Pig Roast Part 2 – Feast mode

It’s the post you all (some of you?) have been waiting for. The pictures of pig roast (and instructions at the bottom). These are from the day of the event. In the last post I talked about prepping the pig. People started showing up in the afternoon and many a homebrew were consumed. We actually ran out of pirates piss and pumpkin ale in the first couple hours. To complicate things, the pig was taking longer than expected due to a variety of factors. We would never serve the pig before it was ready, not to mention the chickens, so we had a good long day of just hanging around.

Our many good friends were kind enough to bring food and beverages as well so we snacked and imbibed while the pig finished cooking. What you see below is in fact a wheel of brie.

We had a great clear day for it and a lot of the party hung out outside enjoying the delicious aroma.

Around 3 pm the pig was finally up to temperature, and after a rest period we began to pull it apart. Some of us used our hands, others teeth.

It took about a half hour to pull the pig, and everyone got their fill. As I said in the last post, the chicken was the best part and it went almost immediately. We fed close to 100 people and we’re very proud of it. It was a great day and I look forward to doing it again, just not for a while. With our brew stores depleted, we’ve been brewing up a storm. Pirates thrive in storms and these brews have been some of our most promising.

Yesterday we took some hydrometer readings and tasted a few of the new brews. All of them are on track and we’re pumped about the flavor profiles. The most surprising brew was our mead (technically a Cyser). It’s my 5th batch of mead and already far and away the best. It’s still too sweet because it’s early in the fermentation, but the taste was grog-a-licious. The only thing I regret is making a small batch. Luckily, the recipe is recorded and we should be able to replicate it as much as we please. I want to collect a few cap-able wine bottles and bottle the mead in those. Maybe I’ll buy some new growlers…

Here is our step by step pig roast process:

Supplies:

100lb pig

A container that can fit that pig. I suggest a new trash can.

4 chickens

8 lbs of kosher salt

3 gallons of apple cider vinegar

130 lbs of charcoal

aluminum foil

trussing needle and twine

barbecue gloves

containers for the end product

Bourbon and home brew to get you through the night

1. Rent a smoker, get a fresh pig from a farm (butchered), and 4 chickens

2. Brine your pig and chickens in a mixture of ice, water, and as much salt as you can mix in

3. Around 12 PM get about 10 lbs of charcoal greyed in a chimney

4. Take out the pig and cover it in kosher salt. Go crazy with it. Put the spit down the middle of the pig, place the chickens in the gut cavity, and sew closed with a trussing needle and twine.

5. Place your pig on the smoker when the charcoal is ready. Start your next batch of charcoal in the chimney.

6. Every half hour or so, add the new charcoal, baste the pig in vinegar, and check your smoker’s temp (should be around 250)

7. In the morning start checking your internal temp in the pig’s haunch. Your aiming for 170.

8. If the pig skin starts cracking, cover that part in foil.

9. When the pig is up to temperature, remove it from the smoker and on to a table covered in foil.

10. After a half hour of rest, glove up and pull apart that pig!

11. Serve and enjoy