Who here has done one before I getting a spit and a grill box to do one. My wife misses the traditional hog roast she grew up with. I was wondering about time for roasting how long. Yea I know it may depend on how hot the fire is. I have only smoked hog quarters before. Yea I know I will be up early.
I also would like to know if anyone scrapes the hair of hogs. I have one penned and she growing fast. I thinking of trying to scrap her down instead of skinning. I read about how but any info first hand is appreciated. By the way buying a domestic 100 lb hog for Christmas to grill
You'll want the skin on for the best results. I've done 'em both ways and the skin off was not as good by a long shot.
You don't have to have a spit. Just flip it halfway through. For a 90-100lb hog we do about 5-6 hours skin up (meat down) then flip for the second half and start basting liberally with our sauce. We use a vinegar based sauce and it keeps the meat moist. Not sure I'd start with a ketchup based sauce that early....others mileage may vary. KEEP THE TEMPS LOW!!! 225 deg or so. Over 250 is getting too hot.
To flip, it helps to have a second rack you can sandwich the hog between. If you're by yourself, this will be difficult. But when cooking a hog, there's usually folks hanging around wanting to eat so they can work a little for it.
To scald them, you need 150degree water and a lot of help. The back of a machete works as good as anything as a scraper
I have a Caja China. We did one a while back that was about 50lbs. It took some work, but well worth it to scald it. We took a turkey fryer and filled it with water. We turned the heat on and watched it until just before it started to boil. Make sure not to get it too hot or it will start cooking the meat when you pour it. We then took a pot and dipped out water and poured it over the pig. We used the back of old butcher knives as our scrapers. Two people would work on the same area and it was fairly easy since it was a domestic pig. I'd imagine it's a lot more work for a wild hog.
Anyway, we scraped all the hair off and then took a torch to the fine hairs that we couldn't scrape off.
Then we gutted it and rinsed. We took a cleaver and a hammer and split the spine so it would lay flat. Then we chopped up garlic and poured mojo all over the meat. We salted it as well. We put it in a large garbage bag and placed it in a cooler with ice over night. The next day we poured more mojo and garlic on it.
We then placed it in the Caja China skin side down and cooked it per the directions on the box. The last hour we flipped it skin side up and cut slits into the skin. We covered it back up and let it cook some more. It came out awesome.
One thing that I would have changed was not using lump charcoal and I would have used regular kingsford. The lump gets too hot and charred the meat a little much.
I'll try to upload some pics when I get home tonight.
One thing that I would have changed was not using lump charcoal and I would have used regular kingsford. The lump gets too hot and charred the meat a little much.
I have found the opposite in my smoker. The lump seems to keep the same temp for longing periods through the burn....where kingsford starts hot and drops temps too quickly.....by changing to lump my cook times have been more predictable.
Back to the OP and anyone else, I have always been interested in cooking a whole hog...has anybody ever cooked one in the ground?
