SC - OT- How do you cook a pig?

[Acanthus Books]

Last November my husband cooked a pig in a big oil drum smoker. He started 
it about 5 in the morning and it took all day. He didn't use a spit but the 
pig was small enough that two people could flip it. In my youth I attended 
parties where the featured attraction was a gargantuan pig roasted in a 
pit. I don't remember a spit ever being used, instead the pig was wrapped 
in chicken wire so it could be flipped using poles. Basted with a 
vinegar-based mop containing lots of red pepper flakes.

This month's Saveur magazine contains an article about a fellow who does 
pig roasts. He uses a homemade smoker fashioned from an oil drum, and a 
spit that runs on a garage door opener motor.

Searching online for "pig roast" will turn up a couple of websites with 
instructions and photos.

Amanda
Acanthus Books
http://www.acanthus-books.com

>Siegfried Heydrich wrote:
>
> > Slow, steady heat, baste regularly, and put a tent over the top of the pig
> > to help retain a bubble of hot air. Get an electric rotisserie and save
> > yourself an awesome amount of aggravation. Make sure that you either use
> > charcoal (and lots of it) or have your logs going past the 'flameup' stage
> > when you add them to the bed; if the logs are flaming, you just scorch the
> > meat. Have a garden hose standing by for flareups and accidents. If you're
> > up north, use anthracite coal for less cleanup problems. And make sure you
> > have a couple of large, burley helpers to help move it around.
> >     Figure for a full grown pig at least 12-18 hours cooking time, maybe
> > more, depending on size - for big pigs, I actually prefer doing them in
> > pits. I've done pigs stuffed with kraut & sausages, forcemeat stuffing,
> > fruit & bread stuffing, pretty much whatever you want. The baste depends on
> > what you want the flavor to be, but you want a fair amount of oil in it to
> > keep the skin from charring and assist in heat transference. Make sure you
> > cover the ears, snout, tail, and hooves with foil so they don't burn. If
> > you're going to put something in its mouth when serving, use a wedge to 
> hold
> > it open. If you're going to stuff the pig AFTER it's cooked (i.e., fresh
> > fruit), make sure you keep the cavity open and well oiled.
> >     Be aware that cooking it is only the beginning - cutting and carving is
> > a royal pain. Let the pig rest for at least a half hour (more if you can)
> > after removing it from the fire before beginning to carve. If it's going to
> > be one of those buffet situations, put 2 carvers (1 on each side) or it'll
> > be a hell of a bottleneck.
> >
> >     Sieggy
> >
> > > Greetings all,
> > >
> > > I have some friends who are planning on spit roasting a whole pig for 4th
> > of
> > > July. The has been or will be professionally butchered. But aside from
> > > running a spit through it and turning it throughout the day, what should
> > > they know?  How long do they need to cook it?  How would you season 
> it and
> > > what would you baste it with?
> > >
> > > Thanks for your assistance,
> > > Ysabeau of Prague
> > >
> > >
> > 
> ============================================================================
> > >
> > > To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> > > Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
> > >
> > >
> > 
> ============================================================================
> > >
> >
> > 
> ============================================================================
> >
> > To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> > Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
> >
> > 
> ============================================================================
>
>============================================================================
>
>To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
>Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
>============================================================================