So now that is is over I can give the details. My wife and I were asked to cook for about 45 Medal of Honor recipients and their families and guests yesterday. They are in my town for a big convention and this was one of the events set up for them. It was a "Ranch Rodeo" and it had to be cooked on site. We cooked a 90 lbs hog, about 100 lbs of pork butts, 120 lbs of beef brisket and 30 lbs of salmon for 250 people. So with the help of a couple of friends and my wife we cooked for about 18 hours to get it done.
We started prepping the hog on Thursday night. We cut the legs off and cleaned out the inside of all extra fat and silverskin. We also used a torch to burn off any hair that was missed when the processor scalded and scraped. We washed it and scrubbed the skin well. We then stuffed the body with sausage and trussed it shut. We would have cooked it belly side up but it was for a presentation so we has to cook it belly side down. It went in the cooker at about midnight. We kept it on the cooker at 250 and used pecan and apple for wood. The hog took about 16 hours to cook. The brisket and pork hit the smokers at about 8:00 am. We ran the cookers at 250 until we wrapped the meat and then we bumped to 275. They took about 9 hours to finish.
We pulled the hog and let it cool a little. We then dressed it up for the presentation. This was fun as the rack was greasy so it was slick and we had to carry it about 50 feet to present it while everyone watched. We presented the hog to the President of the Medal of Honor group. I was beyond nervous. I can't remember the last time I was that nervous.
Overall I am happy with how it went. It was an amazing amount of work but we were so honored to do it. My biggest disappointment was only getting to meet a coupe of the MOH recipients as we were so busy. They really are humble and just every day people.
We started prepping the hog on Thursday night. We cut the legs off and cleaned out the inside of all extra fat and silverskin. We also used a torch to burn off any hair that was missed when the processor scalded and scraped. We washed it and scrubbed the skin well. We then stuffed the body with sausage and trussed it shut. We would have cooked it belly side up but it was for a presentation so we has to cook it belly side down. It went in the cooker at about midnight. We kept it on the cooker at 250 and used pecan and apple for wood. The hog took about 16 hours to cook. The brisket and pork hit the smokers at about 8:00 am. We ran the cookers at 250 until we wrapped the meat and then we bumped to 275. They took about 9 hours to finish.
We pulled the hog and let it cool a little. We then dressed it up for the presentation. This was fun as the rack was greasy so it was slick and we had to carry it about 50 feet to present it while everyone watched. We presented the hog to the President of the Medal of Honor group. I was beyond nervous. I can't remember the last time I was that nervous.
Overall I am happy with how it went. It was an amazing amount of work but we were so honored to do it. My biggest disappointment was only getting to meet a coupe of the MOH recipients as we were so busy. They really are humble and just every day people.