Good morning everyone, I thought I'd get a jump on this thread so I have a few weeks to soak up advice and get a solid gameplan. I'm no stranger to cooking large amounts of meat on my rig. I am, however, a complete newbie when it comes to whole hog.
A buddy of mine has started raising pigs, so I purchased two of them. One is a suckling that will be ready for our end of summer cookout. The other is 80lbs right now, so by the 29th of this month Im hoping it puts on a solid 15#. We are feeding it "Hog Mash," which is a finishing feed and also giving it apples and a cpl bottles/week of hard apple cider.
Before I go further, here is a quick shot of my rig. Its a 250gal reverse flow cooker with steam pan built into the baffle.
The plan is to have the pig slaughtered on the 29th. Im going to have the butcher take the feet off and butterfly it so the pig fits nicely on the rack. Im buying a 150qt cooler this weekend to use for transport. I'll oil the skin, and put a good amount of rub in the cavity and inject the hams and shoulders. I'll foil the ears and snout so they dont burn during cooking.
My parents plan on eating somewhere between 1-3 pm. This gives me a pretty decent window to work with. I get off work Friday night at 830 so ill have to make the 45 min trip up to PA around 9pm. Now the part that Im not so sure about.....cooking time. Ive seen where people say to expect 1 hr cook time per 10lbs. If this holds true than I can expect it to be finished in 8-10 hours. In that case, I could have the smoker up to temp and pig on at 3am, leaving enough time to get the smoker temp down some if it is progressing faster than I expect and for it to rest 30 mins or so before tearing into it.
I like to run my cooker at 250-275. It has no problem holding temp for hours so thats the easy part. Ill be using red oak for fuel and apple wood for flavor. I know Im in the right place for advice, you guys and gals are amazing and I appreciate your input
A buddy of mine has started raising pigs, so I purchased two of them. One is a suckling that will be ready for our end of summer cookout. The other is 80lbs right now, so by the 29th of this month Im hoping it puts on a solid 15#. We are feeding it "Hog Mash," which is a finishing feed and also giving it apples and a cpl bottles/week of hard apple cider.
Before I go further, here is a quick shot of my rig. Its a 250gal reverse flow cooker with steam pan built into the baffle.
The plan is to have the pig slaughtered on the 29th. Im going to have the butcher take the feet off and butterfly it so the pig fits nicely on the rack. Im buying a 150qt cooler this weekend to use for transport. I'll oil the skin, and put a good amount of rub in the cavity and inject the hams and shoulders. I'll foil the ears and snout so they dont burn during cooking.
My parents plan on eating somewhere between 1-3 pm. This gives me a pretty decent window to work with. I get off work Friday night at 830 so ill have to make the 45 min trip up to PA around 9pm. Now the part that Im not so sure about.....cooking time. Ive seen where people say to expect 1 hr cook time per 10lbs. If this holds true than I can expect it to be finished in 8-10 hours. In that case, I could have the smoker up to temp and pig on at 3am, leaving enough time to get the smoker temp down some if it is progressing faster than I expect and for it to rest 30 mins or so before tearing into it.
I like to run my cooker at 250-275. It has no problem holding temp for hours so thats the easy part. Ill be using red oak for fuel and apple wood for flavor. I know Im in the right place for advice, you guys and gals are amazing and I appreciate your input
