Picking Up Two 90lb Live Pig/Boars!!!!!!!

[RCBaughn]

Well guys, I was cruising Craigslist and came across a guy giving away two pigs that were crossed with a wild boar and each weighs around 90 pounds and is ready to slaughter! I am probably going to dispatch them there and go ahead and stick them that way they will bleed out and not get it all in the back of my Jeep. Gonna get them home then and dress them out whole and figure out what to do with meat and carcass at that point. Gotta see how much fat is on the animals before I go past that point. I planned on doing one of them whole and the other separating into smaller cuts, i.e. ribs, butts, etc and freezing those for later.

My question is, has anyone ever had any experience cooking a smaller pig whole on any of the Weber equipment? I am alsmost at a loss on how to cook these things, but when I saw that two whole pigs and all their meat was being given away for absolutely free I had to jump. It's just too exciting cooking a whole animal to pass up. That said though, need be I can process them both and freeze the one whole and figure out how to physically get the things to smoke later.

Any help would be great! Here's a picture of one of them in their pen. Gonna be some damn good eating I have a feeling, and being the one to end an animals life really brings the food scene full circle and makes you appreciate the life the animal gives to sustain us.

 

[TimM]

Don't know that there's a weber that will fit a whole pig. Those are usually done in the ground or on the custom pull behind pit trailers.

 

[Dave Russell]

If lean, I'd roast one in the ground. Chris Lilly has guidelines in his book, so a good excuse to pick it up if don't have it. If wanting to smoke, you could see how much it would cost to rent a smoker from a party rental business.

 

[RCBaughn]

I never thought about contacting a party rental place. That makes sense now, but I do love the idea of cooking it in the ground. I also found a blog where they built a simple pit with cinder blocks and some wire sheet metal on top and below the pig and flat roasted a splayed open pig, I guess you would call it butterflied although it's kinda hard to thing of an animal that big being "butterflied". Ha, I only see chickens and turkeys when I think of that meat prep. Seems like that would be a good way to do it too since you can flip the whole thing without worrying about it falling apart on ya and I already have all the cinder blocks I would need to build the thing. Only have to get the expanded metal sheet for the oversized grates from somewhere which shouldn't be an issue.

Only thing I truly dread isn't the shooting, sticking, gutting, scalding, scraping, or any of that..... It's having to haul the bled out pigs (before gutted) in the back of my Jeep Wrangler with the back seat taken out and having to clean up whatever mess is left back there after I get them home. I don't have any other way to haul them and hauling them live in there isn't an option, and shooting them and not bleeding them right away isn't an option, so this is the only route I can take.

BTW, I wish I could get a hold of Chris Lily personally. He's from Alabama right? Owns or works Big Bob Gibson's or something like that? I haven't read much on him although what I have read says that he is a hell of a slow cooking/smoking beast.

 

[Dave Russell]

You need to get you a Hitch-haul for that Jeep. I've carried deer, firewood, bikes, coolers, and you can even carry wsm's on them. Walmart sells them for less than a hundred if I'm not mistaken, and the latest model comes ready to use with both size hitch receivers.

I'm not the one to help you with scalding and cooking pigs whole, but I guess all you need is a big drum to hold the water for scalding, and some HELP. We just skinned the pigs that my buddy and I shot, but obviously, you can't go that way if cooking whole. But yes, if you have the time and the help, you can go the cinderblock route. I've actually thought about making a pit on part of our property, and might do so one of these days. Regarding Chris Lilly, he married into the Gibson family by marrying Big Bob's great granddaughter and he and his father-in-law and company have done quite well on the comp. bbq circuit, to say the least.

 

[Matt Gard]

Go to HD and get a box of construction waste garbage bags. After you bleed the hogs stick them in there and double bag them. You should be good to go. To get the hogs on your weber equipment unless you have the ranch kettle you might have to quarter the carcass.

 

[RCBaughn]

Thanks Dave for the info on Chris Lily, pretty crazy he married into such a cool family and ended up pushing them even further with their business. I respect that immensely. I also wonder if I could cook the hogs whole with no skin on them and they turn out okay. I guess it wouldn't be much different that a Boston butt smoking, but I would have to do it low and slow to make sure the outer players of meat doesn't turn to jerky. Kinda worried about it not having that lip smacking sticky feeling when you cut it off and consume too. Maybe I'm wrong though.

And Matt I think your right, no way I want to quarter them really. Presenting a whole hog to my family is just too visually cool, so I think I'ma have to go the whole hog and self built pit route. I didn't even think about garbage bags either, I'll swing by Home Depot on the way there and get some. Need to get some extra rope too for hanging it to bleed out. I do not look forward to the sticking part, only thing I dread. The shooting not at all, but that yes.