OT: Pig Roast Argentinian Style

BigWings

I am cooking an 80 pound pig this weekend on an asador which is basically an iron rack that can hold a butterflied pig, lamb or goat.   The rack is adjustable in angle and cooks the meat next to a campfire.   Just wondering what everyone's thoughts would be on skin side or meat side first, and should I flip often or just once?

I am thinking meat side first to get a bit of smokiness in before the the temperature raises too much.  What do you think?  Any other tips?

Sea2Ski

I have no idea, and I would not attempt to do it without the supervision of someone who has previous first-hand experience.  Too many variables for me to consider in my overly analytical mind. Fire size, wind direction, how long on this side or that side....    But kudos to you!  I will be watching this thread. Post pictures and progress please!

BigWings

Sea2Ski said:

I have no idea, and I would not attempt to do it without the supervision of someone who has previous first-hand experience.  Too many variables for me to consider in my overly analytical mind. Fire size, wind direction, how long on this side or that side....    But kudos to you!  I will be watching this thread. Post pictures and progress please!

I will post pictures for sure!   I haven't attempted anything like this before and there is nobody in a hundred miles of here that has done an asado that I could look to for assistance but the way I look at it - it's just meat and fire!   

smokeyw

I have cooked many whole pigs but not in the manner you are speaking of. On a grill with direct heat I start meat side down and flip when about half way done. Not sure if that is what you want to do in your case however.

SmokeyPitt

I have no idea but I found this with a recipe and it includes a vid:

http://pjazzarecipes.blogspot.com/2012/10/patagonian-style-bbqed-suckling-pig.html

smokeyw

SmokeyPitt said:

I have no idea but I found this with a recipe and it includes a vid:

http://pjazzarecipes.blogspot.com/2012/10/patagonian-style-bbqed-suckling-pig.html

Interesting information but if the pig is 80 pounds dressed weight, that is not a suckling pig.

HellrodKC

This looks awesome... props to you for giving it a shot. My guess would be meat side first, then flip to skin side to finish and get crispy skin.

lkapigian

Meat side, dont flip till the last half hour to crisp...keep heat low drape foil or large foil pans over the pig to create some convection over the top to help render....post pics

BigWings

SmokeyPitt said:

I have no idea but I found this with a recipe and it includes a vid:

http://pjazzarecipes.blogspot.com/2012/10/patagonian-style-bbqed-suckling-pig.html

This is great info, thanks!

Darby_Crenshaw

Smoke will add flavor at any time. Temp of the meat does not affect this. 

I would go skin first myself. Skin is tough and needs a lot of time to dry and crisp

bir I don't have a lot of experience in cooking the whole animal, and none doing it tour way
 
but smoke. Smoke will add flavor at any time

lkapigian

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1176771/spatchcock-pig#latest
this was 135 live weight

Focker

Francis Mallmann(Seven Fires) is your man.
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Fires-Grilling-Argentine-Way/dp/1579653545

He uses the iron cross with lamb and pig, blessing the beast with an Argentine salt solution throughout the cook.  The book is magnificent, in the top tier of my cookbook collection.

I would turn often, and give a little more time on the skin side.  Use your hand as a guide to judge heat hitting the pig, and adjust accordingly.  

dldawes1

BigWings ...my hat's off to you sir....that is my dream to roast a whole pig!!!!   When I was a kid in Western KY, my older cousins roasted a pig every year. Unfortunately that was in my teen years and eating/cooking pigs was not what my sights were on. Too many young girls and dope and alcohol around for me to care about food !!!!

All I can remember of the pigs, of five or six cooks is eating some sparse leftovers on the last day when the beer and whiskey was running ut and my body could not take the girl chasing any longer. 

i do remember going to steal the pig a few times....putting a baby bottle nipple over the tip of the barrel on a 22 rifle will act as a silencer at night in a farmers hog lot....and be sure not to steal a 200 lb hog.....takes too many people to put it in the truck !!!!!

I sure wish I would have paid more attention and gotten more involved in the cooking process.

I'll def be watching for updates.

Thanks for posting and adventuring !!!

BigWings

Just picked it up.  100 pounds, oh boy!   Up bright and early, will post some pics once things are set up.   

77bronco

Like this? Looks pretty simple. Haha.

gmac

I did two 150 lb pigs for a community pig roast. Sold 300 tickets and I had never done one before. It turned out just fine. 

My point is, be confident, you own this and I am sure it will be awesome. Fear is not an option. Post pictures and have fun. There is nothing wrong with jumping into the deep end. 

lkapigian

77bronco said:

Like this? Looks pretty simple. Haha.

That is so FNG cool

500

Never done one before either but I think you would need a separate fire going to break down the wood into coals to add to the cooking fire. Unless you are using lump but it sounds like you are old school all the way. 

Legume

I keep checking back on this thread, anxiously awaiting progress pics and story.  What a great cook, best of luck to you.

BigWings

So far so good!

77bronco

Those pictures are so cool. I give you tons of credit for this undertaking without any experience or guidance from someone who has done it. Keep the pictures coming. 

Legume

I love this, super carnivore.

Focker

Man, this is so badass.  Lovin this post.
Really like the way your pit bounces the heat off the back wall like a hearth.

Finding rocks and building one has been on my list for some time.  Already bought the splitting and chopping axes, brooms, transfer shovel, pyroclaw, and CI tuscan grill.

I think you would truly enjoy this read.  One of my favorite fire cooking books.

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Fire-Rediscovered-Techniques-Wood-Fired/dp/1612121586


I know it's too late, but the only advice I could possibly give strictly judging by pics, is a stronger fire, with a more established coal bed.  I'm sure you learned that on the go.

YukonRon

This. Is. Just. Cool.
Best of Luck!

SciAggie

This is great. Kudos for being fearless. I hope you keep posting pics and give details once you have time. 

johnmitchell

Thats a huge pig... Looking forward to following.. Good luck..

Wolfpack

Very interesting- can't wait to hear about the progress.

On on off topic- that's a good size live trap in the background. What are after? Could be pic but looks bigger than the coon/possum size. 

BigWings

Wolfpack said:

Very interesting- can't wait to hear about the progress.

On on off topic- that's a good size live trap in the background. What are after? Could be pic but looks bigger than the coon/possum size. 

Just a regular raccoon trap.  Probably just a bit of perspective trickery making it look larger than it is.

Ozzie_Isaac

This ship has sailed and I have never attempted anything remotely close,  but whenever they show whole butterflied pigs being cooked on Anthony Zimmern's Bizarre foods they tend to cook skin side last and only 1 flip.  If not butterflied they cook in the ground, or on a spit that rotates.

BigWings

Just a final update on how the pig roast turned out.   Definitely learned a few things along the way but all in all it was a successful venture.    Really cool to offer the spectacle of it all to a lot of people who have never seen such a thing (myself included!).  My favourite part was the excitement of the kids while I carved it up.   There were about 20 kids gathered around at the head squealing with excitement as they egged each other on to touch it or eat the tongue.   I obliged and cut off the tongue, not sure where that ended up!

 

If I had to do it over again I would have been more aggressive with the heat.   Being my first time I played it safe and set the beast a little further from the fire than I probably needed to.   We had it on for 12 hours before we go everything up to 145 internal.    It was moist as heck  but it was a slicing affair and nowhere near a pulled pork kind of thing.    We were about 10 hours in and I was at 115 so I jacked up the fire and put it a little closer.   Things got up to to 145 rather quickly after that without charring things up too badly.

 

Lessons learned –

-          Meat side takes on heat way more easily that skin side.   I started meat side for first 5 or  hours than flipped and found that things stalled significantly.   I would almost guess the main reason for the flip is just to crisp up the skin.

-          The skin was hard and basically inedible, unless you consider jerky crunchy!  Not sure what to do to make that better.

-          Make sure you have a second set of hands.   A 100-pounder is doable by yourself but a buddy to help out made life a lot easier

-          It’s a spectacle that makes an impression on everyone.   Especially the kids.  Great to show them something like this and put where their food comes from in context.

-          Make sure you have room in your freezer for leftovers!  I’ve got a load of ribs down there that I am going to give the Big Green Egg treatment to finish them off.

-          The cheeks are definitely the delicacy.   We cut them off, wrapped them up in tinfoil, set in the fire to render off the fat and they were very nice for a 4:00 am snack around the campfire.

-          An all day cook requires a lot of beer.

 

Here we are getting the flip back to the meat side.  I'm 6'4" so the pig might look a little smaller than it actually was.  

King of the world!

Finished Product...

I'm having this piece tonight!

Mission accomplished I'd say!

SciAggie

Yea! Bravo! Very, very, very cool cook. Thanks for posting your adventure.