[Sca-cooks] Roasted pig

[j2rhat at comcast.net]

Hello again to all, it is I, Yeke Delger. Well, the time finally came for me to roast the pig I 
was asking you all about. Olwen's friend Ed and his wife sent me great information on 
what to stuff it with and a rub to put on it, along with exactly how they did it a few weeks 
ago.

The stuffing consisted of 5 #'s of carrots, 3 #'s of onions, 2 heads of celery, Lots and lots 
of garlic, sage, and rosemary. The rub was 2 c of garlic powder, 2c of onion powder, 1c of 
course ground pepper, 1c of paprika, 3c of kosher salt ( I know it is ironic, it was all I had 
in a large quanity), 1c of fennel ground, 1 qt of olive oil.

I stuffed and rubbed it on Tuesday night and sewed the pig closed with thin stainless 
wire.

As luck would have it, there is a burn ban on in our area, so we had no choice but to rent 
a pig roaster after all. I was some what relieved that I did not have to bribe the constab to 
turn the pig every fifteen minutes all night until My Lord and I got up for the 4am constab 
duty. So, with the pig roaster, I decided I did not have to put the pig on until 8am or so. 
Saturday morning we got everything set up and got the pig going with a generator to turn 
the spit so I didn't have to do it all day myself. The pig was started by 8:30am, this was 
fine because I allowed an hour extra if we needed it. The pig was cooking, the motor was 
turning the spit, the generator was chugging along...    About 9:30am, the generator ran 
out of gas, the pig stopped turning, the grease was dripping on the coals... before I could 
get out of the chair and take two steps towards it, the flames were flaring up under the 
pig. By the time I took the 8 or so steps to where the generator and motor for turn the spit 
was located, my beautiful pig was ablaze. In my slight panic, I started to crank the spit by 
hand, (as I said in my panic), I turned the pig very quickly, flinging the pig grease all over 
the inside of the pig roaster. We now had a proper inferno. Flames shooting out at me 
trying to turn the spit, causing me to retreat several times as another gentleman was 
shaking his 12oz water bottle on the flames trying to knock them down. On one 
abandoning of the spit I dragged our back up generator over and tried to start it. 
Forgetting to turn on the gas valve or setting the choke. Now the flames are shooting out 
and around the top of the roaster, 6 to 8 feet in the air (remember burn ban, no open 
flames, under trees, surounded by very dry grass field in which we are all camping in). I 
think you may realize my panic and fear now. So, we have 3-12oz water bottles, all have 
been thrown on our "inferno" showing no result. I, in a last ditch effort grab the fire 
extinguisher fully knowing if I use it we will not be able to eat the pig and all the work I 
have done so far would be for naught. Somebody was looking out for me though 
because I was struggling to find the pin in the extinguisher as two more gentleman 
rushed up carrying 5 gallon water jugs and got the thing under control. By then we got 
the back up generator started, and the spit was turning, the pig was black, but it looked 
like it was only a flesh wound and I thought and hoped the meat would be fine.The rest of 
the cooking was uneventful, thank goodness. At 4:30pm the pig reached an internal 
temperature of 160 degrees, we removed it, put an apple in it's mouth and had a 
presentation to the Baron and Baroness, who promptly sliced off a piece. With the Baron 
moaning in pleasure, the Baroness informed us it was to die for (good thing, I thought 
that morning one of us may die because of this pig). They offered pieces to a visiting 
Baroness and several Knights, before we took it away and carved it. I can say a whole 72 
pound pig takes an hour to carve. The pig got rave reviews, and most people found the 
"crispy" skin to be wonderful. The Baroness, thought it was such a great idea I had to 
sear the pig early and then cook it slowly the rest of the day. 

I recommend everyone try a whole pig at least once, but if you borrow someone's quiet 
generator make certain you find out exactly how much gas it has when you start. I knew 
my loud generator we used for a back up was full of gas and would run at least 4 hours. 
The one we used, because it was quiet and would not interrupt court, we had no idea 
what it had in it and the owner of it was off site getting his gas can filled.

So, thank you all again for all your help. The pig was superb and there was none left. I 
have now been named as the official Baronial pig roaster, along with my other jobs and 
titles. I think I should just be called "Sucker", I never know when to say no. Therefore, I am 
currently Chevetain of the Cooking Guild, Chronicler, on Retinue, Chirugeon, and 
Autocrat for our Founding Revel in February. Yes, I also work full time outside the house, 
in construction.

In Everyone's Service,
Yeke Delger, AoA 

P.S.
(I got my AoA, since I last wrote you all. But beinging Mongolian, there is no title for Lady)