Hey anyone out there have experience they would like to share with a novice toying with the idea of having a pig roast? I'm thinking about building a pit out of cement blocks and putting a grate over the top to cook on. If I get a 120 pound hawg I'm thinking it should take about 10 to 12 hours. I'll probably have to make a cover of some sort to throw over the top of it. My best guess is that I'll need about 100 pounds of charcoal and several gallons of bbq sauce.... oh ya and at least on keg.
sounds right to anyone?

 

I've only been to one pig roast, my best friends wedding reception. Was a casual affair. Anyway, some one had a pig roaster (old 55 gallon drum) that was setup with a rotisserie. You're pit design sounds like it would work ok, but try to fashion a hand crank rotisserie for easier turning. Or cut the pig so that it will open up spread eagle on the grill and place back side up. The fat will help baste down through the meat as it cooks.

IIRC, it only took about 10 for his similar sized pig to cook. Was on at 6:30am and easily ready by 5:00pm.

Get a good digital thermometer to help monitor the temp. You want to stay in the 200-250 degF range. Any higher and you'll cook it too quick.

Hope this helps.

Bob

 

My friends roasted a pig in their backyard two years ago. We looked up stuff on the web on how to do it. At that time, there were several guys on the web who were into their pig roasting and had a great sites with lots of information. These guys had yearly pig roasts with the size of the pig and the time it took to cook.

My friends purchased the pig locally and covered it with banana leaves. They roasted it in a big hole they dug in the backyard. That roasted pig was some of the juiciest meat I ever had. It was delicious. I will see if I can find those websites and get you the links if you haven't already found them.

 

I think these are some of the sites:

http://origins.colorado.edu/~kachun/pigroast.html

http://www.3men.com/big_cooking.htm

http://web.mit.edu/sgromoll/www/roast/cooking.html

I hope these help.

 

I've roasted pigs a number of times. Usually those Chevys thought they were fast, but my Fairlane could handle them!
I've also roasted the four-legged kind a number of times. If you do the pit & grill thing, remember that you will have to be able to turn it every-so-often. And when it starts to get done, it begins to fall apart. Thats when its difficult to deal with. The way I've had the most luck is as follows; weld-up or make a spit out of steel pipe so that it looks like this...

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Put a jackstand at each end to allow you to raise and lower it. As you rotate it, the detail on the right locks into the jackstand to hold the desired pig angle. This really works best with a welded assembly. I would then cut a 55gal drum in half, and put bricks on the bottom to hold the heat. Wire the pig to the spit and wrap it with chicken wire. This will help hold it together as it gets done. Cover a picnic table with news paper to cut it on.
What part of Ohio are you in? I'm south of East Fork State Park. South East of Cincinnati. I have the spit. If you want to borrow it, let me know.
Good luck
The drawing didn't turn out when I sent it. Try hitting EDIT and see what it looks like.

 

First off, I don't think 100 lbs of charcoal is even enough to cook that hog half way. All the times we've done it on a spit, we've used a truckload of wood and we usually start the roasting first thing in the morning.

First time we did it, we mounted an old truck steering wheel on the end of the spit and took turns turning it. We filled up a 55 gallon barrel with empty beer cans by the time it was cooked. We now have a gear drive variable speed motor that takes care of the turning.

I suppose you can do it the way you want. As another posted, you'll have to butterfly the hog so it sits flat. Don't put any sauce that has sugar in it until near the end. The sugar will turn that hog into a black hunk of meat if you sauce it too early. On the spit, we use a fairly dry sauce on the inside only. A dry rub left overnight would work well too.

The only thing I'd put on the skin is salt and pepper. You may want to ***** the skin all over to let out the fat while it's cooking. If done right, the skin will turn into crackling, so long as you don't sauce it.

You'll need to pay close attention to the heat and watch for flareups. The main thing to remember is to cook it slow.

 

I was just at a pig roast tonight and had the best pork in a long time and I wondered how they did it. It was at a retirement party at the local hunting lodge where I use to work. They had exactly as you described on the pit design. It was a large cememnt block pit with a steel grating, I think they used wood to cook on. They did have it butterflyed and served the sauce on the side. It served 40-60 people and they had plenty (4-5) trays of meat left over.

 

Im a professional CHef, trained at the CUlinary Institute of America. Ive much experience in pig roasts and calf roasts as I do one every year at the 4th of july. if youd like some tips email me at rswofford@earthlink.net.

 

Cochon de Lait. mmmmmmmmmmm


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