Sir Smoke A Lot
Full Fledged Farker
OK Brethren,
I have been asked (as a favor) to cook a whole hog for a party on Oct. 6 for some friends. I have never done a whole hog, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at it. I have done as much research as I can and I have a rough idea of what I am going to do, but any advice or tips from someone who has done this would be greatly appreciated. As if doing this for the first time was not daunting enough, they are going out to shoot a wild boar at a game preserve in Iowa and expect it to dress out around 200 lbs. They are renting a rotissiere hog cooker fired by charcoal for my use.
Any and all advice is appreciated, but these are my biggest concerns.
I know from my hunting background that wild game is much leaner than domestic meat, so do I need to be concerned with it drying out?
Are there any tricks to getting the skin crispy, or will that take care of itself?
I have seen people using wire mesh to hold it together as it cooks - should I plan on doing that?
I have read typical cooking time is roughly 1 hour per 10 pounds, is that what I should anticipate? What is the best temp to cook at? I was planning about 250, but I am not sure how much control I will have with the cooker. I will try to find out a little more about it and update this post.
I know that you all are going to provide me with a wealth of information and I truly appreciate all the responses! Oh - and you can rest assured I will be posting pics
I have been asked (as a favor) to cook a whole hog for a party on Oct. 6 for some friends. I have never done a whole hog, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try my hand at it. I have done as much research as I can and I have a rough idea of what I am going to do, but any advice or tips from someone who has done this would be greatly appreciated. As if doing this for the first time was not daunting enough, they are going out to shoot a wild boar at a game preserve in Iowa and expect it to dress out around 200 lbs. They are renting a rotissiere hog cooker fired by charcoal for my use.
Any and all advice is appreciated, but these are my biggest concerns.
I know from my hunting background that wild game is much leaner than domestic meat, so do I need to be concerned with it drying out?
Are there any tricks to getting the skin crispy, or will that take care of itself?
I have seen people using wire mesh to hold it together as it cooks - should I plan on doing that?
I have read typical cooking time is roughly 1 hour per 10 pounds, is that what I should anticipate? What is the best temp to cook at? I was planning about 250, but I am not sure how much control I will have with the cooker. I will try to find out a little more about it and update this post.
I know that you all are going to provide me with a wealth of information and I truly appreciate all the responses! Oh - and you can rest assured I will be posting pics
