I've been wanting to try this for a while, but the hogs have been too big. Finally, Adam, home for the holidays killed about a 70 pound shoat last Thursday. He skinned and cleaned him and we had our Q subject.

We put pig in about 100 qt. ice chest and added a couple of gallons of ice to him. Normally, I'd chip up at least one of gallons but since it was going to be in low 30s that night, I left them whole. Next day moved ice chest to porch in shade and, surprisingly, those 2 gal ice held pig for 3 days until Sat. morning.

Friday night late, pig cooking scheduled for Saturday, because of my usual procrastination, took pig out and rubbed salt all over carcass. I think pig enjoyed it more than I did.

My buddy Randy, who is the usual pitmaster, and I had never tried a whole pig before and this one was a good fit for our pit. I considered wrapping him in hog or chicken wire so we could turn him and finally decided we'd just put him in with his legs facing away from opening so we could roll him over if needed. That worked out well, but from then on, things went downhill and as things going downhill do, they picked up speed as they went.

Before putting pig in pit, we thoroughly coated him with a mostly mixture of Meathead's Memphis Dust which, with my changes, worked out wonderfully. This process was helped by laying pig out on big piece of cardboard from freezer box that I brought for this use.

Recipe: Meatheads Memphis Dust

3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup American paprika
1/4 cup garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ground ginger powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 teaspoons rosemary powder

I followed it more or less exactly, but instead of 1/2 cup Paprika, I used 1/4 cup and used cayenne pepper for other 1/4 cup. I also added a healthy dash, about 1/4 cup of Tony Cachere's Seasoning (available in bulk at Sam's and highly recommended for most things, from eggs on up). I would estimate that we used about 1/2 of total rub on pig. Rest will go in freezer. It would be wonderful on a pork shoulder. The sugar made it black, not sweet, would be good in oven, but for obvious reasons, I can't comment on whether it would smoke or not.

That was the rub, the sugar was to carbonize and make a nice dark exterior. Damn, it did that, pig looked like he had been removed last after being caught in a house fire. Chandler's tar baby had nothing on him.

At any rate rub was EXTREMELY good and pig at correct cooking stage was outstanding.

However, due to our lack of experience with whole pig cooking, we cranked the fire box up, loaded it with Pecan, and left pig about 10 in morning, after hunting.

Returned about 2 and pig was dead black, looked grossly overcooked but wasn't. I sliced off a couple of samples and that pig absolutely put all those famous "burnt ends places" in Dallas to shame. It was great. However, it was 2 and pig eating was scheduled for about 7. We opened other pit door and closed off chimney, thinking that would stop the cooking. It didn't. First downhill error.

Second, I, Pitmaster Randy, and my daughter went hunting yesterday afternoon and Randy and Daughter killed nice 8 points, the last by Ashley right at dark.

So, instead of going back to pit and taking care of pig, we spend an extra hour skinning deer. Going downhill.

By the time we got to pig, it was, IMO, overcooked. However, it was still damn good, the rub made it exceptional, and everyone had a good time, fueled, no doubt, by the Budweiser and other beers in ice chest. BTW, tried Shiner Christmas Cheer, and it really sucked. Oh well.

I packed it in about 10, telling wife to give pig away or chunk it. I am not sure if we had any takers or not. Pig ain't hard to come by in these parts. So ends dead pig story.

Points we learned is that whole small pig cooks MUCH faster than we would have thought and Meatheads/my rub was wonderful. We will do better next time and I'm going to order a smaller pig to be shot. No shortage there. We're killing at least one pig (usually larger) a day, every day we hunt, which is most days.

As an unrelated addedum, I killed a big boar pig (200 plus range) Thurs. night, head shot, drug him out into pasture, and, while we've got a voracious pack of buzzards on our place, as of last night pig was untouched by anything. Hard to believe. I'm thinking being uncut as in skinning, the boars hide was too tough for buzzards to penetrate. I keep looking because he had a nice set of tushes, that I wanted to salvage.

Sounds very good. I have been tempted to try it, but I don't think I am ambitious enough.

You're invited to the next one.

Charlie, if you had served anything but Budweiser, it all would have gone better.

I love Meathead's Memphis Dust. I keep a bag in the freezer. Using it on baby backs tomorrow.
But this is the way to do a pig. Using a 65-pound pig, dressed weight, we followed the recipe, injected the mojo, built the cooker and had "EEEUW, whole pig!"-skeptical wives throwing elbows to get at it. Took about five hours. You need a MOJO! Our Cubano hermanos know what they are doing, amigo.

https://cuban-christmas.com/pigroast.html

Seriously hoping I will be able to get that direction next month. Been a bit tied up at the house for a while...

My theory is that if you have to inject the animal to cook it, someone should learn how to cook it.

In addition, anyone who thinks Lone Star is better than Bud doesn't need to give me cooking directions, since their taste is obviously hopelessly skewed.

Charlie, all I can say is try the Cuban pig just once. If you don't think it is simply outstanding, I will choke down a Bud.

I'm sure, done right, the Castro hog would be good. I just don't need to try another pig cooking method. I'm not Taz with an unlimited desire for international dishes. Texas dishes suit the hell out of me.

Great cooking recap! I like the unvarnished truth. You convinced me that I won't be trying a whole hog anytime soon. "Thank you, Jesus!"

Sounds like a great time with the family. That's what holidays are for.

Ken:

I wouldn't write it off so soon. It actually wound up being quite good instead of 2 critical mistakes we made. First, we grossly overestimated the time it would take to cook a whole pig and therefore, afraid it wouldn't be cooked by the evening, used HIGH heat and smoke. The second mistake was not more closely monitoring the state of cooking.
This went back to the idea that when you open the pit, you lose substantial heat and thus cooking time, "don't be lookin, be cookin". The hog was done when we first looked about 2 PM, about 4 1/2 hours after putting it on. From then on, it was damage control, to keep it from burning up. We didn't do too good a job and the extra time for deer skinning didn't help. Viewed as a learning experience, we will do better, much better, next time.

Getting, or feeling rushed is a killer when smoking meat. I under-cooked a shoulder from one of your hogs once when I tried to smoke it for my daughter so that we could eat when the grand-babies were asleep. I won't try to hit that kind of a window again. (It would have helped if she had stuck to the original time frame.)

I like the meat to finish early, then I just wrap it in old tee shirts, place it in a cooler, and let it rest for however long.

Without doubt, your dirty old t shirts would give it a unique flavor.

BTW, we could do another pig and hit any reasonable 30 minute window we wanted. It's all in knowing how long it takes to cook.

I've eaten pig that was wrapped in leaves and roasted in a cover hole (in Bora Bora) and the outside was black and cracked, but the meat was fantastic. They build a fire, let it die down, throw a layer of dirt and then leaves over the fire, throw in the wrapped pig, and cover everything with layers of dirt and leaves. They leave it covered for several hours (don't remember exactly how long), dig it out and boy is it good.

BH63

Weather permitting, we're going to do another one, or 1/2 of one in just over a week in honor of Kensco's coming to TRY to kill a pig. Hopefully this will turn out better than our previous effort. If not, and it kills Kensco, we've got lots of spare land and a backhoe. He should be happy to eat it, he'll save his widow the costs of a funeral.

Why do I feel like a guinea pig?

I have full faith in Gato's ability cook meat. I do want to see the head on however, just to be sure it's a hog. (Gato sometimes has a bizarre sense of humor.)

The normal lifespan of a guinea pig is about six years. I've known Gato for about four, so that should give me a little leeway. (I'm relying on Randy and Jen to warn me if Gato starts going "mad scientist" on me.

My pastures are extra fertile because of the guinea pigs buried in them. I saw some show the other day that said that guinea pigs, known as cuy in their native land of Peru, are the tenth most consumed meat in the world. Tell that to your daughter who is carefully taking care of her sweet little g. pig, "Fluffy".

Gato,
2 suggestions

Smaller pig
Aluminium foil

Always works for us.

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Killartist:
Gato,
2 suggestions

Smaller pig
Aluminium foil

Always works for us.

But a larger pig has more meat and I see absolutely no need for aluminum foil. I can see why some people use it, conserves moisture and makes for tender meat, but, of course, that's the purpose of barbecuing, ie. slow cooking at low heat.

What did you do to get the hams done without over-cooking the rest?

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
What did you do to get the hams done without over-cooking the rest?

Positioning of pig in BBQ cooker. But you wind up with some really good crunchy pieces, I'll admit.

Thanks to an extended rainy period, which is forecast to continue thru Saturday, the pig cooking seems likely to be canceled. The pig don't care, he's dead, but Kensco will be devastated since he can't lean on Randy as he cooks. Of course, it may be that he just prefers to lean on wives, time will tell.

I'm happy to report, that in spite of a serious rain, Our Pit master forged ahead, with Kensco watching every second, and we had a fine, I might go so far as to say, VERY Fine, pig cooking. In particular, a couple of backstraps would be hard to beat.

I might add that Kensco did his absolute best to screw up the BBQ by shooting a pig where pigs had to wear hip boots and paddle to get there. We had to suspend cooking until we got pig out while holding our breath that we didn't get stuck. I think Kensco could f**K up a one man parade, but I like him even considering his faults. I keep thinking how much fertilizer he could contribute to my pasture.

I want to add my "corrections" to the above rub recipe. Instead of 1/2 cup Am. Paprika, I used 1/4 cup paprika, 1/4 cup Tony Schachere's Cajun Seasoning, and 1/4 cup Cayenne pepper (ground). It had a slight pepper "twang" to it, but IMO could have used a bit more. Unless women and children will be eating it I might add another 1/8 cup Cayenne or even 1/4. It was damn good IMO, even if I do say so myself. The wine Kensco provided didn't hurt it any either.

Anyone looking for a great rub should try this! I have been using this for a while and it’s great on pork and chicken...

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
1/4 cup of Tony Cachere's Seasoning (available in bulk at Sam's and highly recommended for most things, from eggs on up).

I can't locate this on the Sam's Club website. Can you double check the name and the spelling for me? Perhaps Sam's doesn't carry it anymore. Thanks.

I think it’s Tony Chachere’s. I just bought some at our local Walmart. Most grocery stores around here carry it.

I just made a fresh batch of dust last Tuesday and rubbed a batch of wild hog ribs that I grilled New Year’s Day. They turned out great btw!

Gatogordo... We should be friends, I love your passion for food. Too bad I am too far to taste your cooking. God bless Texas.

With all due respect, he passed, I believe, sometime back. With that being said, if you still want to be friends, you'll likely have to do the same.

Sad to hear that. Sorry if I upset anyone with my ignorance.

I don't think anyone was offended. You did'nt know. Charlie was a good guy + he did like his BBQ.

Never met Charlie in person but we corresponded and talked about hunting and stuff. I miss him he was a great guy. Kurt

Would have liked to have gone pig hunting with him!

Split the hog, wash it, wrap in foil fill with chii and spices, put on an open fire ribs down..I think its fast and its good, even works well on a young Javalina..Randy probably has a fix on that.