Best Whole Hog Roasted Recipes

MATT'S LA CAJA CHINA PIG ROAST

Steps:

• 24 hours to 2 days before cooking, sprinkle the pig with the salt, concentrating most of it on the meat side - that is, a little on the skin side, more on the meat side. Store the pig in a large cooler, covered with bags of ice. (Don't open the bags - Replace bags as they melt. We swapped in a couple of big bags of grocery store ice every 24 hours.)
• The day of cooking, remove the pig from the cooler, pat it dry with paper towels as best you can, then spread the pig out on top of one of the roasting racks, skin side down. Sprinkle the meat side of the pig with the rub. Make sure the pig is spread open - we want it spread out as much as possible to cook evenly - and set the other roasting rack on top of the pig. Connect the racks with the s-hooks, sandwiching the pig between the racks. Set the drip pan in the roasting box, and then put the pig in the box, on top of the drip pan, skin side down.
• Close the box with the ash pan and charcoal grid tray. Pour an entire 16-pound bag of charcoal into 2 big piles on top of the charcoal tray. Light the charcoal - this is one time when it's OK to use lighter fluid, because the pig is protected from the flavor of the fluid in the box. When the charcoal is covered with ash, spread it out into an even layer over the entire charcoal tray, and start the cooking timer. After 1 hour of cooking spread 8 pounds of unlit charcoal over the top of the box. After 2 hours of cooking, spread another 8 pounds of unlit charcoal over the top. After another 30 minutes (2.5 hours of cooking), spread another 8 pounds of unlit charcoal over the top, and cook for 30 minutes more.
• After 3 hours of cooking, have two people wearing hand protection lift the charcoal grid tray and shake out the coals into the ash pan. Carefully set the charcoal grid on the handles of the roasting box. Lift the ash tray off of the box and dump the ashes into a fire-safe container. Lift the charcoal grid off of the handles, slide the ash tray underneath, and set them both back down on the handles for now. Flip the pig in the box so the pig is skin side up. Set the ash tray and coals back on top of the box, closing it once more. Cook the pig for 30 minutes to crisp the skin. At that point, check the pig - lift the edge of the lid of coals and peek at the skin. If the skin is browned and crispy (and maybe blackening a little at the edges), it is done. Otherwise, keep cooking, peeking every 10 minutes or so, until the skin is browned and crispy.
• Again, wearing hand protection, have 2 people remove the ash pan and coals to the handles of the box. Grab the pig and carry it to a table (we cover a table in aluminum foil and then a layer of kitchen towels). Remove the top grid and set it aside, then let the pig rest for 15 to 30 minutes. To serve, you can let your guests tear into the pig themselves (our usual approach), or start "picking the pig" and shredding the meat yourself. (Don't forget pieces of the crackling skin - they're the best part.)

SMOKED WHOLE PIG

Steps:

• Prepare your pig for smoking by cutting through the backbone, cutting the ribs away from the backbone, and removing any excess silver skin from the ribs and interior cavity. Use a sharp knife to trim away some of the skin away from the hams and shoulders.
• Preheat your smoker to 275 degrees F for indirect cooking. Use a mild hard wood like apple or hickory.
• Combine all of the injection ingredients in a large bowl. Using a syringe injector, inject the liquid into all areas of the pig.
• Place the pig on your smoker and close the lid. Smoke for 1 hour before opening the lid.
• Make the mop sauce by combining all of the ingredients. Mop the sauce on the pig once very hour until the internal temperature of the hams reach 165 degrees F.
• Use heavy duty foil the tightly wrap the pig and tuck the ends of the foil around the edges of your pig.
• Close the lid of your smoker and continue cooking until the internal temperatures of your shoulders read at least 195 degrees F and your hams are about 185 degrees F if you want some sliced/chopped pork. If you want to be able to shred your whole pig, cook until your temperatures in the shoulder read at least 200 degrees F and your hams read 195 degrees F.
• Turn off your smoker and allow your pig to rest for at least an hour (still wrapped in the foil) before slicing, pulling, and serving.

WHOLE ROAST SUCKLING PIG

Steps:

• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare the pig: Wash it, including the cavity, under cold running water, and towel-dry thoroughly, the way you would dry a small child after a bath - ears, armpits, chest cavity, face, legs, backs of knees.
• Sometimes there are imperfections remaining after the slaughtering and processing of the animal. Use dish towels or sturdy paper towels to rub away any dark spots on the ears, any little bit of remaining bristles around the mouth. Like that yellow, papery flaking skin you sometimes find on chickens, which can be peeled off to reveal tender, fresh skin underneath, a similar bit of crud can remain on pigs' chins and under their belly flaps. Clean this little cutie as if you were detailing your car! The purple U.S.D.A. stamp, however, is indelible. But not inedible.
• Bard the pig with all 20 garlic cloves, making deep incisions all over with a thin filleting knife and shoving the cloves into each pocket; include the cheeks and the neck and the rump and the thighs and the loin down the back and the front shoulders, all areas of the small creature that have enough flesh to be able to receive a clove of garlic. (Sometimes I find I have to slice the larger cloves of garlic in half to get them to slide into the incision.)
• Rub the entire pig in oil exactly as you would apply suntan oil to a sunbathing goddess of another era, when people still were ignorant of the harmful effects of the sun. Massage and rub and get the whole creature slick and glistening. I do this directly in a very large roasting pan.
• Wash and dry your hands. Take large pinches of kosher salt, and raising your arm high above the pig, rain down the salt in an even, light dusting all over. You can start with the pig on its back and get the cavity and the crotch, and then turn it over and get the back and the head and flanks. Or vice versa. But in the end, the whole animal is salted evenly and lightly, snout to tail.
• Arrange the pig in the roasting pan, spine up, rear legs tucked under, with feet pointing toward its ears and its two front legs out ahead in front. Sometimes the pig needs a sharp, sturdy, confident chiropractic crack on its arching spine, just to settle it in comfortably to the roasting pan, so it won't list to one side or topple over.
• Put the potato deep into its mouth, and place in the oven, on the bottom rack, and roast slowly for about 4 to 5 hours, depending on the size of your pig. (Plan 15 minutes of roasting time per pound of pig; if you have a 20-pounder, then you'd need about 5 hours total cooking time.) Add a little water to the roasting pan along the way if you see the juices are in danger of scorching, and loosely tent the animal with aluminum foil in vulnerable spots - ears, snout, arc of back - if you see them burning. For the last half-hour, raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees, and cook until the skin gets crisp and even blistered, checking every 10 minutes.
• Tap on it with your knuckle to hear a kind of hollow sound, letting you know the skin has inflated and separated from the interior flesh; observe splitting of the skin at knuckles - all good signs the pig is done. Or use a meat thermometer inserted deep in the neck; the pig is ready at 160 degrees. Let rest 45 minutes before serving.
• Remove the potato, and replace it with the apple. Transfer the pig to a large platter; nestle big bouquets of herbs around the pig as garnish. Save pan juices, and use for napping over the pulled meat when serving.

ROASTED STUFFED PIG

Steps:

• Salt and pepper inside and outside of the pig. Combine stuffing ingredients and fill cavity of the pig. Roast pig over charcoal and hickory wood, slowly for about 10 to 11 hours at 275 degrees. *Pig roaster available from Bob Moyer ? (215) 257-2710;

WHOLE HOG

Steps:

• Cut the top of the garlic bulbs off and tie them in cheesecloth. Place garlic bulbs, salt, olive oil, seasoning salt, black pepper, and hot salt, to taste, in the inside of the pig as well as the outside. Roast as desired. When temperature of pig reaches 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, it's done and ready to eat.

WHOLE HOG ROASTED

Steps:

• Split backbone to allow pig to lay flat, being careful not to pierce skin.
• Trim and discard any excess fat. sprinkle salt inside cavity. set pig aside.
• Place 2O lbs charcoal in pork cooker. pour 1 quart charcoal lighter fluid.
• over top, and ignite. Let burn until charcoal has turned ash-grey.
• Place heavy gauge wire, about the size of pig, over pork cooker. 13" from coals.Place pig flat, skin side up, on wire surface. Close lid of cooker; cook at 225 deg. for 6 hours, adding additional lighted coals as needed to.
• maintain temperature in cooker.
• Place a second piece of wire over pig, sandwiching pig between the 2.
• layers of wire. Turn pig over; remove wire from top. Insert meat thermometer.
• in thigh; do not touch bone.
• Baste meat with BBQ sauce; pour sauce in rib cavity t o measure 1 inch.close pork cooker lid; cook at 225 for 2 hours or until meat thermometer registers 17O deg. and no pink meat is visible when hams and shoulders are cut.
• Slice and chop meat or allow guests to pull (pick) meat from bones.
• Serve with BBQ sauce.