# Pig Roast - anyone use this method ?



## CK25Hulk (Jun 10, 2007)

Curious if anyone has tried this method for performing a pig roast (see link). Seems farily bulletproof, and they have several pages of people using this method.

I'll be doing my first pig roast in mid-July with a pig that was born last november so she is getting to a fairly good size at this point.


http://cuban-christmas.com/pigroast.html 



Thanks,

sean


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

That's basically how everyone does it around here, but most use a cooker made from a steel drum rather than a cinder block "pit"

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=pig+cooker&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=


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## mustang_lady (Jan 13, 2009)

My family did this a few years back. We had to lower the pig pit down to 3 cinder blocks after 5 hours of cooking the pig was still cold in the middle. But it was alot of fun. We use it all the time for various animals. Done a goat, sheep,rabbits all kinds of critters. 

Enjoy Tiffany


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## Forest Breath (Oct 23, 2009)

We just roasted our very first pig while the first of June. It was small, 85 pounds before slaughter, 50 after. We had about 20 people over for the weekend. I had never roasted a whole pig, so this was an experience for us for sure. 

The slaughter house we used would not do a skin on pig. It was almost last minute, so I had to go with skin off. He left the jowl mostly attached. We ran a rod through the pig and I stuffed it with sweet potatoes, apples, onions, garlic, tons of fresh herbs and such. I injected it with apple juice and apple cider vinegar. We wrapped it in cabbage leaves and then aluminum foil. We then wrapped that in chicken wire and ran a wire around that tightly so the pig would not spin on the spit. 

The hole was about 2 2/12 foot deep, lined with cinder blocks. We had fire bricks and river rocks on the bottom. The top blocks had groves in it to hold the pole. We built the fire about 5am that morning. We got the pig on the roast about 10am. We turned it about every hour to half hour. He came off the pit at about 7pm and DELICIOUS does not give glory to the taste of that pig.


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## CK25Hulk (Jun 10, 2007)

Just wanted to give a heads up to others who may want to do a pig roast in the future. This was an easy way to roast a pig. I have never done one before, nor had anyone that came to the party done one either. Further more I don't really grill that often. The Tamworth pig weighed in live at 267 and dressed at 228. I was a bit nervous about trying to flip the pig when it came time to cook it on the other side; but it worked out. The custom 4'x5' grill I welded together just fit the hog on the expanded metal.

If I do another one which I probably will, the only thing I'd change is the size of the hog, I won't let them get that big. We had about 100 people and plenty of meat left over. Plus I started cooking it at 11pm Friday night and it was done 11am,, however we didn't eat until 3pm. Which worked out great the skin held the juices in and we were able to keep it warm on the grill. But here again, if I did a smaller pig I could have started earlier in the morning and pushed the eat time to later in the day. This way I would have got a nights rest unlike this time. I used about 5-6 bags of 16lb charcoal and a couple wet logs of hickory for smoke.. but to be honest after it was done I really didn't taste any smokey flavor - little dissapointed about that. The aroma while cooking was outstanding though.

I used an infered heat thermometer to shoot inside from underneath the grill to get the temp. I was able to keep the cooking temp between 225-250. With out one I'd be guessing. I also then used a digital probe stuck into the meat to check on temperature that way. Also pigs drip grease.. if you have a flame, well guess what, you can answer that question yourself. I kept any flame very low and kept water bottles on hand if the hickory started to take off. But I tried not to have any flame at all, more of heat and smoke. At times it was hard to balance, but in the end worked out.

Long story short if you are looking for a way to cook a whole pig this method is just about fool proof.


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## NEMarvin (Jul 11, 2010)

Those look awesome!


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## TSYORK (Mar 16, 2006)

CK25Hulk said:


> Just wanted to give a heads up to others who may want to do a pig roast in the future. This was an easy way to roast a pig. I have never done one before, nor had anyone that came to the party done one either. Further more I don't really grill that often. The Tamworth pig weighed in live at 267 and dressed at 228. I was a bit nervous about trying to flip the pig when it came time to cook it on the other side; but it worked out. The custom 4'x5' grill I welded together just fit the hog on the expanded metal.
> 
> If I do another one which I probably will, the only thing I'd change is the size of the hog, I won't let them get that big. We had about 100 people and plenty of meat left over. Plus I started cooking it at 11pm Friday night and it was done 11am,, however we didn't eat until 3pm. Which worked out great the skin held the juices in and we were able to keep it warm on the grill. But here again, if I did a smaller pig I could have started earlier in the morning and pushed the eat time to later in the day. This way I would have got a nights rest unlike this time. I used about 5-6 bags of 16lb charcoal and a couple wet logs of hickory for smoke.. but to be honest after it was done I really didn't taste any smokey flavor - little dissapointed about that. The aroma while cooking was outstanding though.
> 
> ...


You Are The Man!


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## Rogo (Jan 1, 2006)

As a porkaholic, I don't care how you cook it, just call me when it's ready! 
-LOL-

Had a fireplace built in the backyard for large critters. Had a spit made that rotated 3 times/minute. Two grills, one under the other, were under the spit. One held charcoal, one held mesquite.

The whole pig, from head to tail, was placed in a bathtub in my house and totally covered with lemon juice to marinate overnight. No condiments were used.

The spit was run through the pig. It went around and around for 24 hours. One great thing about pig, no basting is needed!

It's the most tender, juicy, delicious meat I have ever eaten!

A turkey was cooked on a propane charcoal grill.

Dinner was served around the swimming pool.

A favorite way of entertaining -- a pork and poultry pool party.

The pig provided some entertainment; as it went around on the spit, when the head was down, the tongue hung out. When the head was up, the tongue was back in its mouth.


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## Handyman (Sep 11, 2009)

I used the cuban-christmas method last summer and plan to again in a few weeks. It worked really well. I even use it to smoke some meat by simply rearranging the blocks a bit. I use old aluminum roofing as a lid and poke a thermometer through one of the nail holes. I bought a long-stemmed thermometer from walmart.com that works well for monitoring the heat. You can prop the lid up in one corner and adjust the draft to control the heat.


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## monkeybackfarm (Apr 22, 2010)

The way you cooked yours is the way we did 40 years ago. Most everyone now has a oil drum style pig cooker on wheels. Also most people around here roast their pig skin side down and never turn the pig. Some use a burn barrel with oak or hickory logs ,some use charcoal . Some use gas with oak chips in a can that sits on top of the burner for the smoke flavor...


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## FarmerRob (May 25, 2009)

Looking at the picture of you cutting off the ham makes my mouth water. Man that is some good looking pig. I can almost taste that crisp skin. Yum.


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