig?

 

[Gary London]

I like the ingenuity involved in designing and building the spit. Great looking meat product at the end too!

 

[Len Dennis]

Great thread Anders. I've never experienced pork like that. Jealousy rears it's ugly head . Good stuff.

 

[Jim Lampe]

L♥VE IT!
Great post AND cook Anders! And the Video... Thee Best Of 2017!!

 

[anders]

Thank you all for the kind words.

I've received some questions around the spit itself, so I've added some more pictures here. Obviously, it all starts with an idea:

It's all done in aluminium, simply because that's the easiest to work with. The biggest challenge was to fit the large spit into the 8 mm square hole in the Weber motor, which I solved by mounting a 7.5 mm square tube inside the larger one.

I couldn't find an 8 mm one, hence the red "padding" for a snug fit.

Since a 12 kg pig is most likely outside of what the Weber motor is built for, I needed to make sure that I could get a good rotational balance, which I did with two small weightlifting plates (0.5 kg each) mounted on a long bolt.

Ensuring that the pig stayed in place during the cook, and didn't slip and slide on the spit, I made holders for the trotters, an offset one at the front and one directly on the spit at the rear. Two long spikes went through shoulders and rump and through the spit as well, and a final clamp around the spine.

The square spit also needed to rotate easily on the spit rests, so two pieces of PVC pipe on rollers sorted that.

Everything worked out fine without issues, the motor dealt with it ok, no noticable overheating or strange sounds were emitted.

Improvements for the future will probably be a suitable sized spit motor and a proper U-bolt for the spine, the rest is OK.

 

[CaseT]

Wow! That's Awesome! Nice cook!

 

[John Sp]

Great cook Anders! Your design and technique are spot on. Looks like a great time was had by all (except the pig of course)...

Regards,

John

 

[S.Six]

Awesome pig cook! I've only done one myself on my Lang 84, can't wait to do another one this year. thanks for sharing.

 

[Randy G]

one of the coolest things I've seen on this site!

great looking pig and amazing spit.

 

[Mark B]

Very impressive ! Nice job Anders.

 

[Tony R]

Ditto what Chuck said....
Thank you for sharing.