Whole Roasted Pig

[Sugar N' Spice]

Okay, I'm getting married in late November and I was wanting to have a whole roasted pig at my wedding since it is Chinese tradition to have one at your wedding. Does anyone have any ideas on how to cook one or any recipes? It doesn't necessarily have to be a chinese recipe, we are actually having brisket and chicken served too so it can be bbq styled.

 

[Constance]

Our friend, Dew, used to roast a whole hog for parties. The hog went on a spit over the fire, and they had to start it the day before and let it cook all night. Dew stuffed the inside full of onions, apples, oranges, lemons, and whole heads of garlic. I'm not sure how he seasoned the outside, but I'll be seeing his wife this weekend, and I'll see if she remembers.
We've cooked whole hogs before, but we cut ours into pieces, so they would cook faster.

 

[pdswife]

What fun!!
We do whole lambs at Easter but have never tried a pig.
I bet what ever you end up doing with it it'll be delish!!!

 

[Gretchen]

You can buy a cooking box to cook it in and then have it for yourselves. It is apparently absolutely delicious. Someone will know the name--or I'll find it.
Why not just fix a lot of pulled pork using the shoulder?

 

[jkath]

I went to the County Fair a couple of weeks ago - here's a roast pig in action.
Looks like you could duplicate the cinder blocks and put up a spit on them like these guys did.

 

[bjcotton]

You should ask cjs [Jean] she and her hubby used to do it all the time at home.

 

[BreezyCooking]

While I can't give you specifics, I KNOW that I've enjoyed reading articles about whole pig roasts in Texas. I think you just need to do a little research & you'll find someone to supply this easily.

 

[Toots]

My dad held a pig roast some years back. He hired an outfit that brought the pig, the roaster, etc to our house and set it up. It turned on a rotisserie for 24 hours, boy was it good! He only had to stoke the coals and keep an eye on it while it cooked.

Then the company came back the day after the pig roast and took the roaster away.

I would contact party planners in your area, maybe they can recommend a company like that. It was too easy and everyone loved the roast pig.

 

[VeraBlue]

I have a pig roast party every Memorial Day....but rather than the add roasting the pig myself to the other thousand things I have to attend to to host this party (Usually about 65 people), I've had the pig delivered, completely roasted and lay out for me. There are many places that offer this service if you don't think you can add this chore to your list of things to do.

Happy Wedding.

 

[VegasDramaQueen]

A couple of friends and I are in charge of throwing a pig roast every summer at the RV Resort here in Traverse City, Michigan. We have a friend who does this and he buys a 225 lb. pig, kills it, dresses it and spit roasts it over charcoal for about 6 hours. The meat falls off the bone and the skin is crispy and people fight over it. A 225 lb. pig will yield about 65 to 70 lbs. of edible meat. This pig is done right down to the bone. He mops it with his own fantastic mixture of bbq sauce and we never, but never have a bit left. We fed 110 people this summer. I have pictures but I don't know how to put them on this site.

 

[Sugar N' Spice]

That's good to hear how everybody enjoyed their experience with the roasted pig. My fiance has already found the pig through one of his family members who has offered to cook (more like jump at the chance) to cook it since he has the stuff to do it. We just weren't sure what was the best recipe to use to cook it. But if we have to we've found a couple of places that will cook it for us. Hopefully all works out or everybody will just have to eat the brisket and chicken

 

[Chopstix]

Lechon, or pig roasted on a spit is a mainstay of every barrio fiesta in the Philippines,and also during special celebrations like weddings, big birthdays, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. A whole pig is cleaned out of its entrails, stuffed with banana leaves, spices and seasonings (such as lemon grass, scallions, and lots of rock salt) - sometimes with paella - and roasted slowly over live coals while the skin is brushed with oil colored with achuete (from annatto seeds) to achieve that deep reddish brown color. One can buy them whole or by the kilo at the big supermarkets. There's an old street in Manila that is well-known for its all-year-round rows of lechon outlets displaying freshly roasted lechons.

Young pigs are best for lechon - the rind is thin and there is very little fat. Good lechon has a very crisp crunchy skin, little fat underneath, and moist tasty meat.

There's a popular Spanish bistro in Manila whose house specialty is Cochinillo, which is essentially roast suckling pig. You have to order it 2 days in advance. They make a grand spectacle of serving it too. The whole roast piglet is presented on a side table, and the server uses a ceramic plate, yes a plate, to quickly and loudly chop up the cochinillo, making a volley of noises that sounds like flamenco music. The use of the plate is to show just how thin and crisp the skin is, and how tender the meat and bones are. And the taste? It's melt-in-your-mouth heavenly.



Best wishes on your wedding Sugar 'n Spice!

 

[cjs]

We had a pig roast every year for about 27 years! They are wonderful and so tasty - good luck with yours at your wedding, hope you enjoy!

For the majority of years doing this we raised our own pigs and had a company come to slaughter and 'scrape' the pig, which is the way we preferred them. Later years when we had to purchase them, for some reason everyone skinned the pigs. I thot they were a lot moister (a word?) having been scraped rather than skinned. But...skinned was still very good!

 

[buckytom]

i've roasted a pig on a spit every year for the past 13 years or so at my old friend's birthday party. we've also done lambs, but pigs are more popular.

i usually pick up a 100 to 125 pound dressed pig, and it is cooked for 10 to 12 hours, turning very slowly over a mix of lump hardwood and briquette charcoal.
another friend, a welder, built the spit and charcoal "table" and connected a low rpm motor and a bicycle chain/sprocket to the spit. once the pig is up, it's just a matter of continually mopping the beast. (and fending off prematurely hungry guests and their kids; and even their dogs!)

our favourite mop sauce is a mix of honey, bbq sauce, and gulden's spicy brown mustard.


btw, drama queen, killing and cleaning a 225 lb. pig ain't no easy task!
we decided to "do it the right way" one year, and got a live 125 lb. pig.
the farmer said to just hold him down, and give him a good whack on the skull with a 10 lb sledge. it seemed a little barbaric, but you can't use firearms in city limits, and no one wanted to use their chain saw, so we gave it a try. (if our welder buddy was available, we wanted to get him to make a guillotine).
15 or 20 blows later, the pig finally stopped screaming. we all had nightmares for weeks after that.

 

[VegasDramaQueen]

Wow, I guess I'd have nightmares too after that one. Joe has a pistol, puts it against the pig's forehead and the pig is dead before he hits the ground. He lives in a rural area so firearms for this purpose are okay.

 

[Constance]

That's a little too "made from scratch" for me. I want the pig killed and cleaned before I have anything to do with it.
That's what I told my husband about the venison when he started hunting. I don't want to see it until it's a piece of meat.

 

[shpj4]

I am sorry that I cannot help but the last time I had a Whole Roasted Pig was when I was in Hawaii. It was very tasty and my husband and I enjoyed it very much.

Our wonderful cooks and chefs will certainly come up with something for you.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

 

[Sugar N' Spice]

Thanks everyone for all your replies, sounds like alot of you guys have some interesting pig roasting stories, lol. I'm looking forward to see how well it turns out, hopefully my fiance doesn't give me any descriptions about how the pig was killed.