dwfisk
Quintessential Chatty Farker
Last Tuesday one of the doc's at the vet practice where my son is working (yea Dr. Kyle is out of vet school and an employed DVM) shot a wild hog and I was asked to cook lunch for today. It dressed out to about 60 pounds and was skinned. Due in large part to the sage advice I picked up here, the cook was a success.
First, I fabricated a rack out of some re-purposed rebar and some used $3 SS racks I picked up at our local restaurant supply so I could take the cooked hog out of the smoker and transport to the luncheon about 20 minutes away from the farm.
On with the hog, injected with apple juice, rubbed with yellow mustard and dry rub. On the cooker at 2:45 AM this morning at 250*-275*.
Spritzed with 50/50 apple juice and apple cider vinegar hourly for the last 3 hours then off the cooker at 10:30 AM, IT pushing 195*-200* and probing tender with a skewer. The bark was pretty amazing.
Removed from the pit, rack & all to foil wrap and a cooler. I sized the rack to fit my largest cooler, a 128 quart Igloo Marine, it worked great. I took the lid off the cooler, laid down foil and set the grate on the inverted top, wrapped it up good then lowered the inverted cooler over the hog to match with the top and secured with a cargo strap.
When we got to the luncheon, we removed the tie down strap and bottom of the cooler and just used the inverted top of the cooler to catch drippings as Kyle and his brother Mac did the pulling and then it was self serve. And there was a kitchen full of pot luck sides and deserts everybody brought in for the event.
Everybody had their fill and said how much they liked the wild hog pulled pork. The wild hog meat was very lean and I think the injection and spritzing really helped with the taste and keeping it from drying out. By the looks of the carcass afterword I think they might have been telling the truth.
Thanks again to all the advice and thanks for lookin.
First, I fabricated a rack out of some re-purposed rebar and some used $3 SS racks I picked up at our local restaurant supply so I could take the cooked hog out of the smoker and transport to the luncheon about 20 minutes away from the farm.
On with the hog, injected with apple juice, rubbed with yellow mustard and dry rub. On the cooker at 2:45 AM this morning at 250*-275*.
Spritzed with 50/50 apple juice and apple cider vinegar hourly for the last 3 hours then off the cooker at 10:30 AM, IT pushing 195*-200* and probing tender with a skewer. The bark was pretty amazing.
Removed from the pit, rack & all to foil wrap and a cooler. I sized the rack to fit my largest cooler, a 128 quart Igloo Marine, it worked great. I took the lid off the cooler, laid down foil and set the grate on the inverted top, wrapped it up good then lowered the inverted cooler over the hog to match with the top and secured with a cargo strap.
When we got to the luncheon, we removed the tie down strap and bottom of the cooler and just used the inverted top of the cooler to catch drippings as Kyle and his brother Mac did the pulling and then it was self serve. And there was a kitchen full of pot luck sides and deserts everybody brought in for the event.
Everybody had their fill and said how much they liked the wild hog pulled pork. The wild hog meat was very lean and I think the injection and spritzing really helped with the taste and keeping it from drying out. By the looks of the carcass afterword I think they might have been telling the truth.
Thanks again to all the advice and thanks for lookin.
