Untraceable
Babbling Farker
- Joined
- May 19, 2011
- Location
- EAD
Completed our first whole hog cook this weekend. Really went back and forth on borrowing/buying/renting a hog roaster before committing to the cinder block hog cook. Not exactly stoked to have 50 or so block to store. But... After seeing the rental units, I decided that if I'm going to put the work in to do it right.
The pit
The grate- a friend of ours came across some stainless expanded scrap and fab'd a 28x60" rack
The pig- the smallest pig I could get came from a Hmong farm in the area. Interesting deal. 130lbs. They did a great job with the scald and scrap. Pig was very clean. Here it is before getting packed with ice. I had no idea how long the pig was going to be so I got a 45" kiddie pool from a store. Pig overflowed it big time. After the pic, I put 180lbs of ice on it. Only needed to hold for a day.
Now the fun part. So it's one thing to see people trim and prep a hog on tv, another thing to do it in person. Not unlike a deer carcass, but I've never butterflied a deer though either lol. Cut through the breast bone, along where the ribs attached to the spine and using force, split the rib cage open. Also made some cuts in front on the shoulder to help the pig lay out more. Incidentally, gave us good access to injecting the jowl.
Lucky enough to borrow a chops power injector to inject the pig. Worked well, especially considering the amount of volume we got in. About 2 gallons. Rubbed with Yardbird as I had a couple pounds I no longer used. I think any all purpose rub would do. No need to over think. Really didn't take a much rub. Less than a bottle worth.
Now we skipped packing the tenderloins with sausage/bacon. It was a chaotic week and I didn't have anything on hand nor did I really care. Got to crawl before you walk, and it wasn't like we where at Memphis in May or anything.
For the fuel source, we got half a truck load of oak (not seasoned) and built a burn barrel to burn down to coals. It was raining and luckily we started the fire about 4 hours before because it took us that long to get coals going. A couple times we had to fortify the barrel with some lump to keep things progressing
A deep fry thermometer drilled into the plywood worked well to let us know what the temps were. Shoveled the coals under the shoulders and hams. Took a lot of work to get the pit warmed up with the rain and wind.
At 6am (hog went on at midnight), we pulled the lid off and checked the pig. Surprisingly it looked really good. 160 in the shoulders and 142 in the hams. Right on track. At this time I tagged out to sleep and the brother took over. Rain let up and the pit ran really well in the morning after everything was finally warm. At noon, we pulled off the lid to take some temps. 210 in the shoulder and 198 in the hams. Whoops, oh well. Everyone loves tender Pork anyways. Hit the pig with a glaze a couple of times as we held the pig for 4 hours to serving.
Come serving time, I started pulling the jowl meat out and giving samples to the hovering crowd. Simply amazing eating. For the first pass through, I served people grabbing from shoulder and belly. Really nice and tender. The fat was like the softest Pork butter. Was fun to identify familiar muscles we see in Boston butts. I wasn't impressed by hams, honestly had no point of reference either. Pulled easy but lacking the fat of the shoulder. Frankly the bacon and jowls alone made it worth while. Shoulder was good as well. The overshoot didn't matter there.
Final impression. It was a lot of work but also a lot of reward. Feels like a right of passage. The jowl and bacon was stunning. Also noted that the pig was no where near over smoked. Didn't know what to expect using real coal. Next pig I'd pack the loins to protect. Would be interesting to see if a better product could be achieved there. Will definitely be cooking whole hog again. So much more interesting than just mass cooking butts to feed people.
The pit
The grate- a friend of ours came across some stainless expanded scrap and fab'd a 28x60" rack
The pig- the smallest pig I could get came from a Hmong farm in the area. Interesting deal. 130lbs. They did a great job with the scald and scrap. Pig was very clean. Here it is before getting packed with ice. I had no idea how long the pig was going to be so I got a 45" kiddie pool from a store. Pig overflowed it big time. After the pic, I put 180lbs of ice on it. Only needed to hold for a day.
Now the fun part. So it's one thing to see people trim and prep a hog on tv, another thing to do it in person. Not unlike a deer carcass, but I've never butterflied a deer though either lol. Cut through the breast bone, along where the ribs attached to the spine and using force, split the rib cage open. Also made some cuts in front on the shoulder to help the pig lay out more. Incidentally, gave us good access to injecting the jowl.
Lucky enough to borrow a chops power injector to inject the pig. Worked well, especially considering the amount of volume we got in. About 2 gallons. Rubbed with Yardbird as I had a couple pounds I no longer used. I think any all purpose rub would do. No need to over think. Really didn't take a much rub. Less than a bottle worth.
Now we skipped packing the tenderloins with sausage/bacon. It was a chaotic week and I didn't have anything on hand nor did I really care. Got to crawl before you walk, and it wasn't like we where at Memphis in May or anything.
For the fuel source, we got half a truck load of oak (not seasoned) and built a burn barrel to burn down to coals. It was raining and luckily we started the fire about 4 hours before because it took us that long to get coals going. A couple times we had to fortify the barrel with some lump to keep things progressing
A deep fry thermometer drilled into the plywood worked well to let us know what the temps were. Shoveled the coals under the shoulders and hams. Took a lot of work to get the pit warmed up with the rain and wind.
At 6am (hog went on at midnight), we pulled the lid off and checked the pig. Surprisingly it looked really good. 160 in the shoulders and 142 in the hams. Right on track. At this time I tagged out to sleep and the brother took over. Rain let up and the pit ran really well in the morning after everything was finally warm. At noon, we pulled off the lid to take some temps. 210 in the shoulder and 198 in the hams. Whoops, oh well. Everyone loves tender Pork anyways. Hit the pig with a glaze a couple of times as we held the pig for 4 hours to serving.
Come serving time, I started pulling the jowl meat out and giving samples to the hovering crowd. Simply amazing eating. For the first pass through, I served people grabbing from shoulder and belly. Really nice and tender. The fat was like the softest Pork butter. Was fun to identify familiar muscles we see in Boston butts. I wasn't impressed by hams, honestly had no point of reference either. Pulled easy but lacking the fat of the shoulder. Frankly the bacon and jowls alone made it worth while. Shoulder was good as well. The overshoot didn't matter there.
Final impression. It was a lot of work but also a lot of reward. Feels like a right of passage. The jowl and bacon was stunning. Also noted that the pig was no where near over smoked. Didn't know what to expect using real coal. Next pig I'd pack the loins to protect. Would be interesting to see if a better product could be achieved there. Will definitely be cooking whole hog again. So much more interesting than just mass cooking butts to feed people.
