Whole Pig Roasting

[WiscoKid]

Just curious, is there such a thing as too large of a pig to roast?

[littleben]

Use a young market hog and not a sow or boar, max weight will be 250 to 260, that's normal for a slaughter weight for hogs. Anything smaller is fine too. I've cooked 8 whole hogs and it always come out the same, live weight times 60 percent for hanging weight. And one pound of hanging weight per person. I know that sounds like a lot, but there is a lot of bone and fat loss to a whole hog.

[speers90]

^^^^^^^^^ littleben nailed it, of course don't go bigger than your cooker can handle!

[gtr]

I can only fit a 70#er in my cooker, so it's not a matter of the hog being too big, it's that the cooker's too small!

[cowgirl]

My favorites are 125lb and under. Bigger than 200 still taste great but are a hassle to move around and mess with.
I cook bigger ones in the underground or cinderblock pit so I can adjust the pit size if needed.

[SCRedneckBBQ]

100# and under for us but we can fit two 100#ers on our pit

[jeffreywp1]

I may need to do a whole pig in the near future. My lower grate is 59 inches long by 30 deep. How large of a butterflied pig can I fit on there vs cooking racer style. What are the advantages of racer style over the faster cooking butterflied.

[va_connoisseur]

I may need to do a whole pig in the near future. My lower grate is 59 inches long by 30 deep. How large of a butterflied pig can I fit on there vs cooking racer style. What are the advantages of racer style over the faster cooking butterflied.


On that size grate you should have no problem with a 125-150 pounder. I prefer racer style simply for the ease of pulling and crowd presentation.

I have done them both racer style and on the back and could not tell a difference in taste, time to finish or tenderness.