Pig Roast

[barnrust]

I'd like to cook a whole pig at a gathering for about twenty people. I'm not sure whether to cook it in the oven or over a grill. I know the latter requires some extra planning, which I'm happy to do. What size pig do I need? Any suggestions, recipes, or advice on the preparation?

[ldkelley]

Depending on where you are and how much room you have, you might want to consider a China Box. These are very common and very popular in South Florida.
www.lacajachina.com/

There are also some recipes on the site.

--Lisa

[Analisas mom]

We roasted a big over Memorial day. Yo will need to plan about 1 lb per person. I am concerned that you will be able to do one in a regular oven.The grill will proabbly be a better idea. The pig we roasted we did in the box from florida it worked great. We frist the day before injected it with salt water then we rubbed it with our favorite barbeque spice rub. We cooked it about four hours we kept a meat themoniter in it until it reached 160. It was fantastic. I served it with sweet cream corn mashed sweet potatos water melon tomato basil mozzarella salad black-eyed pea salad and fried apricot pies.

[JungMann]

The caja china would definitely be a good investment if you want to simplify things. Otherwise a suckling (which denotes the age, not breed of pig) is probably the biggest you could do in an oven.

[foodonlygood]

I apologize if I am making poor assumptions but are your oven and grill of a conventional size? If so, suckling pig is more in order for size. A whole adult pig is a big thang.
Ossabaw pigs are quite tasty as a breed, I must admit. Not that there aren't plenty of other good ones. Also, not sure if they sell Ossabaws in small versions.
Ask some butchers where they get their whole pigs unless you are going to make a trip somewhere for one.
Sounds like a good time. Enjoy it.

http://foodonlymatters.wordpress.com/

[barnrust]

The oven and grill are conventional size. Thanks for the tip on the breed of pig...I had no idea and will ask my butcher about it.

[susan1353]

If you want to serve it Philly style, you need to have sharp provolone, greens (i.e., broccoli rabe) and rolls to accompany. Boy is that good!