Here pig , pig , pig ,pig

Okay...

First to the slaughter. KILL YOUR PIG WITH AS LITTLE STRESS TO THE PIG AS POSSIBLE

This isn't just for the obvious decency factor, fear will flat ruin your meat, the adrenaline toughens the meat and gives it a nasty flavor. Some folks get their pigs used to drinking beer and then get them snookered beforehand.

Someone with nerve and strong muscles and good aim needs to pop the piggie between the eyes REALLY HARD with a hammer or sledgehammer. Don't miss. Then haul it upside down by the back legs, bleed it out, and then gut and clean the body cavity.

Debristle the pig by pouring boiling hot water over it and scrubbing it with a rough brush. Don't worry about a few hairs left (they'll burn off in cooking), but you have to get most of them this way.

I recommend that if you're cooking the whole pig you should leave the head on. It helps maintain the juiciness of the animal in the cooking process, and there's a suprising amount of good meat on the head.

Keep the carcass cool but not frozen until time for cooking. You should be able to keep it in a large cooler on ice safely for a day or two, but not much more.

On to cooking...

If y'all aren't super duper familiar with cooking large dead things, GET A PROPANE COOKER WITH A TEMPERATURE GAUGE FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. Cooking over wood coals is difficult, takes a HUGE pile of wood, and trying to maintain a fairly regulated temperature that way is HARD.

Cook the pig over a low temperature, about 350 degrees, and yes it will take about 24 hours for a medium size pig (60-100 lbs).

Prepare piggie for cooking in this way..bind the legs in a crouching position by securing them around the body with natural fiber twine or with steel wire. Also bind the mouth shut or piggie will start assuming some crazy positions and expressions while cooking. You'll find it difficult to turn if the legs are left sticking out. You might want to do this part just post-bristle scrubbing and before you stick piggie in the cooler.

Dry rubs are for smaller chunks of meat without skin, and if the plan is to cut piggie up then all these instructions I'm giving aren't relevant. But the "jacket on" whole pig gives you the bestest sweetest and tasty-est pork, in most barbeque folks' opinions.

The "jacket" or skin provides a great insulation to keep juices in, and has a fat layer that will melt and infuse the meat with goodness if everything is done right.

I also recommend a non-edible (not intended for eating) stuffing of the body cavity, I would use apples, actually. You can also use almost any kind of cooked grain, or even 100% cotton rags. The purpose of this is to provide a sponge for juices, to help hold the moisture in and re-steam the body of the pig. Secure your stuffing with twine or wire by wrapping around the body.

Get your grill to the temperature you're going to cook at, and then place the pig on the grill on its side.

As far as basting goes, use this recipe...about 2/4 water, 1/4 apple cider vinegar and 1/4 vegetable oil of any kind. Add spices to this to taste...chopped garlic, cayenne pepper but not black pepper, some rosemary, soy sauce, BEWARE of your salt level as it will accrue in the meat while cooking. Soy is good for the salty flavor, but go easy. If you don't use soy, some salt.

If you are trying to feed more people than you think the pig will really feed, go heavy on the cayenne pepper. This makes the meat somewhat "hot" and is known as the pig-stretcher baste. :)

The vinegar is important both for flavor and for its tenderizing qualities, and the oil is important to provide a 'seal' on the exterior of the meat so as to keep the juices inside and not escaping as steam. Any time the pig is steaming, that's tenderness and flavorfulness escaping. DO NOT STICK THE PIG WITH FORKS, KNIVES OR SKEWERS WHILE IT'S COOKING! This makes holes for all the moisture to escape.

Mix all this stuff together and you're going to need a lot of it, like gallons and gallons and gallons. You'll be happy to have too much 'cause too little isn't good.

Get some clean squeeze bottles, a clean bucket, and clean paint brushes with natural bristles for basting.

Douse the pig LIBERALLY inside and out with this baste as soon as you put it on the grill, and repeat this process the whole time it's cooking, any time that it starts to look dry. Use the squeeze bottles filled with baste to add baste to the body cavity, use the bucket and brush to coat the outside, go nuts, there's no such thing as too much.

Turn the pig from one side to the other every thirty minutes or so. You'll need at least three pairs of heavy gloves for this part, and three people to turn it. It is not somewhat but VERY important that this be done GENTLY, NO SLAMMING THE PIG FROM SIDE TO SIDE!!! Baste again whenever you turn the pig.

Do this for somewhere between 18 to 24 hours. You can tell that the pig is getting "done" by a slight size reduction and wrinkly appearance to the skin, which should be golden brown.

If your pig starts to burn while cooking reduce heat.

When you believe the pig is done, use a meat thermometer shoved all the way to the deepest part (the haunch or shoulder), or just use a meat fork to gently check. If it slides in easily and with no resistance the pig should be done. If you encounter resistance or the meat isn't at a 'done' temperature..I forget what that is 'cause I only use the eyeball/fork method myself... seal the holes by drowning them in baste and cook longer.

When the pig is done shut the grill off and leave the pig to "sit up" and cool for about an hour.

Then place the pig on its chest in the middle of a table, slit the back skin all the way down, and the meat should basically fall off the bone...thus the term pig pickin', because you don't need a knife.

Add any further barbeque sauce, be it mustard based, hickory based or whathaveyou, at this point, by pulling the hot meat and mixing the sauce and meat. Sauce and baste are not the same, you can't cook with sauce as I've seen recommended. It'll just burn up on the outside of the meat and won't give you the final results you're looking for.

A good option is to leave the meat plain and then have different sauces available for folks to just pour over themselves.

The only other thing I can think of is that if your pig seems to be swelling, LOOK OUT! It's gotten too hot and steam under the skin is building up...reduce heat and close the grill and stand back, pigs on the grill CAN explode!

Good luck with it! Make sure your pig cookers are devoted, it's gonna need a LOT of tending during the cooking time and it can't be left for more than minutes at the time!

XXXXOOOO,

Me

Sorry, got family in Arkansas. "have you seen the little piggies living piggy lives?"Would be a good idea to enlist Greg Redden in this project...lots of apple wood at DF and porkchops and applesauce as well as apple smoke go good together...just ask Peter Brady...oh and Chw knows!Would add this about cookin' said little piggy. Love a good dry rub and prefer a nice thin, wet Cackalacky vinegar/mustard baste rather than the thick, heavy on the brown sugar, sweet sauces. Kind of like that on the side in small doses. A little Jack Daniels in the baste is pretty good too!I'm still good for my donation to feedin' the piggy which I will bring to the W/P, unless I get a job and have to work that weekend. We'll need a clean mop for basting!WordPlay

I woke this morning to be completely thrown on the floor by this thread!!!You guys are freakin' hillarious, and at 7am I was gasping for air with laughter even before my eyes were thoroughly pryed open from not being AWAKE yet!What did as always draw my attention was, BACON!!!Anyways, I'm with Foxglove, what sides besides "Buns" would you like?As far as seasonings go, EARL... How about some fresh cloves of garlic, and are you going to apply some PORK rub? I think they would enjoy the massage.Siryn 

I have gottin only 2 gifts for feed so far, and that money is being used for just that  !!!!   please if you are goin to gift someting for the pigs feed  , bring it to the WnP oe send it   out of a list of 8 so far only 2 have come forward with their gifts  Please contact me off page about when or if your still goin to gift for feed  more feed bigger the pig or pigs , depends on what we want and the anount of feed  ,, BUBba JoHn       thanks we should have a great pig roast !!

If you're cooking the oinker on Friday evening, what other sides do you want to go along with it?  Beans?  Slaw?  Buns (yes, we always want buns, don't we)?  Maybe we can make this a multi-theme camp collaboration.

you can never go wrong with beer, beer and soy sauce a little garlic and pepper.  but i'm sure whoever takes their spot cooking will do it up right.   " Man who makes a beast of himself, saves himself the pain of being man"  by... hell i don't remember, and why would a beast???

....that somewhere someone said they rented big ass cookers at the gas station/BBQ resturant on the left after You cross highway 26 at exit 40! maybe we could check it out on the way to or from the Work/Play????~Phyrebolt SCBMRC