Early 4th Spit Roasted Pig with Q-view! *Now with video!!....

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moseephus

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2013
22
35
Spartanburg, SC
Somewhat spur of the moment, I was privileged to have come across a 1/2 mix of Yorkshire and Berkshire pork that was locally raised  by a family that I work with.  When I picked her up, she was just over 10 weeks old and around 60# on the hoof and dressed at around 45#.... Much bigger than I expected so I decided to put together an open pit and cook her rotisserie style.  I began with a layer of slate tile that I covered in aluminum foil to reflect heat (not shown in pictures).  I put down a layer of cinder blocks and a layer of expanded metal I picked up from a local metal shop.  It was a scrap piece they had laying around and sold me the metal and gave me a cutting wheel for my side grinder to trim to fit for $20.  I actually was able to cut the metal in such a way that I could have set up a two level cooking grid for veggies - we didn't do that this time.  I made the spit out of 3/4'' conduit fitted with stainless steel fittings.  I did use galvanized pipe nipples to make the handle of the spit, but it didn't even get remotely warm with the cinder barrier.  I picked the pig up on Saturday morning, gave her a thorough salting and secured her to the spit using stainless steel pipe clamps.  During the cook I used a spare piece of conduit propped on the ground to assist with positioning.  I got the Kingsford going using a weed burner and we were off to the races.  All throughout the cook I had a mix of pecan, hickory, and apple wood for smoke and added charcoal throughout. I cooked somewhat unbalanced with the majority of the heat in the front side of the grill.  It took some manipulation, but I was able to manage it to where the shoulders were getting around 275ish cook temps and the hams were getting about 250ish temps.  About hour 5 I wrapped some fold around her to keep the skin from getting much more color and unwrapped at the very end to crisp up.  In total, she took about 8 hours to get to 198 in the shoulder and 168 in the hams. I added a fair amount of charcoal to really increase the temperature to crisp up the skin and pulled her off for was picture time!!  She rested for about an hour and a half or so before I pulled off the most amazing cracklins I've personally ever had in my entire life - my mother in law was in heaven eating the crispy skin while my 3 year old put away the first ear singlehandedly.  I lack the verbiage to describe how good this pork was.  The meat pulled easily, the skin was crispy.  All that was left after breaking her down was fat and bone and I saved the bones to make some bone broth later on. I added just a little bit of vinegar finishing sauce at the end to add a bit more flavor but the meat was incredibly sweet and amazing on the palate. This really was a significant undertaking, but well worth every minute and penny.  My 3 year old pit master son was the best smoker I've personally ever worked with.  













































 
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Once I figured out how to drive the temperature around the way I wanted to, I would say I burned, on average, about 15-18# per hour.  Good think I stocked up at Lowes.  Ended up with only 2 bags left....  
 
I think I've figured out how to upload this video.  This was the pig about 3/4 of the way to done.  I can't elaborate enough about the quality of this pig.  Absolutely incredible.

 
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