Following a long tradition of pig roasts done by my dad and his friend Wally, we decided to try roasting a whole pig for a backyard barbecue. Of course, Dad helped a lot, and Wally let us borrow his pig roaster. At one time, it was a tank for heating oil. But with a few modifications, Wally turned it into a top-of-the-line pig roaster.The first step, of course, is getting the roaster home. It's heavy duty. Which means it's also just plain HEAVY! Easy to load and unload with Wally's tractor. But a bit harder with a hand truck and a piece of plywood. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained.
Guess what's in the box, kids? And why is Papa greasing up that pole?
Yes, that's the pig. And the pole is for... well, you get the idea. If you were a big fan of Babe, this might not be the activity for you.
Once skewered...er...secured, it was time for the stuffing. Following a new recipe we saw on the internet, we decided to stuff her (yes, it was a her) with chickens in additon to the standard medley of garden vegetables, including carrots, onions, celery, garlic, and even some apple. The stuffing went in just after a thorough rubbing with a one-of-a-kind pig rub. One of a kind because I made up the recipe and forgot to write it down.
Then we stitched it closed with wire, and wrapped it all securely so there would be no flopping around during the roasting.
Once everything was all seasoned and secured, we put her to bed for the night.
Next morning, we go up early to get the fires started. It was a bit rainy and cool, and with the fire it remined us of our last several camping trips. So, we decided to roast some marshmallows. The breakfast of champions.
Then it was time to get to cooking. We started with a couple big bags of charcoal, and once they were going good, we put the pig on. The spit is turned by a standard BBQ rotisserie motor, the kind you find at Sears for $40, or at a garage sale for $2.00. Just in case, we had 4 on hand. The motor is hooked up to a custom made gear set, consisting of the starter gear from a Mustang and a slightly modified ring gear from a Trans Am, if I recall correctly. Cooking with muscle car parts. Gotta love it. We also used a counterweight with an adjustable length arm to balance the load and prevent the motor from being stressed. Just move the weight farther up the arm (i.e. away from the axis of rotation) until the load is balanced.
After about an hour, the skin started to bronze nicely, though it would take about 7 hours to cook all the way through. We decided to name her Paris, because of her weight (74 lbs), the bronze skin, and, of course, the fact that she was HOT!
Finally, Paris was done, and it was time to take her off the fire and get to operating. Though we had at least two doctors and one PA attending, the surgery was left largely to my nephews. And they did an excellent job. Nicholas went above and beyond the call of duty, manging to extract even
the brain. Sadly, no one would eat it. Mad pig disease and all that. Probably a good thing.If you've never had meat from a whole roasted pig, you should. I could try to tell you how good it is, but anything I would say would fall short. So lets just say it's tasty, and you should try it. The chickens were tasty too.
And of course, Finn loved that spot in the grass beneath where we carved.
