First time Pig Roast

A buddy of mine and I are going to be roasting a 70-80 lb pig this weekend. It's not the first time either of us have been to a pig roast, but it will be the first time the two of us roast one ourselves. Any tips, tricks or warnings are welcome.

How are you doing it?

I have a Caja China box and roast pigs using that method twice a year. I recommend a good overnight brining. My friend is an executive chef and he does our brine at his restaurant overnight the night before. The meat is so tender and juicy you'll fall in love.

On a spit over a wood fire.

I've been looking at brine recipes and would like to brine it overnight.

Nice. We did a spit before the box. I actually liked the taste a little better, but it takes too long for me. One big benefit is you can baste it as it cooks when it's on a spit.

I don't know our exact brine recipe, but I believe he uses a fairly standard mix. He keeps it around 45f when it's brining.

Almost forgot about basting. Any tips on what to baste with?

+1 on the the brine. I typically use about 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt per gallon of water. If you want to add a bit of depth to your brine you can always add a bit of sugar (sugar, molasses, maple syrup...you get the idea) to it as well.
As far as basting or a mop sauce... I get raves using red wine vinegar, soy sauce and a bit of water mixed together as a mop sauce. Just remember... low and slow and have plenty of cold ones on hand... you guys are gonna have a blast.

Madtown1 said:

+1 on the the brine. I typically use about 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt per gallon of water. If you want to add a bit of depth to your brine you can always add a bit of sugar (sugar, molasses, maple syrup...you get the idea) to it as well.
As far as basting or a mop sauce... I get raves using red wine vinegar, soy sauce and a bit of water mixed together as a mop sauce. Just remember... low and slow and have plenty of cold ones on hand... you guys are gonna have a blast.

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I'm stoked to roast this pig. Everything is going as planned and looking good

That mop sauce sounds tasty. This is what I came up with for recipes.

Brine:
1 c salt per gallon
1/2 cup Brown Sugar per gallon
Black pepper

Dry seasoning for any exposed meat:
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Black Pepper
Maybe a little Cayenne and some herbs as well

Baste:
1 qt Apple Juice
1 qt Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 c Garlic powder
1/2 c Onion powder

Glaze
Honey w/ a little Apple Juice or Apple Cider Vinegar or both

Looks good. I'm doing a hog roast myself Sat. I just do the whole thing in a smoker racer style. Also, doing a 10lbs brisket as well. Good luck and have a blast hog roasts are fun.

TMet said:

Looks good. I'm doing a hog roast myself Sat. I just do the whole thing in a smoker racer style. Also, doing a 10lbs brisket as well. Good luck and have a blast hog roasts are fun.

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Cool, I hope everything goes well with your roast, too. Brisket sounds delicious. I'll have to keep that in mind for next time.

Thank you and Good luck!

BTW I like the Hand Banana avatar

Airborneguy said:

Nice. We did a spit before the box. I actually liked the taste a little better, but it takes too long for me. One big benefit is you can baste it as it cooks when it's on a spit.

I don't know our exact brine recipe, but I believe he uses a fairly standard mix. He keeps it around 45f when it's brining.

Click to expand...

Madtown1 said:

+1 on the the brine. I typically use about 1 1/2 cups of kosher salt per gallon of water. If you want to add a bit of depth to your brine you can always add a bit of sugar (sugar, molasses, maple syrup...you get the idea) to it as well.
As far as basting or a mop sauce... I get raves using red wine vinegar, soy sauce and a bit of water mixed together as a mop sauce. Just remember... low and slow and have plenty of cold ones on hand... you guys are gonna have a blast.

Click to expand...

I don't know anyone who brines a whole pig. I have brined butt and picnic when they don't have as much fat as I would like, but I have never seen or heard of anyone brining a whole pig. The best and only way to get moisture and flavor into the pig is via injecting. I learned to cook a whole hog from a pro. I took a class because it is real easy to screw up while preparing and cooking whole hog especially for competition. Have a look at this video from the Carolina Pit Masters.

After doing it both ways, I'm definitely partial to brining. The meat comes out unbelievably tender and juicy. I don't see how it's not being flavored this way. We just held our roast two weeks ago. The pig was 63lbs and after brining weighed just short of 70.

Are you going to be at the Hudsn Valley Ribfest in August, btw? My cousin and I are definitely going, can't wait!

Airborneguy said:

After doing it both ways, I'm definitely partial to brining. The meat comes out unbelievably tender and juicy. I don't see how it's not being flavored this way. We just held our roast two weeks ago. The pig was 63lbs and after brining weighed just short of 70.

Are you going to be at the Hudsn Valley Ribfest in August, btw? My cousin and I are definitely going, can't wait!

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How do you rinse the brine off the hog when you are done brining? A 70 lbs hog is not easy to handle and wash off especially in competition and by contest rules you can not brine before time. Wouldn't injecting be easier so you could put flavor and moisture where you want it. Ultimately you want to get the phospates back into the Hog that were lost when it was slaugtered. The phospates cause the hog to hold onto moisture better that brining I would think. Ames FAB P or Amesphos is designed to do just that. (Ames FAB Products)

I won't be at Hudson Valley because of a business trip. I will be leaving that Sunday morning. We will however be at the Battle of the BBQ Brethren on August 6th to 7th out here in Manorville (LIE Exit 70). We will be bare bones as my teammate and brother has a catering job That weekend and will be using our Lang stick burner. We will be cooking on some WSM's to show some of our neighbors how inexpensively you can get into BBQ and smoking meat. We took Reserve Grand Champion the first year of this contest when it was held in Sayville.

(I took the picture so I am not in it, but I had the $1800 RGC check in my hand)

The roast went pretty well. We had a few issues that caused a late start, but the cooking went well. The pig ended up being really juicy and tasted good.

I liked the Brine and would do it again. I went light on the salt in the brine since I didn't want to over salt. Next time I would brine with the full amount of salt.

The basting worked well although I didn't care for the baste that was used. I would baste again, but with a different baste.

Thanks for the help! Here are some pics

more pics!!!

Wow that looks awesome!

The best part is manning the coals during the 3am shift!

Airborneguy said:

Wow that looks awesome!

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Thank you!

I was surprised at how nice it looked. The Baste and the glaze really helped with the appearance.

sfrisby said:

The best part is manning the coals during the 3am shift!

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I wish we could have started that early. Due to complications we didn't get the pig on the fire till around 8 am.

The pig in the pic looks really tasty. Is the cover in the pic made out of regular plywood?

I have been working in the medium of hog for a number of years and have a couple of threads on the topic.

+100 on brining. It's all win.

This was a few years ago when I first built a primative version of my pit:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/how-roast-whole-pig-74299/

This was two years ago... much improved pit:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/how-roast-whole-pig-version-2-0-a-130032/

Last year we roasted a 240 lb pig and had 21 taps.

This was this past winter... my first real venture into Frankenstiening hog:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f56/pigcowturduckenguica-215275/


I'll have a new one in about a month (my big cookout is in a couple of weeks). This year will be my 11th year and of course I have to one-up previous years. I am creating a 250 lb version of the pigcowturduckenguica. A friend has a huge insulated tank he is letting me borrow so I can brine the pig for about five days. I'll then do everything like I did on the little 57 lb pgcowtur...blah blah blah.... and drop it in the pit for about 28-29 hours.

Clone- just plywood. Indirect coals never got above 200 so no fear of flames.

Cape- oh dear lord. Where to begin? Where do you live and how do I become you're neighbor?

You don't wanna be my neighbor, trust me... Any pig benefits are immediately outweighed by my horribly abrasive personality.

Like I was saying though... Brining = win

And... If you're looking for fantastic meat and no staying up all night... The way I hve my pit set up is really nice. Its a fair amount of work putting the pit in but once its in... It's really nice.

I'd love to do a pit like that once I move into a bigger house. Definitely nowhere to do that now. My dream is a bbq pit, a brick grill and pizza over, and a fireplace in the backyard.

use pig roasting box which are easily available in market.i am sure u will enjoy more and less work to do.

You may use appetizer like pineapple juice for better tastes.

+100 on the brining here also. I do my pig roast (cochon de lait--cajun for suckling pig) Cuban style. I still season and inject the pig with tons of cajun goodness and coonass love instead of the traditional cuban mojo marinade. The whole cooking process is the same. Great bonding time with the guys and lots of homebrew to be drank. Here is a link to the website for the 3 guys from Miami on how the whole above ground fire box/pit is set up. Nothing like having a good smoked flavor and a nice cracklin skin all over the pig.
http://cuban-christmas.com/pigroast.html

Thats a great pit design. Did you use standard block or fire rated? Of all the pits I have looked at online yours looks to be the set up I want to build.

What would you do different if any?

Behemoth said:

Thats a great pit design. Did you use standard block or fire rated? Of all the pits I have looked at online yours looks to be the set up I want to build.

What would you do different if any?

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regular cinder blocks from home depot. about $1.30 per block. I do one big roast a year during LSU football season and I have the same blocks for over 5 years.