Whole Pig Roast on the Vintage Ranch (sort of)...

[crowderjd]

I wanted to do something to celebrate getting through this past crazy year with some friends.  My wife and I have really tried to keep our social circle pretty small this last year, and with the combination of the one year anniversary of going into lockdown, as well as the fact all of our teacher friends have been fully vaccinated, (two Pfizer shots for everyone last month), I decided to do something I always wanted to do...a whole pig on the vintage 1950s Ranch.  At first, I was just going to pick up a whole roasting pig from Costco business center, but after a bit of research, I found out about Las Vegas Livestock, a company that takes food wastes from casinos here in town and feeds it to their livestock, which includes a large number of pigs, living a reasonably humane existence on their farm north of town.  They offer whole roasting pigs to the public for basically the same price as the Costco pigs.  Local, humanely raised, with a diverse diet, at the same price as a Costco pig?  I was sold. 

If you want to know more about them, here are a couple links...their facebook page has a video from a couple months back showing where and how their pigs are raised. 

https://www.lasvegaslivestock.com/roasting-pigs

Here's a great link with a video about what they do:

https://www.lasvegaslivestock.com/s/stories/humanely-raised-superior-pork-quality-you-can-taste?fbclid=IwAR2HKJJBYwhNACsCb8jvVAiIAOUuOLSGz1JEvgxxe2UFITlkwBYM3MJ4PjU

Anyway, on a very rainy/snowy! Friday afternoon, my friend Patrick and I left school to pick up our pig at their farm.  I had ordered a 50lb pig, and was expecting to pick it up from a cooler on their property.  When I get there, I walk up to a guy and ask about my pickup, and he tells me, "The lady you'd reserved with called you earlier and you didn't respond, so we haven't processed your pig yet."  Sure enough, I had a voicemail from 2:15, which was while I was teaching, asking to confirm.  I apologized, and the guy said no problem...and then...

"So you want to come pick out your pig?"

I was not dressed to go pick a pig out from the herd, so I told him I trusted him to pick out a good one, and sure enough, I saw him pick out a pig, and take it to be "processed."  We followed his Gator to where him and four other guys set out to prep our pig...removing hair, gutting, cleaning, these guys were pros.  A bit less than an hour later, they had it ready, in a black garbage bag, and Patrick and I placed it in our cooler with ice, and headed back to my house, where it would spend the night chilling in the garage.

My plan was to do Malcom Reed's "Running Style" pig roast, which you can see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWHKfisi6CU&t=1s&ab_channel=HowToBBQRight

The next morning, I started the fire on the ranch about 6:30.  At 7, me and three friends prepped the pig, doing some cleaning, and removing silverskin, exposing the hams, removing the hocks etc.  We injected with Malcom Reed's injection recipe, some SPG, and Swamp Boys BBQ rub. 

Finally the big moment came...I got the pig on, placed my homemade expander ring which I made, and then I placed the VINTAGE early 1950s lid on my ranch...

If you look at the pics below you can see my epic fail.  There's a reason Weber switched to a much more DOMED lid on their ranch kettles in the late 1950s.  There's a video out there of me saying some choice words when that lid didn't fit.

FORTUNATELY, I sold my old ranch to my friend Patrick, who lives less than a mile away.  He ran over to his house, I got my old brown lid on the ranch and extender ring, and we were off and running.  So, what you have here is a combo of the two ranches I've owned through the years cooking this pig...1950s on the bottom, 1990's on the top.  We got the pig on, with the replacement lid (see pic) at 8am.

I ran two snakes on either side with cherry wood chunks for smoke, running the snake on the left hand side of the hog for the first three hours.  Then I switched over to the right side snake at 11.  The first three hours it ran about 225-240 with two bottom vents wide open.  At noon, I decided to even things out running snakes on both sides, but with only ONE bottom vent open, and the top vent open just 1/3 to 1/2.  That got it running between 275-315 the rest of the cook.  There was a spike at 2:30 when I did my first temp check of the hams and shoulders. 

Every two hours, I rubbed canola oil on the skin.  By 2:30, the shoulders were at 165, and the hams were 158.  The skin was really brown and tight at that point so I covered the whole hog with aluminum foil just leaving its head exposed. 

Guests arrived at 3pm, and I did a check at 4:30.  The shoulders were at 185, but the hams were at 172.  I set a timer for one hour, and just kept it running at about 290.  5:30 came, and the shoulder temp was 197 and the hams were at 185.  I called it done.  There's no way you can get everything the exact same temp at the exact same on a whole hog, and I was pretty pleased with the look and feel of things.  I let it rest on a foil covered table for 20 minutes, and then my buddy Jon and I cut in.

Let me tell you, the pig just fell apart.  The skin peeled back easily, and you could just grab the belly meat, loin meat, and shoulder meat out with ease.  The shoulder just popped right out.  The parts covered with the rub were amazing, and it was all incredibly flavorful and moist.  The meat from the head was especially good.  Overall we filled 4 full trays of meat.  Two I left plain, and two I mixed with a North Carolina vinegar sauce I made.

People loved it.  We all had a great time, eating, drinking, sitting by the Weber fireplace, and hanging out in the kitchen.  At the end of the night I gave my three friends who had helped in the morning a quart bag full of meat each, and I still have two quart bags and a gallon bag here at home.  If you have a ranch (with an extender ring) you can do this.  It was an absolute blast, and I will be doing it again in the future.  Enjoy the pics!

[Chris-B-Que]

This is an awesome cook on an amazing kettle.
Well done, i bet everyone left full and happy.

Nothing better then a whole suckling pig on the ranch, they come out absolutely amazing.
Here is one I did recently on a white custom ranch in Australia.

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[pbe gummi bear]

Glorious cook/story/pics, Jason. Surely it was a day and feast to remember.

[bbqking01]

I dont see anything epic fail, about that pig!! Epic, yes! Fail, no! Well done looks really good.


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[cigarman20]

Great cook!  Nice Deep mahogany color on the skin.


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[michaelmilitello]

Great cook and story!  Looks like a fun time had by all!


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[Andyinlz]

I love the spectacle of a whole pig, but find that the skin blocks too much flavor from getting into the meat.

For my money, shoulders are a better eating option.

With a smoked head for fun and an edible centerpiece.

YMMV

[JEBIV]

That is an awesome event of epic proportions no epic fail that I see

[Pezdogs]

Looks unreal

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[crowderjd]

Thanks all!  To be clear, I don't think it was an epic fail at all...just the part about using the lid from the vintage ranch.  I am SO happy that my old ranch is just down the street.  Just a couple notes.  The pig's dressed weight was 61 pounds, definitely beyond the suckling range, and about the maximum you could do on the ranch.

As for whole hog vs. shoulders, it's absolutely a different thing than doing shoulders, But other than the absence of bark, I thought the meat had a solid smoke flavor, and the injection made a big difference. 

[bamakettles]

Nice story and documentation for an epic cook!  Thanks for taking the time to take pics and share.  Just wow!

[Darko]

That looks great! It's been a few years since I've done a whole pig. It might be time soon. Suckling pig around 20 pounds I can make it work on a 22, but a 26 is better.

[noreaster]

Great cook. Inspiring

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[sonofabutcher]

What a heck of a cook


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[jcnaz]

That pig looks amazing!  What an awesome way to spend the weekend.