This won't fit on an egg

DMW

Its served. Tough to get action pics when you're busy.

johnmitchell

Who needs action shots......This is Awesome..

Mattman3969

\m/ \m/ \:D/ \:D/ That looks oh so good!! Now take a break and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

EggHead_Bubba

Nicely done! I expect to see a thread from DMW every July 4th. Thumbs Up!

NPHuskerFL

@henapple‌ please share this one "panty droppers" sounds like a good party ice breaker cuisine. )

NPHuskerFL

@DMW‌ That is for sure some finger licking good BBQ! Nice job man! \m/

Wolfpack

NPHuskerFL said:

@henapple‌ please share this one "panty droppers" sounds like a good party ice breaker cuisine. )

Pretty sure it has a lot of tequila in it...

DMW

The crowd.

DMW

Happy Birthday USA!

lousubcap

@DMW-what an epic cook-congrats on the entire process.  Enjoy and recover!

HDumptyEsq

I would wear that on my head, man. You are very talented and my hat's off to you.

Well played.

SGH

@‌DMW
Brother let may say that everything looks incredible. You did an outstanding job from start to finish. You are no amateur my friend. Not by a long shot. Glad that everything turned out. You are the man my friend. I applaud you. =D>

TTC

I have done 4 whole pigs in my life, and I am not exaggerating when I say they were the most fun thing I've ever done with clothes on. Well done sir

DMW

@TTC This was my second and I would have to agree.

SGH

@DMW‌
For a real blast try cooking one naked next time. Best of both worlds !!!

caliking

Bravo! Bravo!

bbqlearner

Awesome cook and nice pics to follow it! How long did it take you to cook the whole hog?

Sea2Ski

... and any lessons learned? What did you do that you would do gain for sure? What would you not do again - or do differently? Not sure if I have the guts to do something like this on my own, and I do not know anyone that has experience.... but in case I do, I would love to learn tricks of the trade....

nolaegghead

Wow, looks like a blast - impressive @DMW

Happy 4th!  (we pulled a portable bar down to the levee and watched fireworks)

DMW

@nolaegghead That's an awesome shot! How long was the exposure? That looks like a great time as well.

@bbqlearner It was on for about 16.5 hours. Could have pulled it earlier. Around noon or so I started dropping the cooker temp based on how it was running.

@Sea2Ski

It rode along pretty nicely. Here's the basics of how it rolled, from what I can remember... I'll note below what I will do differently next time.

First level the cooker if it's not on level ground, which this wasn't. Chuck the wheels so it doesn't budge when loading and opening lid, etc.

Loaded the cooker with 80 pounds of Royal Oak Chef's Select briquets. These are all natural and were what was recommended by the cooker manufacturer. I kind of wanted to try lump, but this worked last year and I didn't want to risk something different with so much at stake. I also added a mix of hickory and apple wood chunks on top of the charcoal bed. I wanted to use Oak, but forgot to order Oak chunks. Next time will have Oak on hand.

I lit both ends of the charcoal bed using starter cubes, basically the same as starting up the egg. Once the starters were consumed and the charcoal was going, I inserted the drip pan/heat diffuser, closed the lid and got temps stable around 225*. Kept it stable for about 45 minutes, then got the pig out of the cooler and onto the cooking grid. Then loaded the cooker grid with pig into the cooler.

This year I remembered to hang a metal bucket on the drip spout, forgot that last year and it made a huge mess.

I had my Maverick monitoring temp of cooking grid and one ham temp. My buddy had a cheapo wireless therm we put in the opposite shoulder from the ham we were monitoring. I set the lower pit alarm at 200* and upper at 275*. At the beginning of the cook grid temp was higher than dome. I think that was because I had the grid probe between the rear legs and that was almost directly above where the fire was lit. I think next time I'll put the pit probe at a more central location.

Gave it an hour to make sure things were settled in after putting the pig on, then turned in. The alarm didn't go off once. Over time, the dome temp was higher than grid, but both were between 200* and 250*. Grid temp ran 225* +/- the whole time. I backed it down in the afternoon to prolong the cook. I could have put the pig on later, but I wanted to get some sleep. The final IT was 204*. There was no need for a knife at all. I simply put on my long vinyl BBQ gloves (Black Knight 7714R-10) and rolled it over to it's back. Then reached in and pulled meat out into a clean food grade 5 gallon bucket. Did my best to separate the bones/cartilage and toss those. Hit the meat with the Ro-Man Pork Puller, dumped into the chaffing table tray. Once the tray started getting low, same process.

I got lots of compliments, and it was so much less stressful this year since it wasn't my first try. Last year I had only been BBQ'ing for real with my BGE for about 3 months, and I was really stressed, didn't sleep much at all. I also didn't have my Maverick with alarms, so I was up checking temps constantly. This year the whole thing was much more relaxing.

I just looked up your coordinates in your signature, if you ever decide to do one I'd be happy to lend a hand.

NPHuskerFL

@henapple‌ :-? Panty droppers. Sabbath!
Yep this one always seemed to work. >:)
Black Sabbath - War Pigs: http://youtu.be/MlyRKCBFyJ8

nolaegghead

@DMW - thanks, 13 seconds.  We also played around with a flashlight. 

pescadorzih

Looked good DMW!
If I didn't have a brisket cook planned I would've been contacting you for directions.
I did a pig for my coworker 2 years ago for the first time and would love to do another.

NPHuskerFL

@nolaegghead‌ very cool shot(S) brotha!!!

SGH

@DMW‌
Sorry to bother you my friend. The wife wanted me to ask about your stuffed peppers. What are they stuffed with if I may ask? Thanks in advance.

nolaegghead

NPHuskerFL said:

@nolaegghead‌ very cool shot(S) brotha!!!

@NPHuskerFL - thanks, I shot about 100 pics at the levee on the 4th.  Mostly junk.

Here's another version of war pigs from Cake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2pgqfasrxM

NPHuskerFL

@nolaegghead‌ WTF are ya doing to me here? I actually watched that entire ditty! Bwhahaha! >:)

DMW

SGH said:

@DMW‌ Sorry to bother you my friend. The wife wanted me to ask about your stuffed peppers. What are they stuffed with if I may ask? Thanks in advance.

@SGH Most were stuffed with a mix of cream cheese, pulled pork, and rub. 3 of them had half a cherry, dark chocolate, then another half cherry. Those are the "panty droppers" that have been mentioned. @henapple is the evil genius behind those.

 

SGH

@‌DMW
My wife says thank you sir. That sounds incredible. It's now at the top of the to do list. Again thanks.

DMW

Just reviewed this, as 3 weeks from now I'll be prepping for my next one.