Whole hog

[cheech]

I am looking at feeding a large group of people later this year and was thinking about doing some pulled pork. Normally I use a shoulder and with SoFlaQuer's finishing sauce it is the best thing ever. But with a larger group does any one have an opinion if I am better off just buying a whole hog and cutting it up myself and use it? Cost wise i believe with local farmers i can buy the meat cheaper but is the whole hog ok to use for pulled pork?

 

[chipotlepat]

Whole hog makes good pulled pork but takes a long time to cook.

 

[brett_s]

I'm doing the same thing for a party coming up. The local store had shoulders on sale for $1 a pound, so I went in and bought $75 worth of their biggest roasts.

The whole pig is very nice, but it's a lot more work than nice pre-cut roasts. Just my oppinion. The final products is about the same, except you get the nice presentation value with the whole hog.

I'm a little bit lazier, so I go with the seperate roasts.

 

[arch_cpj]

Speak of the Devil I was out at the butchers shootin the breeze today and he had two little hogs (35 - 40) pounders someone was gonna cook How would they do in a smoker I figure a long time but MMMMMM

 

[cheech]

Brett thanks for the input. My smoker is too small to do the hog whole so I would have to cut it up any way.

I did find shoulder/Boston butts on sale this weekend and will be smoking them up tomorrow.

 

[smoking falcon]

So what I'm seeing on this forum is that it looks like most people are smoking shoulder/butt instead of a whole pig for large gatherings... which doesn't sound like a bad idea.

So I'd like to know how many square feet of grill space some of you have, and how many mouths you have fed, and for those of you who have done whole pigs, what is the size of the smokers dimensions?

The reason for my asking all these questions is that I am building a smoker that we would like to use for pig roasts among other things like smoking jerky, ham, sausage, etc... I'm trying to make this as universal as i can without having to rebuild anything over again, or stick my head in at a funny angle to weld on something that would have been easier with the bottom off. Anyway, I think you all get the picture

Thanks for you help.

 

[cheech]

Well Mr Falcon,

What I have is an old refrigerator with an electric burner.

Good new is if it fits in my house refrigerator it will certainly fit in the smoker.

This works for up to about 12 shoulders with adequate air circulation.

If you are looking at doing a whole pig go to a u-rent it place and get the dimensions off of their pig roasters.

 

[bob-bqn]

My Bandera has approximately 1600 square inches of food grate space.

I have 2 Big Blocks at approx. 1400 sq. in. of food grate space each.

I have a trailer smoker on order that will have over 6200 sq. in. of food grate space plus a smaller 420 sq. in. smoker/grill on the back.

For a total of a little over 11,000 sq. in. of food grate space or about 76.64 square feet overall.

So far I've only cooked for around 60 folks on my equipment. When I team up at church we cook for 500-700 people.

 

[chipotlepat]

I have fed 3000 people, people and had 16 people helping but they all have expertise in the food indrestry.

And to the whole pigs, what is the size my smoker is 52" long and 32"wide and I can fit Two 200LB. pigs in. I wish it was 12' longer but it works well and it is a 200 gal tank

You If you like to show-off the hog then you can cut it up in front of the people then that is the way to go. But if you are going to pre cut the pig you will waist a lot of time doing the whole so I would do the pork butts.

 

[ranger72]

Hi There smoking falcon!

Welcome to the forum....If you would like to read a rather long but well stated primer on BBQN a whole hog go here:

http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/whole_hog.htm

There are a few good pics also at that site....

Also here is a site which will show you how to build a temporary whole hog roasting pit which is very convenient as you can simply dismantle the whole thing very easily....go here.....

http://slemke.tripod.com/hog.html

These two links will give you a good idea of what to expect!

However you choose to do it be advised that cooking a whole hog is a long-winded affair...

Hope this helps,

ranger72