I am planning to do a wine dinner around a whole roast pig. Anyone have any tips on best methods for a pig roast. Does it make sense to rent a box?
Here in Michigan, you call up the pig roaster, who brings everything and does the work for you.
That’s what I recommend.
Though I do have one buddy who stayed up all night roasting a pig for his daughter’s HS graduation party. I would rather sleep the night before a party.
Have done a suckling (Pig, not James), on a fire pit rotisserie which takes much less time than full pig.
Agreed w. Mark - have someone else do it if it’s a full sized pig. Too much time involved.
That said Caja China’s are cool.
We did one a couple of years ago using a Caja China. In our area it was difficult to find a small pig, so we ended up with a 70 pounder. It was too big to fit in the box, so we had to remove the head. After watching videos & reading instructions on using the box, it still took longer than anticipated to get the meat done & the skin crisp (and you REALLY want crisp skin). I had ~40 people standing around for an extra hour waiting for me to serve, which was a bit unnerving (fortunately, there were ample beverages for everyone). If using a box, keep in mind you need a space big & safe enough to remove the top (holding the hot coals) when it comes time to turn the pig over (which is an event in its own right) & to remove it for serving. It was delicious though.
Even though it is considered cannibalism, I’ve done it.
Lots of work & time for a good size pig. Start drinking when you begin cooking & you are cooked yourself when done.
Fun if you have a few friends to help.
The only time during my Frat days that an argument resulted in fisticuffs was over the proper way to roast a pig. Well it was Indiana.
Hoosiers take their pork seriously. Very seriously.
A friend of mine growing up had a fire pit for pig roasting in his yard. His dad and a neighbor shared it and roasted a whole pick at least once per year. It was the kid’s job to watch the pig over-night. This was great for us because we could stay up all night and sneak beers from the coolers. It was a big pig and a lot of work. If you want to be that involved, time, money, etc… its a lot of fun. But, at least around here, it is pretty easy to get it hired out.
JD
We had a guy bring a gas fired box to our old house. Perhaps not authentic but the whole thing cooked in 3-4 hours.
How many people and how big of a pig? All depends on that. La Caja China is hard to beat for a 50-60 pounder. For larger pigs, I suggest looking into renting a dedicated pig roaster. They look like this; http://www.smokymtbarbecue.com/store/PR72_Pig_Roaster-pid-72-4.html#.VODnjktX_wI
Or, if you have the space in your backyard, you could build an el-cheapo cinder block pit like this; How to Build a Hog Pit from Concrete Blocks. The pig roaster or pit allows you to get a degree of smoke flavor you won’t get with the La Caja China. But don’t kid yourself, no matter which route you go with a larger pig, there is no substitute for experience. Finding an experienced BBQ’er to attend and assist with the pig roast is the best bet of all. And that kind of dovetails in with my beef (pun) with hiring one of those guys who supplies everything-you won’t learn anything and they are expensive.
Tom, I do one every year, but it’s a large one (140-175 lbs). PM me if your interested in details.
I used to buy them preroasted from a guy in Chinatown here in Chicago ($5/lb), but he just went out of business
We just buy a whole cooked and precut lechon from a Filipino butcher. LA has a big Filipino population so you could do the same. Yelp seems to like Eva’s
Headcount is still in the works, but estimating between 30 and 40 people. So a pig of what size?
We did one a couple of years ago, rented a box, got up early, and did it ourselves. 60 lb. turned out great. The prep and getting the pig on the spit is really the most work. After that, it’s just sitting around, basting every once in awhile, and regulating the temp so it doesn’t get too hot. Good excuse to sit around with some buddies, drink, and shoot the shit while the pig is roasting. But yes, it took about 8 hours or so.
We had swine from Sun Wah last night in celebration of Chinese New Year They sell by small, medium or large.
This was the medium.
Expect ~60% of the live weight, however the smaller the pig the lower the % of meat. So after that it depends if it is 30 or 40 and how hungry your guests are.
I’ve done a half dozen “Kalua pigs”, (believe or not), starting with borrowing a backhoe, digging the hole, picking up a half yard of 6 inch river rock, 4 sheets of corrugated steel roofing, a 1/4 cord of oak and mesquite wood, a dozen burlap sacks and some shovels. Start the fire about 6 pm with cocktails adding wood as needed. Rocks start going in around 8 pm along with the last of the wood. Start prepping the pig(s), stuffing them with lettuce, oranges, apples, teriaki and honey. Soak burlap sacks in water, then wrap and wire them around the pig(s). When everything is coals about 10:30 or 11 PM, through the pig(s) in, cover the pit with corrugated steel and cover with dirt. Add dirt to the leaky areas for another hour then go home. Open pit about 5 PM the next day, haul the pig(s) out and start cutting them up. You’ll know if the fire died because the pig’s not done and you have time to cut up and bake it if necessary. (Lucky so far haven’t had to do it.) In the mean time, somebody else is preparing everything else. It was a lot of fun in my 30’s.
My advice: Hire somebody who does this for a living.
Thanks for the tips. Ended up using a caja China. Came out perfectly. Bit of an ordeal, getting the pig, brinning the pig, butterflying the pig, but the result was terrific. Of course pairing with 66 bots of central coast Cali wine makes everything better.
Wine pairing for this ?
Nice recco from afar Jay. Not sure if you saw the pics of the lechon we had for Marshall’s birthday party at our house last year, but that was from Eva’s. We also had one at our 50th birthday party attended by a bunch of Berserkers. We’ve used Eva’s four times and each time it has been fantastic. They often don’t answer the phone, but will get back to you and deliver a good product. I’m half-Filipino and we know roasted pigs. Filipino lechon gets a mahogany crispy skin that many other versions don’t match.
I greatly prefer to have them deliver it whole. It adds to the festivity of the event to display and then carve it, which is easy. There’s an extra thrill to knifing in for some morsels of the delectable cheeks. It also keeps the meat moist.