Basic \"how-to\" for hosting a hog roast

1 Whole pig

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 75-100-pound dressed pig
½ pounds Salt
60 pounds Charcoal briquets
Barbecue sauce

Directions

Order your pig from a specialty meat packer, grocery store or local locker; often 7 days advance notice is necessary. You will also need a specially-made "hog cooker," a grill made to accomodate the large size of the butterflied hog.

Makes about 30-40 pounds of chopped pork, enough to serve 50-70 people: Split backbone to allow pig to lay flat, being careful not to pierce skin. Trim and discard any excess fat. Sprinkle salt inside cavity. Set pig aside.

Place 20 pounds of the charcoal in large grill; pour 1 quart charcoal lighter fluid over top and ignite. Let burn until charcoal has turned ash-grey. Place heavy gauge wire, about the size of the pig, over grill, thirteen inches from coals.

Place pig flat, skin side up, on wire surface. Close lid of cooker; cook at 225 degrees F. for 6 hours, adding additional lighted coals as needed to maintain temperature in cooker.

Place a second piece of wire over pig, sandwiching pig between the two layers of wire. Turn pig over; remove wire from top. Insert meat thermometer in thigh, do not touch bone.

Baste meat with barbecue sauce; pour sauce in rib cavity to measure one inch. Close pork cooker lid; cook at 225 degrees F. for two more hours or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees F. and no pink meat is visible when hams and shoulder are cut.

Slice and chop meat; serve with barbecue sauce, sandwich buns, cole slaw, and your other favorite side dishes.

Tips:

Allow about 1½ pounds carcass weight per person.

Do not exceed 225 degrees F. cooking temperature during the first two hours of cooking; the idea is to slowly cook the pig.

Temperature control is more difficult in an open grill; allow for 1 hour of cooking time per 10 pounds of pig.

Additional coals started in a small grill outside of the cooker should be added as needed to maintain proper temperature.

Distribute more coals under the shoulders and hams and less in the center for more uniform cooking.

Allow two quarts of barbecue sauce per 75 pounds of pork.

Equipment For Making the Job Easier: Specially-made hog cooker

Extra small grill or "burn barrel" for starting coals Squirt container of water for possible heat source flare-ups Knife, cleaver, chopping block for chopping roasted hog (a new, clean garden hoe does this job well)

Thick rubber gloves for handling the hog Two pieces of wire approximately 3 ½-feet x 4-feet to be used for turning, sturdy enough to support carcass weight * COOKFDN brings you this recipe with the kind permission of: * National Pork Producers Council <pork@...>

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