- Jun 27, 2008
- 37
- 10
The kicker is there is no Q-view because we are a bunch of podunks and the only cameras that were on site had film in them that now needs to be processed.
We quickly pulled together a plan for a neighborhood (that takes in about 10 miles square and not many people) party for my Mother-in-law's birthday this past weekend. I did some quick research and decided that I should do a whole pig in a concrete "oven". I checked out Cowgirls blog and Three Cubans in Miami's website and combined their ideas for the cook. Thanks to those folks for putting that info out there. The construction of the oven is very simple.
The hog dressed out at about 45 lbs and was chilled on ice overnight. I did not marinade or inject it, just good ol' fashioned lemon pepper and seasoned salt. We grow good meat and like to taste it. I was shocked at how quick this pig cooked! I had the hams to 160* in 4 hours with about 14 lbs. of charcoal. I had given myself 7 hours of cooking time though. We considered our options - I was concerned about it drying out if we kept it cooking but I was concerned about it getting mushy if I foiled it. I added a bit more charcoal to keep the heat up and let it cook. It was at 202* when I pulled it off to serve. The meat was perfect! It had crusty parts, juicy parts, fatty parts and lean parts. We served it with sweet buns, fresh corn on the cob and tomatoes. Everybody was happy! They all went home with a bag of meat also.
Given the choice of doing pork this way or doing butts on the homemade off-set, I will do a whole hog anytime. It was quicker and easier I thought. Getting one is not a problem because my wife raises them and we currently have 86 of them that are 11 weeks old or younger! I figure 86 - 85 - what's the difference?
We quickly pulled together a plan for a neighborhood (that takes in about 10 miles square and not many people) party for my Mother-in-law's birthday this past weekend. I did some quick research and decided that I should do a whole pig in a concrete "oven". I checked out Cowgirls blog and Three Cubans in Miami's website and combined their ideas for the cook. Thanks to those folks for putting that info out there. The construction of the oven is very simple.
The hog dressed out at about 45 lbs and was chilled on ice overnight. I did not marinade or inject it, just good ol' fashioned lemon pepper and seasoned salt. We grow good meat and like to taste it. I was shocked at how quick this pig cooked! I had the hams to 160* in 4 hours with about 14 lbs. of charcoal. I had given myself 7 hours of cooking time though. We considered our options - I was concerned about it drying out if we kept it cooking but I was concerned about it getting mushy if I foiled it. I added a bit more charcoal to keep the heat up and let it cook. It was at 202* when I pulled it off to serve. The meat was perfect! It had crusty parts, juicy parts, fatty parts and lean parts. We served it with sweet buns, fresh corn on the cob and tomatoes. Everybody was happy! They all went home with a bag of meat also.
Given the choice of doing pork this way or doing butts on the homemade off-set, I will do a whole hog anytime. It was quicker and easier I thought. Getting one is not a problem because my wife raises them and we currently have 86 of them that are 11 weeks old or younger! I figure 86 - 85 - what's the difference?
