Roasting a piglet

[Crossroads]

About 30 years ago a friend of mine taught me how he roasted pigs. He lived in an area where he had access to wild pigs and according to him, he had roasted quite a few. He even had his roaster set up on a trailer. A few years back when my daughter Sarah graduated from high school, I decided to roast a pig for her party using Neldon's process. 

First we bought 2 wiener pigs, one to keep as a breeder sow and one for the party. Poor Philip didn't know he would be the guest of honor. 

A couple days before the party, we started building the roaster. 





Dig a hole, set some blocks around a 2" pipe for draft control, cover with expanded metal. Cut the ended out of 2 55 gallon barrels. Cut a third off or one and weld it to the full one. Put 2 notched in the top lip 180° from each other and set it on the expanded metal. 





Fill in around the barrel with dirt creating a good seal with the end of the pipe exposed. 

[Crossroads]

The day before the party, we relieved Philip of his hide and hung him to cool. In the morning we started a fire in the roaster. After it was going good, an armload of oak went in, followed by 30# of briquettes. We let that burn for a while then closed off the pipe with a plate and placed a piece of 3/4" plywood on top of the barrel.





Then it was time to prep Philip. First we poked holes with a knife and stuffed onion and garlic cloves in the holes. Then we rubbed olive oil all over him and seasoned with Johnny salt, pepper and garlic powder. Philip was laid on chicken wire with one end laced to a section of pipe. (Avoid galvanized chicken wire) then the wire was wrapped around Phillip and wired to the pipe and the sides got wired tight.





Next Philip got a temp probe stuck in his bum and lowered onto the roaster. Then covered with plywood.





A 1/4" hole was drilled about 18" from the top of the barrel for a thermometer.
Now to adjust the plate on the pipe to bring the temp to 350° and maintain that.

[Crossroads]

If I remember correctly, it took about 5 hours to get Philip up to 145° internally before we could pull him out of the barrel and let him rest for a bit. 









Unfortunately, didn't end up with any of the pictures from when we carved Philip , but that table was completely covered in juice. We didn't weigh Philip, but estimated around 30# and I'll have you know, that is way to much pig for 30 people! At the end of the day Philip was delicious and I look forward to doing that again this summer when Rachel, our youngest daughter graduates. Oh, and for a side note. My mother in law said it was weird that we were calling dinner by name and that we should stop. We didn't 😝

[barbender]

 That looks delicious!!

 I've never heard of a wiener pig before, is that like a wiener dog- long and skinny?

[beenthere]

Try leaving the skin on, just scrape the hair off. You will recover a lot more meat that way. 
Was a lesson I learned years ago when the butcher refused (balked at skinning the 230 lb hog I had for putting on the spit). I'd never roasted a hog that wasn't skinned first, but on this butchers' advice gave it a shot. Quite a difference in keeping the meat together (could have done without the wire mesh), and much more meat recovered from the ribs. Delicious. 

But never have tried the actual scraping of the skin either. That may be a show stopper. As well, nowadays, finding a butcher that scalds and scrapes the hide might be a problem. 

At one of our pig roasts were 25 visitors from Japan. The food line had the roasted pork, but turned out the Japanese visitors really preferred the roasted skin over the pork. They were quite pleased as we had plenty. 

[Magicman]

We used a ~55 gallon drum filled about half full of water and tilted about 45°.  After the water started boiling one end of the hog was dunked in for a while before it was reversed and the other end was scalded.  The scraping was a simple matter and the hair came out easily.  Next came the actual butchering with each quarter and the belly (bacon) having skin.  The quarters and bacon went to the smokehouse and then to the salt box.  Some of the meat was canned.  The chittlins were hung on the clothes line and we always had scrambled eggs and brain the next morning.

[Crossroads]

That looks delicious!!

I've never heard of a wiener pig before, is that like a wiener dog- long and skinny?

Not sure if you're just giving me a hard time or if you're serious about the weener pigs? It's just a reference for piglets that have recently been weened.  
Depending how/where we get the next one it may come scalded. If it does I'll definitely give hide on a try. 
I've seen a lot of fresh brains and it alway crosses my mind about cooking some, but I haven't been able to bring myself to try it, yet 

[beenthere]

Ahh! There is a difference between "weaner" and "wiener".    ;) ;)

I thought it meant a weaned pig.

[Crossroads]

Yes, you'll have to forgive my spelling 🤓

[Magicman]

Suppose you were in Weiner, Arkansas ??  :

[beenthere]

Or the wienermobile.
https://www.oscarmayer.com/wienermobile

Or
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile: Who Drives It? | A GP Short - YouTube

[barbender]

I'm sorry Crossroads, I knew what you meant but I rarely pass up the opportunity to give someone a hard time. I blame it on the way I was raised😁

It really does look delicious though!

[KWH]

That looks delicious!!

I've never heard of a wiener pig before, is that like a wiener dog- long and skinny?

Not sure if you're just giving me a hard time or if you're serious about the weener pigs? It's just a reference for piglets that have recently been weened.  
Depending how/where we get the next one it may come scalded. If it does I'll definitely give hide on a try.
I've seen a lot of fresh brains and it alway crosses my mind about cooking some, but I haven't been able to bring myself to try it, yet

Obscure refence, WV sawmiller's older brother, mommy daddy we can't eat Howard.

[WV Sawmiller]

   A couple questions and a suggestion or two:

Did you remove the barrels to start the fire or did you pour all the wood and charcoal in from the top? I saw you had sealed around the barrels with dirt and wondered how you were going to get your fire started.

Other than copper I don't know that you can find poultry netting that is not galvanized? I had concern about that aspect.

How did you get the thermometer into Phillip? Did you suspend him along one side or just had a real long thermometer?

On the scraping, and I have never done this, I watched one series of Mountain Men where Eustice in NC scraped one and he had a bunch of sheets or towels and IIRC he put them in a pot of boiling water then took them out and draped them over the hog and let them set and loosen the hair. He'd replace cool sheets with fresh, hot ones till he finished scraping.

In Africa they used to throw the skin on a grill and burn the hair off then scrape it. I had my driver do that with a road killed squirrel he hit on a trip. He threw it in the coals and burned the hair off then scraped the stubs off with my Leatherman blade. I can't recommend that as it smelled like burned feathers and in the pork I'd taste it in the meat.

I know the old timers wanted the skin on a possum and would scrape the hair off it. As I have said before as to eating a possum "Times ain't got that bad yet."

BTW - I learned a long time it is better not to name critters you plan to eat. As a compromise we did name a couple with names like "Hamburger and T-Bone" and such so the kids understood their ultimate planned demise.

[Texas Ranger]

No keen on naming my food but had a client once that named all the 4H yearlings that his kids raised:  Hamburger. rib eye, pot roast. etc.

[DonW]

Scraping or skinning's a question of patience but scraping pays off in the end whether  grilling, butchering or curing.

 

[Crossroads]

We built the fire from the top with the barrel in place. Basically built the fire in a cardboard box with plenty of kindling and dropped it in before it burned through. After the kindling was going started dropping the rest in. 
The thermometer is remote, it has about a 2' wire on the probe that connects to the base. So, Philip was hung in the center. 

On the scrapping or skinning debate. After giving it some thought, we didn't loose any meat by roasting it skinned and the seasoning was able to penetrate the meat. The crispy meat on the outside was actually a nice treat. The way the pig is hung in the barrel, I'm not sure the wire mesh could be avoided as the meat was almost falling off the bone and I'm afraid the whole thing would end up falling in the fire. 

No worries, I had a feeling you were giving me a hard time. I've been known to ride the same boat. 

[Don P]

TLUD, top lit up draft, is a way to make charcoal, cool use of the concept. With the fire on top and burning the oxygen, as the fire moves down in the container, the fire burning the oxygen actually "protects" the charcoal above it. It doesn't burn because the fire has burned the air below it. In charcoal mode you would cap it and plug the intake when the fire gets to the bottom to keep the o2 from then burning back up through the charcoal. But you shift directly to dinner  ;D.

The hanging grill setup is a neat idea, never seen that before 8).  

[Magicman]

That is the way we do chickens.


 


 So there is no reason that you could not also cook turkeys or possums.  ;D

[Crossroads]

I've thought about doing a turkey this way, looks like it works well on the chickens. I've ate raccoons before, but the possum, I've not been able to go there. 

When I was doing quite a bit of trapping, a coworker asked me to save him a young possum so he could bake it like his grandma used to. I saved the carcass from one a couple weeks later and gave it to him. Apparently he invited his brothers over for dinner. None of them liked it, not even him lol

[barbender]

Sounds like Grandma had the touch, or maybe they were just hungrier back then😁

[Crossroads]

Sounds like Grandma had the touch, or maybe they were just hungrier back then😁

One things for sure, those boys never missed a meal there were 3 of them and they all hovered around 6'6" and 350. 

[barbender]

 Haha yeah some families are like that. For my own part I can't say much, I'm 6'5" and 300 lbs and I don't turn my nose up at much. Possum probably wouldn't work for me though🤢

A mechanic I used to work with is probably about 6'2" and 265, all muscle. He looked the part of the stereotypical NFL tight end. Farm boy, mullet hairdo, big wide shoulders and slim waist. I saw that guy knock stuff apart I dang well know I would've had to cut with a torch. Anyways, I can't remember how many brothers he said that he had, but I do remember him saying he was the runt! I'd hate to be buying groceries for that crew😂

[Magicman]

but the possum, I've not been able to go there.

Me either but I did try coon, armadillo, rattlesnake, none of which will ever be on my menu again.

[Don P]

This is rapidly turning into "Critters I've run down and et"  :D.
I outran a snail, once.