- Sep 6, 2016
- 11
- 23
Welp. Scoured the threads here and eventually jumped in feet first. From building the cooker, to figuring out how much charcoal needed to how long we needed to cook a whole hog.
Folks raised 4 hogs this year; he might joke about how difficult it was raising them, but I think dad really enjoyed having them. I was tasked with making the roaster/smoker out of a 275 gallon fuel oil tank. Thanks to many for the photos here, they helped tremendously. The father in law and I tackled the job, he definitely had more in it than I did, without his help it would have been much harder to complete.
Took a few tries but eventually found a butcher that would do a scald and scrape. Almost bit the bullet and attempted it myself, but thank goodness for the Amish. Ms Piggy weighed 165 live and 130 dressed with head on.
Started Thursday night at 2300. Got cooker up to 250. Checked out the hog, torched any remaining hair, wiped down with olive oil and injected hams/loins/shoulders with a marinade I found here somewhere. In hindsight next year I'll probably only inject the hams, that's where it was noticeable the most.
Using about 50-60 pounds of charcoal over 17 hours we finally got the shoulders/hams up to 190. The loins stalled at 165 and took about 5 hours to climb up to 175. They literally fell out when we cut the skin open. Temps fluctuated between 200-250 over the 17 hours.
Guests arrived about 1500, and the guest of honor was ready at 1700. Thank goodness for doing a few shoulders separate before hand for the overly hungry folks.
Only down side was the kegs we ordered. The coors banquet and woodchuck were perfect in the kegerator but the keg of Guinness needed a special keg connector/faucet. Now we know for next year.
Without final adeu, if you've made it this far, is the Q-view. Included are some live pig photos, the practice run photos (bacon loin, chickens and taters), and as we went.
I look forward to your guys/gals thoughts and comments!!!
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