First time Whole Hog, any tips, tricks or good old fashioned know howl

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floopso

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 18, 2017
1
10
Hi everyone, long lurker first time poster.

I am planning on smoking my first whole hog on Labor Day and wanted to share my current plans with you all and see if you had any advice or know how to pass along.

I have a 200# live weight hog ready at a farm and a slaughter date set up with the locker. Speaking with the farmer and the locker this should net me a ~120# dressed hog. We will be catering sides and providing 3 kegs of beer to guests that should number around 100.

Plan so far is to pick up the hog on Sunday (unfrozen) and inject and rub that evening with the hog going on the pit at 10p.m. Sunday and being ready to eat around 2 to 3 p.m. Monday.

As for cooking the hog I have built a cinder block pit.

Dug down and filled with sand for the base


Three layers up (first layer being half burried) I have rebar supports for the grate


Grate I welded a frame of 1/2" angle iron with two flat iron supports for a grate of 3/4" 9# expanded metal. To remove the grate from the pit I welded 4 loops on each side and constructed two pipes with hooks allowing us to lift the hog out.


Two more rows of cinder blocks complete the pit with corregated steel acting as a lid (I have added wooden handles to the lids not showing in the pics)


For inecting the hog I have an injection recipe consisting of mostly apple juice, mustard ann rub. Injecting a whole hog will take some time so I have created my own "power injector"
(Yes, the sprayer is new. Yes Ihave fully disassembled and wasehd every piece and relubed with food safe lube. Yes, I have verifed that the plastic used is food safe. Yes, it has enough pressure to blow a ham up like a balloon)


I will then rub the cavity and put it belly down for the first 2 1/2 hours of the smoke, past that time smoke absorbtion is minimal and I will flip it skin side down until the hams read 180.

I will be using a Thermowoks Pop, Thermoworks Smoke, Thermoworks ThermaQ, as well as an infared gun. Plan is two pit temp props at each end of the hog with one probe each for a should and one for a ham.

I will using Kingsford Blue Label as the heat and a combination of Apple and Pecan for the smoke.

Please feel free to add any info I may be overlooking or any feed back regarding my current plan!

Happy Smoking from the Savage Sloth.

Live Slow, Die Whenver
 
It sounds like you got things pretty well covered. I have never smoked a pig but it is on my bucket list.
I will be following your upcoming smoke.
 
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