I am going to roast a pig... (Trip Report added)

[CroMagnon]

[kinnipak]

[CroMagnon]

Oh yeah, bring on those frosty fries.

Cro

[CroMagnon]

For the life of me I can't figure out how to rotate the pics on Imageshack. There rotated on my PC, but when I upload them they revert. I rotate them on Imageshack and they don't stick. Oh well, here's me report.
****
It was an early day after a short night of sleep. The hottest day of the year and I spent it standing by a fire for 10 hours and cooked a pig. Perhaps I should back up a few days and tell you what the butcher said on Thursday. “Hey Cro, they didn’t deliver your pig.” What? What does that mean? I have 40+ guests arriving on Saturday and I have lots of prep and no time to track down another. “There supposed to deliver it tomorrow. I can’t guarantee it, but I’ll call you when I know more.” Uh…ok. When do you think you’ll know? “Around Noon.” Uh…ok. This didn’t sound good. Not good at all. I ran through a quick list of possible substitutes, Turkeys, Hams, Ribs. Just have to wait and see what the guy says Friday. In the meantime I have to get the place ready, mowing, weeding, trimming, setting up tables, buying plates, forks and food and of course prep the food.

Friday morning comes and I head off to the store to do the main shopping. I am lucky and have no trouble finding everything I need. Get home and hop on the mower. I have my cell on me, but of course it’s too loud to hear it ring. I stop for a moment and check my messages. “The little porker is on it’s way.” Woo hoo! I finish the mowing and head to town to pick up the pig.




Now there’s a pig in my yard.

OMG! There’s a pig in my yard!



I had put together a creole spice rub of cayenne, garlic, onion powder, black pepper, salt and added paprika, ancho chili powder and mustard. I have a marinade of orange and lemon juice with fresh garlic, salt, pepper and oregano to inject into my pig. I cut him out of the bag and take a good look. I am not accustomed to seeing my food look back at me and I was concerned that it would make me uncomfortable, but quite the contrary. I liked the way he looked. This is as real as food gets and I wanted to treat him with respect. I washed him down, patted him dry, oiled him up and massaged the spices everywhere.




After injecting the brine I wrapped him up and put him on ice for the night.

As I said earlier I didn’t sleep much. I have never cooked a pig nor for this many people and there were a million details swimming around my head. 5:30am came quick and I was still groggy as I headed downstairs to get the pig off the ice and let it warm up a bit before going in the china box. The ice had melted more than I expected and the pig was soaking in cold water. It had washed some of the rub off. I didn’t add more as I wasn’t sure how much had soaked in and didn’t want to make it too spicy. In the end it could have used more, but was still very tasty.



The plan was to start cooking at 9am and serve at 4pm. We didn’t eat until 7pm, but I’m getting ahead of the story. My wife and I load our pig into the truck and take it down to the china box. It’s about 500 feet from the house and the pig weighed 54 pounds and. We set it into the oven, rib side up where it would cook until it was 195 degrees in the ham. Then flip it over to crisp up the skin.




I start the coals at 8:30 and spread them just before 9. It is a beautiful morning and things are going according to plan. Ahh life is good.






The temp on the left is the Ham, on the right is inside the oven. I would have liked the pig to be warmer, but wasn’t concerned as I’d cooked a 17 pound turkey the week before and it started at 32. Pretty sure this is why it took 10 hours. In any case it was time to setup the tables and prep food. The plan was to have two stations. One for pulled pork sandwhiches and the other for burritos. The sandwhiches were easy as it’s just buns and BBQ sauce. The burritos were a bit more prep as they had fresh salsa, guacomole, sour cream and queso fresco. I made salsa and the guac and my neghbor did the BBQ sauce. After prepping for an hour I went down to check on the pig.

The coals were buring down and it was time to add some more. I looked at the temps and the one on the right said 345 degrees and the oven said 104! This was very, very wrong and caused me some moments of panic. 40 people were on there way and I had a pig going rougue. The one in the pig should have read around 104 and the other 345. This was weird and very unexpected. How would I know how it was cooking and when it was done without accurrate temp readings? I was afriad of poisoning someone and I didn’t have another thermometer. I added more coals and at that point my neighbor came by and I showed him. He said he had a hand held thermometer and we could use that to check on the internal temp. Not the best, but workable. Having cooked with this oven several times I knew how much charcoal was needed to maintain the right temp. An hour later my neighbor showed up again and he’d gone to the store and purchased another thermometer with a remote sensor. Neighbor is a real hero. We inserted it into the ham and it read 95. Crisis over.

Time to kick back with a beer and some Dark Side of the Moon.




People started to arrive and everyone was very curious to see the china box and of course wanted to open it up and see the pig. I invoked the old saying, “If you’re looking it ain’t cooking.”, but did announce oven openings later so people could get a look.




When 4pm rolled around the pig was only 150 degrees. The 195, flip and crisp plan was looking iffy and as time went by it was evident that was not going to happen. At 6pm it was 175 and we’d lost 10 guests. I decided to flip the pig.




It smelled fantastic. After flipping I scored the skin with a knife and juices squirted out. 30 minutes later it was done and time to let it rest.




People had brought potato salad, baked beans, watermelon, coleslaw, corn bread. I and my crew (drafted guests) laid out the pulled pork sandwhiches and burrito stations and it was time to cut the pig.




I peeled off the skin, which was crispy, crunchy and peeled off in big chunks. But was it good?




Yes it was!




It was time to fill plates and kick back for some well deserved eats. 30 people hung around long enough to enjoy some delicious pork. We ate as the light began to fade and a good time was had by all.

[Piemaster]

I'm so jealous, that looks amazing!

[PauliF]

[Bullajami]

Fantastic!

[krazytxan]

YUM!!!

[toom]

They don't call it food porn for nothing. Oh em gee.

[artistic2]

I'm impressed! You've become the master of the china box. Does this mean we might see a small side of beef hauled out to Cro-land next year??!

P.S. We need a new Food Network show......errr.... Cro's China Box Cooking

[nsidestrate]

Very well done. Thanks for sharing your pix. I'm hungry now.

[CroMagnon]

Thanks. It was a quite an experience and I learned a lot. Next time I'll deffinitely keep the pig out of the melting water and try to warm it up more before it goes in the box. A fellow in Oregon that uses the box quite a bit has a technique where he wraps the pig tightly in plastic and submerges it in very hot water. He says he can take a pig with ice crystals to 60 degrees in 2 hours. My concern is once the pig goes over 41 it can start growing bacteria. His technique is not USDA approved, but seems to take it through that temp rather quickly and then it goes in the oven. Will have to do some more research. I also want to try a rotisserie. So many pigs to cook so little time.

This is my next project. http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/

They have some pretty good plans you can download for free. I need to hire a mason to brick in the china box, will try to get this in at the same time.

Cro

[nsidestrate]

If the pig was previously frozen, sealing it and heating it to the danger zone wouldn't be nearly as dangerous as thawing it on the counter.

[kinnipak]

Loved you in Curb your Enthusiasm!

[CroMagnon]