Smoking a whole pig (long!)


 
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Rick Moore

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I know, I know - there are a couple of topics on whole hogs right now - but this doesn't seem to fit either of them. While I enjoy using my WSM as much as most people here, often times I find myself cooking a whole pig on my oil drum style cooker - typical eastern NC style - and maybe typical across the country. It is an old heating oil drum used to heat whole houses that was converted into a trailer mounted pig cooker. If anyone wants to see a pic for reference let me know. Anyway...

My technique is much the same as it is in the WSM - I put rub on the whole pig the night before, then I start my charcoal add hickory wood and put the pig on. I try and cook it from 250-275. It isn't quite as steady as the WSM, but it isn't too hard to maintain these temps either. When I first see the therm start to back off, I start another chimney of charcoal. I don't open the cooker for the first 4 hours - except to add charcoal and wood through side access doors. After that, I flip the pig and baste him every hour with a vinegar based mop. Usually takes about 8-10 hours to cook. Then I pull all the meat while it is still inside the pig skin and let people serve themselves out of the skin - pickin' off the grill is by far the best way to serve it! However, I usually have to pull some out into a chafing dish because someone doesn't want to see the whole pig body...and this is without the head on him!

Anyway - in my quest to always become better, I was wondering if any of you cook whole pigs and what techniques you may use. This came to me the other night watching the "Big Pig Jig" on FoodTV on Demand! (offered for free through our cable company - AWESOME!) They cook their pigs for 24 hours! I don't know how they can cook them that long without drying out. They also covered the pigs with something - looked like blankets almost - I'm assuming that they were soaked in something to keep the pig from drying out. Anyone got any ideas what they were doing there?

Thanks for any thoughts or technicques you provide!!
 
Rick
I do them quite often. I suggest that you inject the hog (really makes a big difference). The biggest difference is I cook them on their back the whole cook. I prop the hog up on all four sides so the cavity becomes a big bowl and I fill that with about a gallon of a mop. During the cook I will mop the pig with the mop and juices.
I take longer to cook than you stated but if you can get coals consintrated under the hams and shoulder you should be ok.
I foil the all of the skin to keep it from just burning up.
If you want more info let me know. This a style of cooking I learned from Pig Pounda Kappa out of GA.
Jim
 
Hey Rick,
I think I must have missed part of that show. I did see the injection part.
My first pig cooker was one somewhat like what you have . I used a burn the wood down into coals and then shovel them into the cooker. This took a good 12 hours and a pick up load of wood. "Cooking at 250*" The next one was a smoker made out of a 300 gallon oil drum. This one does a great job, hard work , but , great job. On this one I could cook a pig at 235* for a min of 14 hours, or as long as it took , once I had the meat temp where I wanted it , I just slowed it down to 150* to hold it . This let the meat rest, did help I think. Then to fit in with the Eastern crowd I built a gas cooker out of a 275 gallon oil drum. The boys out east do it a little different. They will cover the pig with salt, let it sit , wash it, and do it again a time or two. "This is to remove any blood". Blood turns dark in cooking and they dont want to see any black or burnt areas. Then I like to rub the pig down with oil as the cooker is getting hot. When the cooker gets up to 310*, put the pig on. Yeah , I know THATS HOT! I cook mine skin side down never turning .When you get the meat temp you want, turn up the heat, this is where you puff up the skin, they want a golden brown, puffed, crisp skin. I know, "why". They chop up the skin too. So they want it all to be crisp, "the skin that is". The cooking time is about 8 hours , or less.
Now when they come by to judge, the first thing they do is check the temp of the meat, less than 170* you get DQ. Next, they check the skin looking for a soft spot, then tear it apart, to see if they can find a bad bone release, then taste the meat with out sauce, then with sauce. I know, you would have to see this in person. Here is the link to find a contestnc pork

I only cooked in a few of the NCPC events. I think the art of smoking is more to my taste.

See YA,

Rick
 
Wow - I do remember them injecting also - I pretty much dismissed that...but after hearing this, maybe I'll try it this time...or the next - this is for a friend's family reunion - I hate trying something new for a party that isn't mine! Do you just inject the same mop you use during the cook or is this something different altogether?

And, both of you guys cook skin side down the whole time. I had always heard you start lean side down so some of the fat can drip off - any science to why you do it skin side down the whole time? I have heard one arguement that this allows the pig to cook in its own juices the whole time because the skin will keep the juices in - rather than letting them drip off while cooking lean side down.

I wonder why I am getting such different cook times than you all - I wouldn't think 250-275 would make that much difference. I do concentrate the coals under the hams primarily. One cook I did down east, I had all the guys telling me the cooker needed to be at least 375 and an 80# pig should finish in about 5-6 hours...that is a little ridiculous IMHO.

Thanks for the info and the link - I'll keep searching and see what else I can find!
 
Ijection, Chris just helped me with a injection liquid. I gave it a try on some butts. One I did as he advised, the other I replaced the apple juice with chicken stock...Go with the apple juice . What the injection did do was help the flavor. I will go back and see if I can find that post for you.


Skin side down: When I cooked the NCPC way, and when I do shoulders, on gas. If I am smoking a pig , I made a rack, or stand to hold the pig up so it looks like it is resting. I have a link to a contest in Shelby that , in the pictures, has a photo of a pig like this.Pig Pic's

375* I think you know better, lol. When the people down East told me 310* for eight hours, well, I had to see it first. It is ok , but I like to cook low and slow. 250* for 12 hours or so will do great.

That "pork injection marinade" can be found under the rub and marinade section. Good luck.



Rick
 
Rick-

In your link - I did find a tab of "photos" - there was only 1 picture of a whole hog I thought you could be referring to. This was a team from King's Mountain that cooked a whole hog "for show" because they don't have a whole hog category - is this the pic you were refrring to?

I found the injection recipe also. Thanks for the hint about the apple juice vs. chicken stock. The only thing I have is one of those "cajun cooker" injection syringes - seems like this could take a while to inject a whole hog with. Do you do as they did in the Big Pig Jig and basically inject between each rib? I assume you also try and hit the shoulder areas, etc - basically, I guess you put it wherever there is enough meat to inject into. I may give this a shot this weekend...you all have my taste buds going just thinking about it!
 
I always did my pigs skin up to start then flipped to skin side down. However, next time, I'm going to try the method Jim Minion described, placing wooden blocks under the "corners"of the pig so that the cavity becomes a kind of bowl. That should help keep the ribs from overcooking, which is almost unavoidable the way I was doing it.
 
Thats the one Rick. That is a good team too. I cooked next to them years ago.

Oh yeah, a small injecter is all I have at the time. It will do fine on butts , might take some time on a pig. You want to get flavor every where you can.


Rick
 
Hey Rick, let me see a pic of your pig somoker that is made out of the old heating drum. Also where can you get one in the Raleigh/Durham area for cheap?????????
 
Steve-

Let me find a host site for my pics (HP stopped their free service) and I will see what I can do to get photos of the "smoker" (more a cooker than smoker) and the whole pig I did last night and today for a friend's family reunion. Did a 120# whole hog from 3:00 am to 4:30 pm - 13.5 hours total. Everyone seemed to like it!
 
Will do Steve. I just pulled out some of the photos of ol smokey when it was a baby."lol". Now to "Ripaway" so I can get them posted.

Hang in there ,
Rick
 
I made the file size small, so you know what the pics look like , poor!
Here is some pics of one of the first test cooks.
front view

back view

open

Hope the wrong Rick didn't waste his time"lol".

Well, I did learn something about Ripway, anyway.


See Ya,
Rick
 
Steve-

Just in case I was the right Rick /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif I'll try and post these. I presume you would like some more examples of whole pig cookers anyway. Try this link:

http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPAlbumPict?com=us&awp=albumshow.html&album_id=3094723

Hopefully that got you to 4 pictures - 2 of my cooker (the red one) one of the cooker and one with the finished 120# pig I cooked this weekend. I had this made in Wilson, NC for $700 - I think they are now $750.

Also, you will see another style of whole pig cooker. This one is about twice the cost and is made out of all new metal and welded together for a really good fit. Much nicer all around, just can't justify twice the cost...yet! I had one priced in Goldsboro, NC and it was almost $1600. I'll wait for the catering business or competition circuit for that.

Rick - who would have thought 2 Rick's could be on the net, replying to the same post, at exactly the same time...weird!
 
Hey Rick,
Well, small world. And to think the three of us are within an hour of each other.

When I click your link , all I get is the HP home page. Sounds like you have a nice cooker. When I built ol smokey I didnt have anything to go by , so it took me some time to get what I wanted "5 months". But it paid off. So $750 does not sound so bad if you can get what you want. Do hope I get to see the pics some time.

Rick
 
Dang the people at HP - why do they have to mess up my system! I am trying dotphoto so bear with me while I try and get these things posted for all to view!

Here goes:
120# pig from this weekend
my cooker
another style
Another view

Oh well, looks like you have to be a member. I'll try something else later on - maybe I'll have to try and post on my space reserved for me with my ISP. But I don't have any clue how to do this yet...
 
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