We Have A plan: Pig Roast

Monday, February 10, 2014

Pig Roast

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I smoked this 220 lb (live weight) pig at an event to feed 160 people. The construction crew starts very early so they have lunch at 9:00 am. This means that my helper and I had to start cooking at 9:00 pm the night before. Get ready to stay up all night with just a catnap or two for this cook.

This is the chuck wagon box I built that sits on the tailgate of my pickup.
This is some serious tailgating.

Here is another view of the chuck wagon box
and of the back side of my home built smoker.

I havent said much about metal working on this blog
but I designed and built this smoker myself.

The fire box is a 20 inch length of 30 inch diameter pipe with
a piece of 1/2 inch steel plate welded on the top and bottom.

I use the top of it to cook with my dutch ovens
and cast iron skillets.

The cooking chamber is an old air compressor tank.
In this shot I have water heating on top of the fire box to wash dishes.

As you can see, the smoker is on a trailer
so we are cooking on site.

Here is where people miss out on the magic of BBQ pork. They make the mistake of bringing the meat temp up to 160 degrees or so and calling it done. But if you slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, bring it up to 190 degrees, something magic happens. All the collagen in the meat melts and everything relaxes and starts falling apart. Were talking pulled pork here.

After 11 hours of cooking on an all apple wood fire
at 225 degrees this baby is falling apart tender and smoky.

Notice the stainless steel tray I built to cook pigs on.
When they are done I can pull the whole tray
out and carve them right on the tray.

Have you ever tried to pull a hot falling apart pig
out of a smoker?

I had the pig skinned when it was butchered
but left the fat on it.
This not only bastes the meat throughout the entire cook but also protects the meat from any build up of carbon.