Our First Pig Pickin on Our Farm
(Pig Roast)
New Years Eve 2005
This was Hot Dog the day we took him to the butcher.
Terrible picture, I know.
Live weight = approx 160lbs
Hot weight = 95lbs.
7:45pm 12/30/05
This is Hot Dog (post Butcher) on the pit.
It was NOT easy getting him on there!
Keep in mind.. Our smoker is made out of a
500 gal propane tank!
He was almost too tall for it!
My hubby is the one in the green shirt,,,
aint he cute?
I seasoned him inside with
Fiesta Brand dry fajita seasoning
(the pig NOT the hubby!)
That's my seasoning for most meats!
And quickly got the temp in the pit
up to 300 degrees.
When I first decided that I wanted to do a pig pickinI went online to find our how to do it.
I found very few sites with directions to do what I had in mind.
I know how to smoke the PERFECT Beef brisket,
I know how to smoke the PERFECT pork loin, Ribs, Turkey, Chicken..
Well, you get the point...
But, I had never done a whole hog. So I decided to just jump right on in and try it with a lot of help from my hubby of course!
For the first hour or so of cooking, I like to get the temp in the pit up to
between 300 & 350 degrees, to kinda seal/sear it. .
You'll want to keep the temp of your pit around 250 degrees for the rest of the cooking process. My rule of thumb is, always keep it a little bit above the boiling temp of water for your area.. mine is 212 degrees. Thus, I like to keep my pit between 225 - 250 degrees.
After the first hour I noticed the tail and ears were browning way faster than the rest of the pig, so I wrapped them w/ aluminum foil to help slow it down. I mean.. who wants charcoal black tail & ears? not pretty! I don't think Hot Dog will appreciate it much, but my guests will. :)
Below you'll see how our first several hours went.
I am putting detailed instructions & lots of pictures here to help
others who might want to give it a try!
Time
7:45pm
8:30pm
9:00pm
9:30pm
10:00pm
10:30pm
11:00pm
11:30pm
12:00 midnight
12/31/05
12:30am
1:00am
1:40am
2:40am
3;30am
4:00am
Temperature
100 & rising
175˚
250˚
300˚
250˚
220˚
200˚
220˚
200˚
250˚
280˚
280˚
225˚
240˚
215˚
Action
Put the pig on the pit
added wood
smiled because it was Perfect temperature!
put foil on tail & ears to slow browning
nothing needed
added wood
opened firebox to let in air and get fire hotter
Stoked fire by poking & pushing around wood
added more wood
Made Coffee (it's gonna be a looong night!)
put foil on back quarter & snout (they were getting pretty brown).
Time for a little nap... set the alarm for 2:35am
put on more wood
nothing needed
added wood, hubby got up and made me go to bed while he watched the pit.
**** One thing VERY IMPORTANT to know.... ****
For Roasting and/or smoking a pig, you do NOT want it skinned!!
Call your butcher... Tell him you want to roast a pig....
I had to call 3 butchers before I found one who could do this for me... The reason being is...Most butchers skin pigs for processing... But to get him ready for a pig Pickin.. he has to be scraped... (cleaned of dead yucky outer layer of skin.. removes hair etc...) In order for the scraping to do any good at all.. you must scald the pig at a very specific temperature (I don't remember what it is that's easy to find online) any way... not all butchers have the equipment needed to be able to submerge a whole hog into water to scald/scrape.
I told the butcher I wanted him killed & cleaned/scraped.
That only cost $30!! not bad!
He came back so nice and clean.. very very white! the only things removed other than his guts was his feet.You WANT them to leave the head on....
You WANT them to leave the ears on....
more on why later...
As you can see, the first several hours, you really need to keep a close eye on your temperature. Between 10:30pm & 11:00pm the temperature outside dropped.. so you can see that this really affected the temperature of my pit. It took work and some time, but I was able to get it back up into what I considered an acceptable range.I finally (4:00am) stuck my meat thermometer into the thickest part of the shoulder. (shoulders cook slower than the Butt, so that's the best place) I STRONGLY suggest investing in one of those wonderful meat thermometers that you can just leave in the meat while it cooks, and a wire from it goes to the outside connected to a digital thermometer, this way you can check your meat without having to open your pit and lose so much heat.I have been told that each time you open your pit during cooking you will have to add 10-15min to the cooking time. I don't know if that's true or not.. I am a terrible waiter! I just HAVE to sneak a peek!Anyway... the temp was Already 130˚!!! Oh MY!!! I had NO idea he would cook this fast!! so we slowed him way down... and lowered the pit temp to 150˚-175˚.When your thermometer reads 160˚ and the meat is no longer pink & the juice runs clear the PIG is DONE!!
(In our case this was at 8:30am)
So, it took about 11hrs for our approx 100lbs of pig to finish cooking.
This is the finished pig in the smoker..
He is kinda hard to see with all the foil... but his shoulder/leg are sticking out so you can see how nice and browned he got..
also, note the wire from the thermometer.
Another Important thing to know...
Whatever you do....
Always try to avoid piercing the skin of the pig!!
This is one of the reasons that I said I like to leave the head on the pig...
The skin holds in juices...
The skin will make it so the meat won't absorb too much smoke....
And.. the skin turns very leathery (lots of people LOVE to eat it! I thought it was too tough). This Leathery skin is a BIG bonus when trying to remove 100lbs of hot pork from the Pit!!
The skin helps hold him together somewhat.
Aint he purdy???
Yes, He is in the back of a foil-lined
Pick Up Truck!
We live in the country ya know!!
See How nice and dark brown
he turned out??
(I think my camera makes him look a little burnt.. he was NOT)
And of course,
No self respecting Dinner guest-of-honor in Texas would show up to the event without his hat & sunglasses :)
All that was left to do now was Dig in!!
This is where the saying "Pulled Pork" comes from.
We cut into the Butt portion and pulled out the sweetest, most temder pork we have ever eaten!!!
It WAS wonderful!!
Not bad for our first try huh?
I hope this little adventure of ours has helped give you the courage to just JUMP on in there and try things, even when you dont know what your doing!
We did and were thrilled with the results!!
Did I leave any information out?
Do you have any questions?
Suggestions?
Let me know!!
I'll do what I can to help!
Happy cooking!!
