How to Roast a Whole Pig (Version 2.0)

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Really Cape, you are my hero. 2 of my absolute favorite things to consume. Homebrew and roast pig.
 
thx... it was great times. My SWMBO made a killer homemade bbq sauce. The weather was perfect. All around great day. I can't take credit for all of the beer. I made 7 (Dunkelweizen, IPA, Pliney clone, Saison, ESB, Wheat, and Kolsch) and then some guys in my HBC made the rest (with the exception of the Duchess and BMC). We had 15 total with the Duchess and BMC.

We had an informal, tongue-in-cheek competition and I called the entire day the "Norton International Homebrew Festival and Competition". I got a big two liter glass DAS BOOT and had all of that engraved on it along with "Top Brewer". Kevin from my HBC made a killer Imp IPA and then had the thing on an engine. He won... so I'm going to have the year and his name engrave don it and then the boot is his until next years cookout... like Lord Stanley's cup.

Pig went in about 1:30 Friday afternoon and came out around 3:30-4:00 Saturday afternoon. Crazy-easy and you can see in the vid how the meat just fell off of it.

Next year Yoop... there's always next year. Start thinking of an entry and your invite will be on its way! Actually... hold on... you're not a "Stiller" fan are you?? This is Pats country so there might be issues. :mug:
 
I mortared everything. I would be shocked if the mortar down in the firepit lasted long at all with the heat but I don't care if it all cracks... as long as the walls stay in one place and I think they will for a long time to come.

And yes, I mortared the cinderblocks as well. You want the whole thing as airtight as possible so you can control the fire/heat with the air intakes so the mortar is acting more like a "sealer" than anything on those cinderblocks. If you dry stacked the cinder blocks, and then choked down the air flow at the intakes, that sucker would jut inhale air right through the cinderblocks and you wouldn't be able to slow the fire down. That's also why you can see that I used thin strips of Nomex as a gasket around the lid.

And the cinder blocks won't get anywhere near as hot as the firepit so hopefully that mortar will last a while.

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of having this thing in the yard. My old one was awesome to have and this one is a huge improvement. Big clam bakes are a piece of cake. Obviously cooking whole pigs works... and I have some expanded steel grates that I can just lay across the top and make it into a huge wood-fired BBQ grill if I really wanted to.

... I just need to finish skinning the thing with the rest of the red brick, pop some caps on the top and I think it'll look really nice too.
 
thanks for the reply. I was thinking using Quikwall from Quikcrete . I used it on a retaining wall and worked great its a surface bonding cement that has fibers in it to bind the block together. Looks nice too just like stucco. I colored it with the dry pigment. I believe its still up after 10 years was my BIL old house.
 
No problem at all...

If I can help... just one person (tearing up).. sniffle... just one person to roast a whole pig... sniffle... then DAMN IT... it was worth it!!
 
I would LOVE to do something like this, but somehow I don't think I'd be able to convince SWMBO... (She's a vegetarian!)
 
If she's a vegetarian and doesn't eat meat, why does she eat fish. Meat is muscle, and fish have muscles, so what's the difference?

I don't know. She calls herself a pescetarian when she thinks the explanation won't take too long.

I think she still eats fish because she converted a little over a year ago and didn't want it to be too jarring.
 
Interesting. I'd never heard the term before, so I looked it up:

Pescetarianism is the practice of a diet that includes seafood and excludes mammals and birds. In addition to fish or shellfish, a pescetarian diet typically includes some or all of vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs, and dairy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary dates the origin of the term "pescetarian" to 1993 and defines it to mean: "one whose diet includes fish but no meat."[1]

The Vegetarian Society, which initiated popular use of the term vegetarian as early as 1847, does not consider pescetarianism a valid vegetarian diet.[2] The definitions of "vegetarian" in mainstream dictionaries vary.[3]

Pescetarianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Wow what weak sauce, don’t bring vegetarian lameness in to this super sweet thread.

Cape I love what you did here, I do it allot like the way you do, they are juicy and its so much easier, get the pit hot and loaded then walk away. I have done 3 pigs, two that I bought alive shot gutted and the scalded and scraped and shaved all the last bits of hair that did not come off from the scraping, and one wild trapped boar.

The whole process is a huge PITA but you can buy live pigs for .35~.50 Cents a pound and it’s something your sons nephews and buddies will never forget. assumeing you can get there help!

Cape you should look in to backyard brick ovens they are really cool to me , I am building one they are the tits for cooling turkeys briskets , bread pies pizza and on and on.
Take a look here
http://www.traditionaloven.com/ovens.html
 
I've looked into the brick ovens... would LOVE one... holding out until I can put one in my kitchen though.

Yeah, I really like the pit. It works incredibly well and yeah, it was a pain to build but it wasn't that bad and now cooking the pigs is freakin'; crazy easy. Like you said, get the pit hot, load it up and walk away. That pit will stay hot enough to slow roast the pig for a solid 36 hours if I let it go. I usually take the pig out at about 26-28 and the meat is like buttah
 
I have only ever ROASTED whole pigs in it... but I have put expanded steel across the top and used it as a huge wood-fired grill for a ferw different things (clam bakes... like 20 racks of ribs... etc)

I have come close a few times to doing a whole lamb but I've never pulled the trigger.

And make all the jokes you want Bird... MAsstoberfest if Paul's deal. The cookout I'm talking about is my annual pig roast... which is now referred to as The Norton International Homebrew Festival and Competition.

Like I was saying above, this year I dropped in a 240 lb pig and we had 21 taps flowing. It was good times. I'm kicking myself for not taking any video this year.
 
The grate wasn't too far from the fire to use as a grill? Or do you have something to support the wood higher up?
 
The grate wasn't too far from the fire to use as a grill? Or do you have something to support the wood higher up?

Not if you have a big enough fire....

You're right though. It's not really efficient as a grill at all but... hell.. I didn't build it for efficiency. I built it... basically... for pig roasts and that thing is tremendous for pig roasts. I know I talk a lot of smack over in the football thread but I'm being serious.... it's a tremendous way to cook a whole pig.

Without exception, a big chunk of people that come to the cookout say it is the best pig they've ever had.
 
A friend of mine has been talking that he wants to roast a pig, pretty much I cook it though. I wonder if I could talk him into building something like this in his yard. I have no where to do it so the next best thing is a single friends house.
 
It's not THAT hard to build and once it is built, it makes the cookout insanely easy.

THe only tip I would add to the video is to put a small screen over the two air intake pipes so little ones don't decide to drop matchbox cars and **** down there. Luckily mine haven't done that but I caught them once thinking about it.
 
Its not the work that is the problem, it is the permanent cinder block structure that is.
 
Wow! you weren't kidding about the pig roast! Well it was good to meet you at Masstoberfest. I would love to "compete" in your homebrew competition/pig roast next year!
 
So, did your kids see the headless, decapitated pig being transported in their little red wagon? No chance of *that* causing any long-term trauma.
 
Wow! you weren't kidding about the pig roast! Well it was good to meet you at Masstoberfest. I would love to "compete" in your homebrew competition/pig roast next year!

Yeah, that video is from two years ago... this past year we stepped it up another notch. pig was 240 lbs, we had 21 taps going and we added a ramp into a kiddie pool at the end of the slip and slide. Epic.

Competition is only open to South Shore Brew Club members. 18 out of the 21 beers we had on tap this year were SSBC beers. We had 2 that were sent down from Moat Mt up in North Conway and one from Allistair Hewitt (who's little Belgian beer got SMOKED by my IIIPA up at the Homebrewer's Jamboree this year!) from... I dunno who the hell Allistair affiliates himself with these days... Brew Free or Die I think up in NH... or the Worts... who knows.

But those three "non-club beers" weren't eligible to win DAS BOOT (the trophy for the competition). It's actually a really nice and heavy glass boot that I had engraved as kind of a tongue-in-cheek joke and then I have the winners from each year engraved on it. It's actually become pretty big time... guys wanna win that thing.



And yeah... you're right Bird... we kinda shield the boys (5 and 3 1/2) from the whole cutting-the-head-off-the-pig scene. They don't seem to have a problem with it when it comes outta the ground though. They get right in there.
 
I like how when it came time to lift the pig you had 10 people trying to suggest methods of making it easier (also known and throwing a kludge in your well laid plans).

Bravo though. With any luck I'll be spit roasting a slightly smaller beast in the coming months, and I'll have to remember to take video.
 
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