I finally cooked my first pig

[richard cameron]

Yesterday was the day for my pig roast.  I cooked a 55 lb pig head on, racing style.  I also cooked two pork picnic shoulders to go along with the pig.  I was expecting 50 people, only 38 showed up.  Needless to say, there was too much food and pig to eat.  A good time was had by all anyway.  I am enclosing some pics of the pig both before and after it was smoked.

Pig1.jpg

• richard cameron
• Sep 11, 2016

Pig3.jpg

• richard cameron
• Sep 11, 2016

Roasted Pig 2.jpg

• richard cameron
• Sep 11, 2016

Roasted Pig1.jpg

• richard cameron
• Sep 11, 2016

 

[smokingpiney]

That pig looks great. What was your total smoke time? 

 

[b-one]

Looks pigalicious!

 

[SmokinAl]

AWESOME!!!

Al

 

[richard cameron]

I cooked the pig for 9 hours. The pig was supposed to be done at 5 pm.   I made one rookie mistake with the time.  I started cooking the pig at 250 degrees and after a couple of hours; I thought the pig was cooking too fast.  I throttled back the heat to 225 degrees and at 3 pm the pig was only at 170 degrees.  I upped the heat to 275 degrees and the pig was done at 6 pm. 

 

[crankybuzzard]

Looks like a great job on the cook and a very nice presentation!

 

[emsemt]

How did you prep the pig? Dry rub, injected or just naked? Did you buy it alive or from a butcher? Was the 50lbs. live weight or butchered?

 

[richard cameron]

I bought the pig from a wholesale meat company in Sacramento.  The pig weighed 55 lbs hanging weight.  I did not inject the pig. (I don't own an injector.)  I applied some homemade dry rub inside the cavity after I removed all the silver skin that I could. I applied some cooking oil on the skin to keep it from drying out too much.  When I put the thermometer probe in the pig to check out the temp, lots of juice gushed out.  The pig came out moist and delicious. 

 

[rogerwilco]

That is a great presentation you created.

 

[qgal]

What is a good and food safe way to transport a smoked whole hog? Been asked to do one later this month but would need to haul it 60 miles. It would be 100 pounds hanging weight. The hog in these photos looks amazing!! Great job!

 

[emsemt]

It looks great, I can't wait to do mine very soon.

 

[betaboy]

Looks awesome! 6 PM instead of 5 isn't bad, especially first time!

 

[disco]

Impressive smoke!

Disco

 

[gearjammer]

That's a fine looking pig you got there.

Points to you Sir.

   Ed

 

[redheelerdog]

Nice pig smoke, very nice indeed!

 

[garvinque]

For your first pig roast! And does hanging weight mean pig is already gutted or not?

 

[richard cameron]

Hanging weight means the pig is gutted, hair removed, and ready to cook.

 

[garvinque]

Thanks'