Planning a Pig Pickin’ – Part I of ∞
Well, there’s a pig pickin’ (pig roast?) in the works in East Bay. And by in the works I mean, dear god, how will we ever find the time to plan this thing? But the basic gist of it is this –
- One whole pig.
- All day smoking.
- Pork bliss.
My friend MJ, another North Carolinian, and I cooked up this idea a few weeks back, and others are interested. So we’re hoping to make it happen sometime in late April, and to invite as many people as the pig will allow. We’ll do pot luck, drink a keg of beer, and definitely have a BBQ sauce contest. 1st prize? All the cracklins you can eat (and not throw up).
In the small amount of Googling I’ve done on this so far, I’ve been disappointed with the lack of information available for someone planning an event like this. So I thought I’d document the practicalities along the way, and collect comments and suggestions from the interested BBQ community.
1st Problem: Location
This is not a simple question. There are two primary constraining factors: 1. a pig will feed lots of folks, so the venue must accommodate lots of folks. 2. A pig requires some special apparatus to cook, be it a large grill or a fire pit.
Given these constraints, we’ve tossed around a few options:
- My backyard: Pros: We could construct a proper pit to line with coals. We’d have access to the kitchen, fridge, bathroom, etc., which would make things much easier. Cons: Small space would be crowded, especially when we make room for the pit. Would the smoking smell disturb the neighbors?
- A Tilden Park Picnic Area: Pros: A ton of space for many people, frisbees and footballs, kegs, cars. Beautiful scenery. Cons: We probably couldn’t make a pit at the picnic area, so we’d have to find another way. Rent some kind of crazy grill trailer? Build our own giant grill pan, rent a UHaul to get it up there? We’d have to pack everything in with us in coolers, etc. No bathrooms.
- Rose Park: Pros: Closer than Tilden. MJ has been to a pig roast there before, so we know it’s doable. Cons: Same as Tilden, with less space, probably.
Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, ideas, or resources, fire away. I’d love to do the Tilden Park thing, but the problem of figuring out how to roast the pig up there is big. Can we rent a grill trailer? Where? Can we make one ourselves? Who knows how to weld?
More info. as it comes.
Comments (6)
Some friends and I grilled a whole goat once, but I’m pretty sure we chopped it up before putting it on, and it was in my friend’s backyard, and there weren’t any smoke issues. However, when I asked the guy at Ver Brugge butcher’s in Rockridge (near College and Alcatraz) if he could supply me with a whole goat, he didn’t bat an eyelid, so I bet they might be good people to ask about how exactly one goes about smoking an entire pig around here.
That’s a good thought. Ver Brugge is amazing – it’s just around the corner from my house and we go there all the time. I have already talked to them about getting a pig, but I didn’t ask if they know anything about the logistics. I’ll let you know what I find out.
You might consider looking around for places that might be rentable that would have a large pit (and other requirements). Of course, then you’re paying for a space, but I’m sure many of us would pitch in to cover that plus cost of pig, etc.
When I worked on a Ranch we’d do a Hawaiian-style roast that involved a backhoe, a few gunny sacks and lots of hot coals. We’d kill and prepare the whole pig, a friend seasoned and (I think) did a little smoking, wrap it in gunny sacks and bury it with the coals in the ground for 24 hours. Very tender and amazing pig yo. I can get more details on this if you’d like (assuming we won’t have to kill, bleed and gut the bastard).
I have pork on the brain tonight, so I checked chowhound.com to see if there was any info there on renting smokers. I didn’t find anything, but there’s much talk of acquiring whole pigs. Might be a good place to ask.
Also, have youg guys heard of Rick’s Quality Meats in El Cerrito? I ran across this post in my search, and though it sounds good, the Yelp page is disparaging and seems to suggest they went out of business…
In my experience, your best bet for cooking a pig at a park will be to roast it in a barrel grill, which can usually be rented from a place like A-1 party supplies. It’s going to have to be big, though, or you’re going to have to be very careful about the size of the pig you cook. For reference, a barrel grill made from a 55 gallon oil drum will have internal dimensions of 22″ x 34.” Inspect the grill first, since it’ll need to have little doors built into the bottom to add coals (you’ll be doing a lot more fiddling with temperature than if you do it in a pit).
If you have space, the way I like to do it is by making a cinderblock grill, which can comfortably accomodate a 150 lb. carcass (maybe larger, but I think 150 is about the limit to cook easily). I dig a pit about 6 inches into the ground and surround it with a box of cinderblocks 3 bricks high. The internal dimensions are about 32″ x 64.” The pig is butterflied and placed between two sections of oiled chainlink fence reinforced with rebar. The whole thing is covered with a layer of heavy duty aluminum foil. I make two piles of coals, a larger one underneath the head and shoulders and a smaller one under the hams. You should arrange the cinderblocks in such a manner that moving a few out in order to add coals won’t disturb the pig. And then just cook it for 8 hours, turning the pig over every couple of hours.
In my experience, the neighbors are not disturbed by the smoke if they’re invited to stop by and have some pig. If you can get apple wood, it’s especially delicious to smoke the pig using that for a few hours and then step up the heat a little bit (those applewood coals burn plenty hot).
I hope that you’re not going to desecrate this pig with a ketchup-based sauce.
I’m hungry for some bbq after reading all this — and I’m stuck at work for 9 more hours… Enjoy the great bbq — too bad we can’t join you.
I have a friend in Eugene who raises pigs for a living. I’m pretty sure we served you one of his specimens at some point. I should see him at Saturday market tomorrow, and I’ll ask if he’s ever done this.
Great blog, by the way!
Cheers,
Darren