10.1.5 The whole hog
[Can anybody tell me how to barbecue a whole hog?]
Rick Thead--
If you want to cook you hog on a horizontal cooker, the best way is to split the hogs
spine. Your hog should have no hair on it if it came from a decent slaughterhouse.
Scrape all red things out of the body cavity, and trim the slits where the teats
are--there is lots of fat here. On up towards the ribs is Bear's favorite piece, the
bacon, so be careful how much you trim off. Start at the shoulder and work on back to the
ham. Cut the 'brisket' out of the spare ribs area too, but keep all these trimmings for
later. Now, place the hog on its back and take a hand hatchet and start chopping along the
spine--working the ribs apart and away until the ribs will lay flat on the table.
Never pierce the skin, as it acts as a cooking pot for the pig to stew in its own
juices. Rub the body all over, especially the inside, with Italian dressing and then some
barbecue rub. Carefully create pouches under the skin of the shoulder and hams and rub
good there too.
Take the trimmed skin and place back inside the hog's cavity, to act as an insulator.
Add cut up onions, plums, apples, oranges, pineapples, whatever, inside the cavity also.
Spray with Pam or other vegetable spray, all over the outside of the hog and the grill
grate.
Place hog on hot smoker (250F at meat grate) and smoke heavily at 200F for three hours.
If your firebox is to one side, place the tail nearest the firebox. The hams are the last
to be finished, due to the thickness of the meat. Baste/mop with a liquid, whatever you
wish to use. After smoking, switch to pure charcoal and raise heat to 230F.
Now the trick
with the hog is the unevenness of the meat, the hams and shoulders take longer than the
head and ribs. So you bring out your trusty foil. Cover the mid-section and head with foil
and allow the shoulders and hams to continue cooking unwrapped. Make a 'tent' not a tight
wrap. A hog that goes on at 6 p.m. and foils at 9 p.m., should be ready to eat by 6 a.m.
However, you want to really spike the hog temperature-wise about that time to about 150F
(internal temperature) or so, to facilitate rendering the fat and then slowly allow the
fire to die down.
If using the hog for onsite judging, garnish the grill all around the hog with fruit.
Work off one side for preliminaries. If you make the finals, swap the hog around for a
fresh looking hog, that does not look like it has been picked over.
Pull the hog off, set on a table and let everyone pick away!
If you can't fit the hog on your pit, cut it into quarters, and arrange as per above.
Oh, at the 6 a.m. spot, poke holes in cavity and allow rendered juices to drip away.
Be
prepared for about a half gallon of rendered juice. Your hog will be ready by 11:00 a.m.
Assuming it is not a 200 pound hog, of course.
Patty Burke-Shelby---Tower Rock BBQ Team--
Here is how we do the Tower Rock BBQ "A Champion Hog
We start with a hog that is chosen from a small farmer here in southern Illinois and
send it to our processor. He processes it to our specification of removing the skin and
leaving on the head. We only cook fresh hogs. They are processed on Monday and we pick up
on Thursday for the competition. We feel you get a better product using fresh meat.
When
we arrive at the competition site the preparation work begins. We work on a time schedule
which takes a total of 26 hours. We start with a hog that dresses out around 120 pounds.
9:00 a.m. -- We remove the hog from the ice and trim the fat to a 1/4" thickness.
Then we remove any debris left from the processing. Next, we split the back bone open just
enough to make the hog lie flat but not so much as to lose all of its shape.
We then
sprinkle a little salt inside the body cavity, and on the outside (we use a sea salt for
this). Then we add our special magic dust (rub) which is a combination of chili powder,
red pepper, black pepper, white pepper, celery salt, garlic powder, brown sugar.
Sorry, we
keep the exact measurements a secret! After the preparation, we then secure a body rack to
the cavity of the hog and a rack top and bottom the length of the hog.
11:00 a.m. -- The hog is then named (Philip Ingram Garcia) and loaded into the cooker
belly down. The cooker was designed and built by my husband and my father.
There are two
baskets under the hog that are filled with 10 to 15 pounds of charcoal each, we only use a
pure hickory charcoal with cornstarch binder and add about 1/2 gallon bucket of apple
chips to the charcoal then we fire it with a propane torch - no lighter fluid! We bring
the temperature up to 190F. We then bring the internal temperature of the hog up to 170F
and hold there for approximately 4 hours. We use the old smoke house theory of meat will
take on smoke when its cool. Once the temperature rises above 170F, the meat starts to
cook outwards therefore no longer drawing the smoke in. After the 4 hours we start to
raise the internal temperature of the hog to 185 to 190F. We maintain a 200F setting on
the temperature of the cooker from here on out.
6:00 p.m. -- We then flip the hog to its back.
This allows for the basting sauce to lay
in the cavity of the hog. We baste every hour on the hour, up until 4:00 a.m.
During this
process we are checking that the internal temperature of the hog is OK and that the
shoulders and hams are getting tender. We keep our baskets of coals under the shoulders
and ham most of the time.
4:00 a.m. -- At this time we wrap foil around the head, and lay foil strips across the
belly to keep it from darkening too much. We maintain a temperature at 200F in the cooker
until 30 minutes before judging. Then we begin our ritual of removing the meat for the
blind box and dressing the hog for a formal meeting with the judges.
[Can somebody tell me how to do a luau pig?]
Glenn Manning--
Luau pig is a bit labor intensive, but outstanding! Round up some large male friends
and neighbors. Tell them to bring shovels. You go and buy about six cases of beer and some
ice to keep it cold. About a half a case per male friend or neighbor with shovel--no
shovel, no beer.
Prior to getting your friends and neighbors together, look around and find a source for
very old, round river rocks that have not been in or around water in a long, long,
geologic time. What you're trying to find is good cooking rocks, that won't explode when
you heat them. You'll need about 15 to 30 the size of your head, depending on the size of
the pig. You'll need some good hardwood, a big hunk of chicken wire fencing to go around
and lift the pig, a small spool of stainless steel wire, lots of burlap bags, and banana
leaves if you can find them. The leaves of "Elephant Ear" plants will also work,
as these are a form of upland Taro. You'll also need one or two pieces of sheet metal big
enough to cover the pit completely, and two pieces of plywood to go over the sheet metal.
And some heavy gloves for everyone.
Once you've got the rocks, the neighbors, the beer, the small-to-medium pig, and a big
pickup load supply of hardwood, (preferably mesquite, but any good cooking hardwood or
fruitwood will do), assemble your friends and neighbors with shovels in your backyard and
dig a hole. About 4 or 5 feet deep, and about 10 to 12 inches bigger than the pig all
around.
Drink beer about 3 times during the digging if its a hot day.
Now, at about 3 p.m.,
build a medium size fire in the bottom of the pit. When it's burning well, put in a bunch
of your rocks around the fire, then start sliding pieces of your hardwood vertically into
the bottom of the pit, all around the sides of the pit. Keep loading in wood, fairly fast,
as it burns to coals, until you have a bed of red-hot coals about 1 to 1 1/2 feet deep.
Meanwhile, some of your other friends and neighbors have cleaned up the pig, (it has
been gutted and the hair removed, right?), it is laying on layers of: 1) wet burlap, 2)
banana leaves, 3) wet burlap, 4) chicken wire, 5) pig, on its back, legs in the air.
Season the pig with about a cup of rock salt, and black pepper. Next step is to fish 3, 4,
or 5 hot rocks, (whatever will fit), out of the fire pit, and place them inside the
stomach cavity of the pig. Before putting in the rocks, punch some holes in the belly
skin, on both sides so you can wire the belly skin together over the rocks.
Working
quickly now, fish the rest of the rocks out of the fire pit. Make a shallow depression in
the coals with shovels or garden rakes, heaping some of the coals up the sides of the pit.
Wrap the chicken wire, burlap, leaves and all around the pig, wrap and hold with wire.
Leave the two edges of the chicken wire sticking up out of the burlap and leaves on top.
These will be the handles you use to lower and raise the pig into and out of the pit;
using rebar for handles.
It should now be late afternoon, early evening. Lower the pig into the bed of coals.
Place the hot rocks around and pile on top of the pig. Rake coals over the sides of the
pig. Cover the pit with the sheet metal, then put the plywood on top.
The plywood is there
to supply strength for the next step. If your sheet metal is fairly thick and heavy,
(strong), you can forget the plywood. Now shovel dirt from the hole all around the pit to
seal the edges of the sheet metal. Shovel about a half inch of dirt or more on top of the
sheet metal for insulation. Drink more beer. All but 3 or 4 of your friends can go home
now.
Get out some lawn chairs, set up a table, bring the TV out to the backyard, layout a
couple sleeping bags, and take turns making sure nothing catches fire, (like the plywood),
and not too much smoke and heat escapes.
Depending on the size of the pig, anytime from about 10 a.m.
next morning and 2 p.m.
next afternoon, have all your friends, and their families show up with their part of the
potluck. Drinks, potato salad, poi if you like that sort of thing, fish dishes, Jell-O and
dessert, (haupia cake). Carefully rake away and sweep away the dirt from the top of the
pit. Remove the plywood and sheet metal. With rakes or shovels, gently pull away the coals
and hot rocks from around the pig. With rakes, or hooks made out of rebar, about four guys
grab both sides of the chicken wire and carefully heave the pig out of the pit.
A wooden
table is best at this point, and lots 'n lots of pots, bowls, and large containers; plus a
garbage can to discard the bones. Open the chicken wire and pull it away from the pig.
It
is traditional in Hawaii that the guys who have done the hot, heavy work of cooking this
pig, gets first choice of the crackly skin and meat that clings to the chicken wire.
Using
big cooking forks and the biggest knives in your arsenal, carve and rake the meat from the
bones and put into the pots, bowls and containers. The meat should be so tender at this
point, that it nearly falls from the bone.
During the carving, someone should take all the rocks out of the pit and then spray
water into the pit to put out the fire. WARNING: Do not pour water on the hot rocks as
they will shatter and explode. The rocks need to be taken out of the pit and set aside
safely so no one gets burned on them. Save them for the next luau. Even watering the pit,
the hole will be quite hot, so a couple guys should start filling it in with the dirt they
took out yesterday.
Be very careful of the soil you do this in! Being an ex-pat Alaskan, I have first-hand
knowledge and experience with underground fires that burn for years. Many of the Pacific
Northwest and Northern areas are ancient, or contemporary but dried, peat bogs, and the
ground burns! Please check with your local fire department before digging a hole and
starting a fire.
[Can somebody tell me how to do a pig on a spit?]
Chuck Hersey--
For one or two 80 pound dressed pig carcasses, you will need a steel spit with six
holes drilled through it per pig. You'll need a blowtorch to remove any hair on the skin,
some baling wire and a wire cutter, a garden sprayer and a couple of gallons of white
vinegar for a baste mixed 50:50 with water. I like to have the equivalent of a cord and a
half of hardwood per pig. In might not require all that wood, unless a wind picks up.
I
like to have a couple of sheets of steel roofing (3' X 9'), to lie down sideways if it's
windy, or stand up tent style over the meat if it rains.
Clean out the cavity of the pig. Burn off the extra hairs, pour boiling water over the
nails until they loosen and remove them. Scrub the area under the nails, slit the eye
socket once and remove the eyeball, prop the mouth open with a chunk of wood, so that it
can be replaced later with an apple.
Drape the body cavity over the spit. Cut the end of the baling wire so that it has a
sharp point. Push the wire through the shoulder then feed it through one hole in the spit,
out through the other shoulder, and wrap around the body several times. The spit carries
the pig as it rotates. Repeat this process down to the bent legs in back.
You should have
four spit holes filled. The bent back legs are attached to the spit through the last hole
in the spit. The front legs and head are attached through the front most hole or holes in
the spit. Keep the wire tight, as it will loosen just when the pig is about ready to come
off and it's too late then to tighten it.
Burn down a few arm loads of wood to coals and put the spit at a suitable height on the
stand. Suitable means high enough that if the pig is neglected for a while, the lack of
slow turning does not result in burnt skin. Replenish the fire pit with wood to keep the
coals.
The baste of water and vinegar is only necessary for folks who come by and want to
help. Let them spray or turn the spit.
This process can take 24 - 36 hours if you are careful, and less if you are very
attentive and much less if you use the roofing metal tent like
To know if the pig is done, stab the haunch with your index finger.
If your finger
doesn't penetrate the skin it's not ready. If your finger penetrates half way across the
finger nail, it's still not ready. If you finger pierces up over the top of your nail,
it's ready.
Another way to know if it's done is to pass a long tined fork between the back leg and
the body, letting it rest there for a split second, then applying the fork tips to your
wrist. If it burns your wrist, it's ready.
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