294300 Fri Oct 03 10:21:45 -0700 2003 4 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1613657 We're having a Luau next weekend. The pig has been ordered, and the spit reserved, but I've yet to find a GREAT recipe for roasting a pig over charcoal or wood. There's plenty of information on where to find a spit, and generally how to go about the whole process, but what I need is advice from an experienced pig roasting ChowHound as to how to get the most out of my swine start to finish. Is there anyone out there that can help? Fri Oct 03 10:21:45 -0700 2003 0 BaconHound 1 1613674 Hi. I just did one on Labor Day, as is becoming custom for my family. I see you are doing a "luau," although you will be roasting the pig on a spit, and not in a burlap/banana leaf covered pit, right? There are a lot of variables you should consider. How big is your hog? Is your smoker covered? Does it have an offset box? Is the spit mechanized? (If not, you're going to need a lot of help and a lot of booze.) How are you going to keep the pig on the spit? When he's near done, you don't want the good parts falling off. The Lexington Connection site has a wealth of good info, but a few basic tips from my experience roasting 100-130 lb. hogs on a motorized spit in a covered smoker. Pick out some good, preferably green wood and plenty of it. I try to use a combination of oak, apple and other fruit woods if available. I think hickory is too strong a flavor for a long smoke, but to each his own. To keep the heat active and even, you'll probably want a rolling supply of hot coals, to be added a little at a time over the course of the day. Sweet Willie over on the Chicago board (and from NC) burns down wood to make the coals. I have had success with high-quality, natural charcoal. Here in Chicago, Mexican mesquite charcoal is plentiful and cheap. But first things first: you probably want to make sure the pig is very well secured to the spit, e.g., by drilling some holes through the carcass, involving the hams and shoulders, and securing the pig to the spit with large U-bolts. You then want to wrap the pig in a fairly heavy wire, maybe spaced at 6 inches or so, or wrap him in chicken wire. If you have a closed cooker and a mechanized spit, weather depending, you can finish a 100 lb. hog in 12 hours, maybe less, never getting the temp. above 275 and get a very good result. If the box is open, or if you use a different method (splaying the hog and cooking on an open ground pit, eg) it will take much, much longer to get a good result. On the morning of your luau, get your cooker ready, put it out of the way (people will come to you) and have your wood, charcoal and a garden hose handy. The pig must not be frozen anywhere. Have a meat thermometer in the pig, at the deep part of a ham or shoulder, and a grill thermometer in your cooker. Have some coals white-hot. Have a seperate charcoal grill where you are keeping a steady supply of hot coals to add as you go. Start the pig's slow dance toward the luau and thrown in some coals and wood -- preferably well toward the ends of the bottom of the smoker (you want the most heat under the thick parts, and little on the ribs/loin. If it's an offset box, this obviously doesn't apply. From here, its much more art than science. Add coals for quick heat and wood for smoke and steady heat. If the temp dips to 225 or less, add coals and/or use an old hair dryer to stoke the fire. If it gets too hot, say over 275, lift the lid. Or, less drastic, spray down the lid. If your pig catches on fire (hope this doesn't happen), spray him down. Do what you can to resist lifting the cover when the conditions are correct and steady. "If you're looking, it ain't cooking," they say. His head might start looking too dark compared to the rest of the carcass. Cover it with foil. Do not let the spit stop turning: this is vital to keep the cooking even and to prevent burning and a fire. Also, make sure that the cooking thermometer is very near the pig, and not in some irrelevant place much closer to or distant from the flame. This can make a big difference IME. Regarding preparation and basting of the pig, some like to do nothing, and it still tastes darn good with a little salt. My favorite NC place uses a simple baste of cider vinegar, crushed red peppers and some liquified butter. My extended family is Cuban, so I make a mojo. I used a 1:1:1 combo of fresh-squeezed if possible bitter (Seville/Sevilla/naranja argria) orange juice, lime juice, and white vinegar, a little wine, seasoned with anato seeds, S&P (lots and lots of black pepper), oregano, bay leaf, cumin and about a quart of garlic chopped in a food processor. Finish with maybe a cup or two of olive oil. Use enough juice/vinegar to get 2-3 gallons. Make this at least 2 days ahead. The night before, I use a filet knife to create large pockets under the pig's skin and fat, and fill with mojo and garlic, making some cuts here and there into the meat, but *under the skin*. Give the guy a full-length rub down also. To do any of this, you obviously need to have the pig a ahead of time and a place to put it in cold storage, but without freezing it. (Here in Chicago, it's getting cold enough to leave it in a garage overnight.) This also will make placing the pig on the spit a much more slippery job. Get strong help. Use the same stuff to baste the pig, using a new, cheap and well-cleaned mop. Not a BBQ mop, a floor mop, the old-fashioned kind. And a new, cleaned plastic bucket. Swab the pig down whenever you have occasion to lift the lid. At the end, you can bring some of the mojo, which now will have much smoke and fat, to a hard boil on your stove and serve along side. When the pig is up to temperature, you can ensure a very crisp chicharon by getting the heat up maybe above 300, wetting him down, liberally salting the skin, and closing the lid for a few min. Take the pig off, and let him rest on the serving table for 10-15 min. Have wire cutters, wrenches, etc. ready to remove the hardware, along with knives, kitchen scissors (for the chicharon), tongs (to pull meat), etc. Start with the loins and the shoulders, one at time, leaving the larger parts to stay hot and keep cooking. You'll be hard pressed to keep people from mobbing the pig, but resist. You can have a team of helpers cut, pull, chop etc. and serve however you please. Personally, I like to do the NC thing, and take a little of everything, white, dark, heavily smoked meat from the surface, soft, cotton-candy-like steamed meat deeper in, and cut-up chicharon, thrown them on a large block or cutting board, and hack it all up with cleavers, incorporating everything. Mix in a large pan with hot mojo/drippings as you go. A few residual items: the ribs may become desiccated, and they are hard to remove anyway. As I like the ribs best, I throw 3-4 racks, prepared like the pig, under the pig's belly (away from the heat) on a metal rack about 3 hours before the pig is done. Some people like to stuff the pig with, eg, sausage or rice. This is a waste of good sausage or rice. It reduces cooking time, and no one wants to eat the mush that results. Throw some citrus rinds or an onion in there if you must. Have fun, and sorry about the stream of consciousness writing -- I did this in about 15 min. Fri Oct 03 11:56:55 -0700 2003 1613657 0 JeffB 2 1613682 Jeff, you are among the finest human beings that I've ever encountered (I know it's a snap judgement, but I don't care). Thank you so much for all that info, it's going to be incredibly helpful. My pig is only 50 Lbs (a dwarf compared to yours), but I'm planning on doing a brisket as well (I know it doesn't fit the Luau theme, but if I'm cooking for 8 hours anyhow, why not). As of now, my smoker is not covered, but I'm thinking that I want to look into getting one. Luckily, the spit is mechanized, so that part should be easier, and I'm getting the pig with plenty of time until he needs to be cooked. Apparently I have a lot of prep to do between now and next Sunday. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Thanks again for taking the time to write all of that out. Fri Oct 03 12:52:49 -0700 2003 1613674 0 BaconHound 3 1613698 Ditto, JeffB! I'm not even planning to roast a pig and I really appreciate the time to write out this info. See, now I know that one day, if I want to roast a pig, all I have to do is search for your post. :-) Fri Oct 03 14:39:44 -0700 2003 1613682 0 Chris VR 1 1613706 I just did a 50# pig two weeks ago, but we did the "Pig Roasting for Dummies" version. We just wired the thing to a spit and laid the spit on top of a stack of cinderblocks and gave it a half turn every 20 minutes or so (or whenever someone was passing by on their way to the keg). The pig was around 3 feet over the coals. We went through 80# of high quality charcoal (not the weird pressed briquettes) in 8 hours and the pig was fantastic. We didn't do anything to it but salt it now and then, and pour a beer over it once in a while. Yum! Fri Oct 03 15:43:08 -0700 2003 1613657 0 chococat