So You Want To Roast A Pig?
I had this crazy idea to have a pig roast in the next month or so, after watching the Indonesia episode of No Reservations. I want to get a whole pig, fill it with herbs, and throw it on a spit in my yard. The first question is, how should I go about procuring a pig? I found this one place:
http://www.wildenfamilyfarms.com/Main/product.html
It looks like it will run about $230 for a 170lb pig. Any ideas for other places or is that a good price from a reputable place? The next piece of the problem is getting the thing gutted. The place above charges $110 for that. How hard is something like that to do myself?
Do you have any other suggestions for things I might be missing?
Thanks,
serge
Serge—
First off, wherever you decide to get the pig, pay them to gut it. It’ll be so much easier, and you won’t have to worry about entrails and noxious odors.
I’m familiar with Wilden Farms, and you’ll get a good product from them. A couple of other Pennsylvania farms offering responsibly raised pork are Mickley Organic Farms, 724.530.2207 and Heilman Family Farm, 724.353.1411. I’m not sure what sort of price they would offer for a whole animal, but it’s probably worth checking.
I’ve never actually roasted a whole pig on a spit. At one of the restaurants where I worked, there was a party that requested three whole pigs that the chef didn’t get in the oven soon enough and then had to turn the heat up on to get them cooked in time. The result was good, but not as good as it would have been if he’d done them properly, for a longer time at a lower heat. But that was in the oven, and I doubt if your oven would fit the whole animal (I know mine probably wouldn’t).
There’s a danger to cooking the pig for too long, though. When my dad was in the Navy, one of his superior officers held a pig roast for his whole unit. The guy in charge of cooking the pig claimed he knew what he was doing, dug a hole in the ground, built a fire, added the pig wrapped in a wet burlap sack (he wanted banana leaves, but they weren’t available), covered it up, and said that it would be perfect the next day. The next day came and everyone showed up at the party (where the side of the garage was obscured by cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon stacked it’s entire length and height). They dug the hole open to find nothing but ashes.
I’m not sure where they were getting their pigs from (I was a long time away from existing at this point), but somehow they ran out and procured another one (maybe the base got pigs in whole?) and started the process again. Trouble was, the house wasn’t on the base, it was in civilian-land, where the neighbors aren’t big fans of a yard full of Pabst-drunk sailors making a ruckus. The cops showed up and told them they had two choices: go inside (the small bungalow-type cottage) or disperse. Everyone knew the second they started their vehicle they;d be in for a DUI, so they all crammed into the cottage. The pig was nowhere near done and everyone was getting hungry, so they ate rare pig. No one got arrested and no one got sick, so there could’ve been worse outcomes to the day.
As far as successful pig roasts go, my mom’s family has occasional pig pickin’s that sound like lots of fun, but unfortunately I was never in North Carolina at the same time one was being held. They roast a whole pig, but not on a spit: on a grill made from a converted oil tank.
They flay the pig out and roast it slowly–starting it in the morning so it’ll be done by dinner.
When it gets to be almost done, they dress it with a vinegar-based sauce.
Finally, it’s ready: real pulled pork barbecue.
One thing that you might watch out for when you do roast the pig is the rendered fat: so long as the skin is whole, it’ll contain the fat. But once you cut into the skin, that opens a path for the hot fat to travel; if the pig’s over the fire, that could lead to some insanely large flames.
Not that any of that is much help toward your real question, how to roast a pig on a spit, the short answer to which would be, I don’t know. Here’s some advice from some folks who do know, though, complete with some bitchin’ photos to guide your work.
Good luck! I hope it comes out well.
Photo credit: Jim Sharrard
May 3rd, 2007 at 8:11 am
I was at a real (also North Carolina) pig pickin’ only once in my life and though it was a while ago, I’m pretty sure that the mechanism they roasted the pig on was more similar to the final link than the giant grill shown in the pictures here. I’m not sure where you could find either setup in Pittsburgh, but it might be worth asking the farms your trying to get pigs from if they have or know of anything in the area that you could rent or borrow. The last thing you want to do is burn your house down.
Also, you might want to warn people (especially if you have vegetarian friends attending your soiree), that a pig pickin’ is about as close as you’re ever going to get to actually understanding that the food you’re eating is a real animal. I mean, you’re basically cooking a pig whole, head on and everything. Some people may not be ready to see / comprehend that. Either way, the final result sure is good.
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:26 am
Your comment about fire from the fat reminded me of another whole animal roasting story. Years ago my cousin’s husband decided it to cook a whole goose on a spit. He had it cooking slowly over a charcoal fire for quite a while and thought it was close to done, so he stuck a meat thermometer into it. Gooses (geese?) have a lot of subcutaneous fat, and it all melted and stayed inside until the thermometer punctured the skin, at which point there was a huge inferno. By the time he was able to get close enough to do anything, it was too late. The goose was incinerated.
May 3rd, 2007 at 10:57 am
And that’s just from an itty bitty goose… imagine what a pig could do!
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
Whole hog barbecue is popular in West Tennessee, where I lived for several years. I’ve seen it done a few times.
Cook the pig skin-side DOWN until it’s almost done; a couple hours before it’s done, turn it over; the fat soaks through and into the meat.
I’ve never seen pig cooked on a spit–just a metal grid, over wood.
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:25 pm
If you know what you’re doing, it comes out great. See my WEB Site. In my smoker, you just nearly can’t burn the pig. I used to rotissery the PIG, but any more, I just Roast it Right Side UP for 12-16 hours. It depends on the size. I have done many, many Pigs, and have never had one come bad. These are done over an all wood/charcoal fire.