Pig in a pit

FarmingPhD

A friend decided to do a hog roast for function a month ago. Lots of planning and prep, mostly on his side, and we got to get things rolling last Friday. Hole was dug with a mini excavator, lined the bottom with rocks, and started a fire.  We burned down a big fire to initially heat the hole and heat up the rocks, then added another round of wood, all hickory to build our bed of coals.  About 30 minutes before the pig went on we added 3 bags of briquettes.  Pig was seasoned and loaded with fruit, onions, and garlic.  Then wrapped in foil, followed by wet burlap, and then chicken wire.  Pit was covered with tin to hold in the heat. Pig was 114lbs dressed and turned out great for a group that had never tried this before.  We did have to add more heat Saturday morning to pick up the pace which included 4 bags of royal oak set on fire next to the pit and then pushed in.  That was some serious heat, I think we all still have our eyebrows....  

Pig was in the pit ~ 15 hours and literally fell apart as we opened up the foil.  We were hoping to be able to roll it out for a cool presentation, but once we got into the foil, the plan just turned to picking out the meat.

Thanks for looking, it was a blast and the repeat is already in the planning.  

alaskanassasin

Wow that looks like fun! Great cook wish I was there

Botch

That first pic, with porky stuffed with a fruit salad bar, is amazing.  

SGH

@FarmingPhD
This is the kind of posts that I really like. Old school Q at its finest. For an outstanding job my friend and getting back to what made barbecue great 👍 

FarmingPhD

Thanks @alaskanassasin @Botch and @SGH - by far the most fun I’ve had in months that didn’t involve my kids.  

caliking

This is awesomeness defined!! 

Any cook that starts with “go get the excavator...” is already winning. 

20stone

My wife doesnt let me excavate. 

Awesome cook!

johnnyp

Excellent cook

Teefus

You are bringing back memories. When I was a pup a friends Dad did that for his graduation open house. The difference was the pig was stuffed with Sauerkraut. After slow roasting all night it was melt in your mouth tender. They opened the foil, pulled out the bones, and put on the feedbag.

FarmingPhD

@Teefus that is literally how this pig came apart. The plan to turn it over was scrapped pretty quickly.  I didn’t get any pictures after it came out, hands/gloves were a mess once we got into it.

FarmingPhD

We did have some other great food.  I made over the top chili on Thursday night and reheated for our dinner on Friday night once we got the fire rolling.  We camped out at the location then on Friday night since the hog didn’t go on until 1:30am on Saturday.  Temps dropped to <30F that night so we had a big refrigerator for leftovers.  Saturday’s breakfast was leftover chili reheated over the fire and Johnsonville smoked cheddar/jalapeño brats.  Best breakfast I’ve had in some time.

CPARKTX

Fantastic!

WeberWho

Are you accepting applications for friends?

lousubcap

Great planning and delivering right there.  Impressive across the board and sounds like you were ready for the audibles.  Congrats.

SandyHookEgger

Very cool!