Labor Day Whole Hog

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ecto1

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Feb 22, 2010
2,154
103
Orange, TX
Well this smoke was almost ruined by the butcher not putting the hog in the walk in to defrost. I had to give it a cold water bath overnight to defrost and that caused other issues.

Finally got it defrosted and a little seasoned had to inject right before i put it on the pit.


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This little piggy was right at 39 pounds a litte bigger than i wanted but the Rectec Backyard Beast was more that capable to handle it.

She started to get the tan lines she always wanted after a few hours of smoke. Smoked @ 225 until I hit 175 internal on the shoulder the Ham was running a few degrees hotter.

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At 175 I flipped the pig and turned up the heat to try to fix what the water bath messed up. The skin did not have time to truley dry out so i can get the crisp that I wanted.

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Lost a probe in the flip RIP homie.

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Pig came out great skin was only so so. Some parts with thinner skin was nice and crispy some parts like the back were not crispy at all. Shoulder was already at 205 so did not want to keep it on any longer. Air fried the skin after it was pulled off not quite the same effect put people loved it.

All in all with any large cook planning is the most important part and next time I will make sure i get my pig the size I want about 30 pounds (Suckling) and defrosted in time.
 
Nicely done it looks superb!!!

Point for sure
Chris
 
I had the same issue when I did a whole pig. Butcher pulled it out of the deep freeze to thaw, and someone else saw it and thought it was misplaced. So he put it back in the freezer. We had to fill a large cooler with cold water to thaw it overnight.
 
I had the same issue when I did a whole pig. Butcher pulled it out of the deep freeze to thaw, and someone else saw it and thought it was misplaced. So he put it back in the freezer. We had to fill a large cooler with cold water to thaw it overnight.
It had my wife stressed out as we had been planning this party for a while. She has had a stressful summer due to the loss of her mom and I wanted everything to come out perfect. Moral of the story it does not have to be perfect to have a great time. A Great time was has by all.
 
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