I did a whole pig this last weekend on my Lang and before that I had tried to search on the forum for anyone who and done one on a 36 and came up short on answers so here's what I did hopefully it helps anyone attempting to do it.
The Pig was 15lbs and I got it from my local butcher. I had ordered a 25lber and they got sent the wrong one. I was a little worried about how big a pig a I could fit in the 36. This one fit very easily and as you can see below I had room for the rack to go on.
The 36 could fit a bigger pig on it, I had about 3in of clearance on the front and back, and that was w/o removing the hocks and trotters. I would think 25Lbs dressed maybe 30 is the max you could fit on before you had to start removing appendages. This pig was approx 22 inches from hind leg to snout.
Temperature wise I saw a lot of variance in articles the consensus was either 145 -160 for slicing and 195-203 for pulling. It was for the wife's 30th birthday and we were doing pulled pork sando's so I figured I'd shoot for my pork butt IT number of 203.
I cut the ribcage open and splayed it out and injected the meat the night before with my pork brine injection, about an inch apart parallel to the grain, left about 1oz per lb behind. Then I injected 1/4 stick of butter into each ham shoulder and loin. I was worried about the loins drying out, that was not the case.
Right before he went on the Lang I coated the chest cavity with olive oil and liberally applied my rub.
Target temp was another thing I saw variance on, I chose to shoot for 225.
Skin treatment was liberal amounts of water and about 1tbs of Morton's coarse kosher salt per sqft. I was hoping to get cracklin not the leathery show mahogany skin, but unfortunately i ended up with that. I think if i would have put the skin over a hotter surface I would have gotten what I was looking for.
He went on skin up chest down (I put him in backward and realized after i took the picture)
He went on at 5am, and around 10am the ham's hit 160 and that's when I made the flip to chest up.
Once he hit 190 I basted the chest with a light coating of my bbq sauce.
He was done at 2pm so I throttled the Lang back to 160 and held him in there until we ate at 6pm
I had 3 extra shoulders on the top rack and that was running about 250 while the bottom was holding in at 225, I foiled them at 160 and they were done at Noon so I was able to take them off and put them in the cambro until dinner time. Whats not shown is I put the rack back on and did 30ABT's and 6 links of linguica for appetizers which were done right as the pig was. They went in the cambro as well. The raining bacon on the pig was pretty magical.
Top rack had 3 X 7lb supplemental shoulders on it.
Finished Pig
And a good time was had by all.
The Lang's a great unit I love mine. All in all this wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and it got rave reviews from the crowd. If you're looking to pull one of these off I'd say go for it, I had a lot of fun. Also as a note the baby pig had a much "porkier" taste than the butts did.
Hope it helps!
RZ-
The Pig was 15lbs and I got it from my local butcher. I had ordered a 25lber and they got sent the wrong one. I was a little worried about how big a pig a I could fit in the 36. This one fit very easily and as you can see below I had room for the rack to go on.
The 36 could fit a bigger pig on it, I had about 3in of clearance on the front and back, and that was w/o removing the hocks and trotters. I would think 25Lbs dressed maybe 30 is the max you could fit on before you had to start removing appendages. This pig was approx 22 inches from hind leg to snout.
Temperature wise I saw a lot of variance in articles the consensus was either 145 -160 for slicing and 195-203 for pulling. It was for the wife's 30th birthday and we were doing pulled pork sando's so I figured I'd shoot for my pork butt IT number of 203.
I cut the ribcage open and splayed it out and injected the meat the night before with my pork brine injection, about an inch apart parallel to the grain, left about 1oz per lb behind. Then I injected 1/4 stick of butter into each ham shoulder and loin. I was worried about the loins drying out, that was not the case.
Right before he went on the Lang I coated the chest cavity with olive oil and liberally applied my rub.
Target temp was another thing I saw variance on, I chose to shoot for 225.
Skin treatment was liberal amounts of water and about 1tbs of Morton's coarse kosher salt per sqft. I was hoping to get cracklin not the leathery show mahogany skin, but unfortunately i ended up with that. I think if i would have put the skin over a hotter surface I would have gotten what I was looking for.
He went on skin up chest down (I put him in backward and realized after i took the picture)
He went on at 5am, and around 10am the ham's hit 160 and that's when I made the flip to chest up.
Once he hit 190 I basted the chest with a light coating of my bbq sauce.
He was done at 2pm so I throttled the Lang back to 160 and held him in there until we ate at 6pm
I had 3 extra shoulders on the top rack and that was running about 250 while the bottom was holding in at 225, I foiled them at 160 and they were done at Noon so I was able to take them off and put them in the cambro until dinner time. Whats not shown is I put the rack back on and did 30ABT's and 6 links of linguica for appetizers which were done right as the pig was. They went in the cambro as well. The raining bacon on the pig was pretty magical.
Top rack had 3 X 7lb supplemental shoulders on it.
Finished Pig
And a good time was had by all.
The Lang's a great unit I love mine. All in all this wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and it got rave reviews from the crowd. If you're looking to pull one of these off I'd say go for it, I had a lot of fun. Also as a note the baby pig had a much "porkier" taste than the butts did.
Hope it helps!
RZ-
