Pig roast question


 
C

Carlos Meixner

TVWBB Member
We have a 100 lb hog dressed. Plan on eating around 2pm this saturday. We are picking the hog up by 6pm friday. The homemade cooker has a rotisserie and will be burning charcoal.

Question is how long to cook? I realize its done when its done but some folks want to start it at 4am saturday. I figure around 250 degrees thru out but i read one group did 350 degrees for the first 4 hrs and then backed it down to 250 degrees to finish.

I have personally done one that took approx. 17 hrs and it was much smaller than this one.

Any guidance would be appreciated.
 
I have done them that size in an open pit fairly high above the wood coals--took 18 hours as I recall; in a cinderblock pit covered with foil and the coals in the corners (till skin-crisping time), about 10 hours. Tom Chilton's first one on an EZQue rotis, open, took 10 hours.

With fuel management you can always slow it down (the open or closed pit, whole hog joints in west Tenn often cook theirs 12-22 hours depending on the joint) or speed it up. I'd go with a late Fri night start and make time adjustments if needed in the early morning, a breakfast mojito in hand.

Good luck with your cook.
 
Carlos, your 100 lb dressed (not stuffed) will take 7 to 8 hours @ 225 - 250 and yield approx. 40 lbs of cooked pork. Assuming your cooker has a lid and you keep it closed, you will have no problem eating at 2 if your cooker is ready to go at 6 am.

I would keep my charcoal slightly indirect ( to the outsides of the pig)and add a few hunks of fruit wood if ya have it for added flavor.
I leave my thermometer in his thigh and he`s done at 180 but I usually dont take them off till 185 - 195.

Harvey
 
Thanks for the info.

I will get to see this cooker sometime today. Apparently the owner who is loaning us the cooker just throws in "50 lbs of charcoal on each side and let it go. If it runs at 400 degrees so be it. It will fall in temps eventually." I'm 100% against that plan. We are certainly going to try and regulate the temp around the 250 mark.

Inject and rub sound like a good idea?
 
Though I am not an injection fan you certainly could. My first wrapped-around-a-spit ones I stuffed with aromatics and baste-soaked bread; I gave them a quarter-turn and basted every 15-20 min. Mostly I've either flavor-brined or marinated, usually in mojo since usually Cubans have been present and Cuban->pork->mojo: a fait accompli. But I love mojo-marinated pork so no big deal there.

I don't rub. It doesn't penetrate the skin on spit-roasted pigs and will not form bark in an interior. On cracked-spine splayed pigs I find the brine or marinade to be perfect as is.

High heat (especially if direct) can cause the skin to split--a lot. That won't affect the meat necessarily but it doesn't look that great. My first pigs had very split skin (I have pics around somewhere)--I had no way to control the heat or wood--but they were delicious.
 
"Inject and rub sound like a good idea?"

I agree with Kevin, as far as injecting, I dont like to poke holes in the skin of my pig...helps keep the moisture in.

As far as rub, I only rub the inside, and its just a basic rub mixture...alot of salt, and some garlic, paprika and pepper.Stuff`er with some apples and onions if ya want to.
The rest is up to you...

Good Luck and let us know how it turns out !!!

Harvey
 
The last 4th of July pig I saw cooked in the mountains went like this:

Start about 120 lbs of Kford in a converted "oval" oil drum. Throw on 4 chunks about 12" long of a 15" green apple tree cut that morning. Put on the HOG, close the cover and open it 9 hours later. Meanwhile about 30 cases of beer and about 15 cases of likker (store bought, tax paid) were drunk. The crowd was sizeable and the pig was fantastic. Fortunately, the wife was driving that night, going across the mountain the fog was so thick that the visibility (really seriously) was less than 20 ft.

Carlos, I know that this is not much help, but, perhaps, you will worry less about cooking the pig. Obviously, the mountain boys did not use Gurus, WSMs, wireless thermometers, watches, frequent looking, or anything else that was high tech and it still worked. As a matter of fact, the process was heavily lubricated by alcohol and it still worked wonderfully.
 
Thanks folks for all the info. I realize it will be kind of hard to screw it up. Just wanted to get an idea of times since I have an idea on temps.

Vernon, the cooker is what you described (oval drum) but the guy rigged up a rotiss to it. I think he said it runs at 2 rpm which doesn't mean much since I am not sure what a full revolution is. Obviously there is the skewer portion for the rotiss but he also has a rack that will sandwich the pig...much like a fish rack. It should be easy to handle with the rack.

Looking forward to it and the weather should hold out for us. I hope to have some pics to post.
 
All went well. I was not in attendance though. My daughter was sick on top of the fact that we are packing up to move to our first house.

I was told that folks loved the BBQ. They were also very impressed with the smoker itself. It was tough to keep folks from peeking.

Thanks again everyone for your advice. I passed on the info to the "pit boss" and he was very thankful.
 
Originally posted by K Kruger:
My first pigs had very split skin (I have pics around somewhere)--I had no way to control the heat or wood--but they were delicious.
Click to expand...
Found some pics. These were my first pigs--this is around 1982 or 83. You can see how ratty the skin got. After many hours of turning every 15-20 min the pigs wouldn't hold on the spits well so I stuck a grate under them to be able to continue quarter-turning them. The combo of the heat and grates ruined the skin--but they came out great anyway.
 
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