Doing a suckling pig in the ground. Advice???

martyleach

martyleach

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OK for the Nor Cal pre-bash that will be held at my house this friday evening, I have a 35 pound suckling pig that I am going to cook in my 30 inch deep Santa Maria pit. My pit is heavily insulated with fire brick so no heat/air can escape the sides

I'm thinking about stuffing the cavity with Mango, Papaya, Pears and Apples. I was also planning on putting in some coconut milk and coconut.

Then I'm going to sew the guy up.

Then I plan to wrap in Banana leaves, then burlap. Then wrap the whole thing thoroughly in bailing wire.


When I have about 12-16 inches of hot coals on the bottom of my pit, I am going to put in rocks (about 4-6 inch diameter) and let them get good and hot. Then I will put the pig on his back on top of the hot rocks after wetting the burlap.

Then I lay a steel plate on top of the pit and cover completely with sand.

I am figuring about 6 hours to cook to an IT of 170.

Comments/Help appreciated.

I will post PRON along the way.
 
I justed watch an episode of Hairy Bikers and that's basically what they did excepted they wrapped the whole thing in aluminum foil and then a sheet.They also had coals on the top of the dirt. Keep us updated.
 
Marty, it has been years (decades :shocked:) since I did an animal in a pit. But, as I recall, there was the fire (we used charcoal) then rocks, then leaves from banana, then the package of pig, then wet burlap (couple of layers) and then sand. The added burlap serves to hold the steam in. There should be wisps of steam coming from the sand, not a plume.

I am not sure about timing, as we did chunks of critter, it was a long time though. I would think even a small pig would many hours. I would think 8 hours would not be a bad allowance. It is not quite like smoking a whole hog, but, it is a lot like foiling a butt, in that the heat hitting the meat is steam heat.

I would add some coarse salt to the body cavity, Hawaiian A'lai is probably the thing to go with.
 
You know if you plant them too deep, they'll never grow. :thumb:

Sounds to me like the ancient Egyptians had it really close, they were just missing the hot coals. :becky:

Being it's but a wee oinker, I think you are pretty much right on with your plan, if it were any bigger, I would possibly look at throwing some hot rocks inside of it as well to help speed up the cook and even it out but, shouldn't be an issue with that little guy.
 
Hey Marty, make sure your ground water is below the fire. I seem to remember a very long thread where a pig came out of the ground RAW because the rain put the fire out!.

I agree, Jeanie is the expert on these type of things!
 
The bottom of Marty's pit is at grade, maybe even a little above grade. The water table where he lives is probably somewhere around 10 to 12 feet down to moisture and much more to flowing water. Although Kottinger Park, near Marty's house has a creek, I have been involved with excavations to a depth of at least 10 feet with zero flow.
 
landarc said:
The bottom of Marty's pit is at grade, maybe even a little above grade. The water table where he lives is probably somewhere around 10 to 12 feet down to moisture and much more to flowing water. Although Kottinger Park, near Marty's house has a creek, I have been involved with excavations to a depth of at least 10 feet with zero flow.
Click to expand...


Sweet Marty you got expert advise already! Nice. Dig a hole brother!
 
A suckling pig cooks fast. Not much fat to render and they start out tender. You could go to 165f internal and have great meat. Put a probe in and watch the internal temp. 3-4 hours may do it.

I did one for my neighbor and "Her" family had to have crisp skin. It took 3 hours at 350-375f.
 
One more reason I'm bummed that I didn't find out about this Bash until the last minute!!! I wish I could give some advise, but I've never done a pig in the ground.

Matt
 
Marty!

By the look of it, you do not need to ask for help.

You need to show us the way!:pray:

Cheers!

Bill
 
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