OT: whole hog question


 
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

jason molinari

TVWBB Fan
Hey all. Every year my family has a big pig BBQ, we get a whole pig quartered and Q it all night over fresh made coals. Anyhow..now that i've begun to learn how to make excellent Q with the WSM, i'm looking for ways to improve our whole hog. Not that its bad..it could be improved tho.

My main question is..generally we cook it to about 180, and the meat is still a bit fatty, would i cook the whole hog to 195-200 like i would a pork butt or would that be too high? Our cookign apparatus is basically a rectangular hole in the ground, a 24" high grate in the whole, and heat shields on 3 sides. The 4th side is open to shovel coals under it. On top of the grate we cover the pig with a giant oven type deal, basically enclosing it. We generally cook at about 200deg. at the top of this 4' box, but i find this a hard number to rely on since the whole pig is done in about 14hrs...

thanks
jason
 
I would increase your use of coals and cook at a higher temperature. I hope you are cooking skin on and up. From my limited experience the quality has more to do with the meat than the cooking technique. The best pork I've ever had was cooked like you are describing but it was home raised and smaller. Pork Fat Rules in whole hog cooking.
 
Yes of course skin on. We turn/flip rotate and baste with vinegar every 3 or 4 hours...what do you think the final internal meat temp should be?

j
 
I would inject a gallon or two of a mixture into that hog and I would cook it to 195 /200?, It's called Pig Pickin.
If you have never tried to cook one skin-on on it's back in an inclose pit, you should someday, you can produce a wounderful product.
Jim
 
Jason,

I think the higher internal meat temperature is what you need. You need a more complete rendering of the fat in the whole hog and to get to 190F will make a difference. At 180F that is the temperature I use on a shoulder or butt for slicing, I pull pork at 190F.

The problem being at the higher cooked temperature you better have a good method for securing the hog to whatever grate you use. Some of my friends use 2 grates with the hog sandwiched in between the grates. They then tie the grates together with wire and fasten the whole affair to pipes and they use the pipes to turn the hog during the cook.

That may be another thing to try is to flip the hog. Some folks do, some folks don't. My taste preference is to turn the hog.

Here are some sites dealing with whole hog:

Tampa Bay Pig Pickins

How They Cook Hawgs in Missippi

Georgia Whole Hog

Let us know how it goes...

Do not try to stuff the whole hog in a WSM, Ha Ha... /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Regards,
PrestonD
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

 

Back
Top