Ranch Kettle Pig on a rotisserie

[AZ2FL]

New Years Eve Pig Roast 12/31/2020

Setup and supplies for a 42lb roti pig on WRK.

Pig was special ordered from a local Florida supermarket.

Homemade roti riser 16 gauge (.059") and 10 inches tall.

New OneGrill heavy duty roti motor (part# 4PM08)

OneGrill Spit rod 53" x 1/2" hexagonal chrome steel (part# 4PS19) Rod did sag with a 42-pound pig. I'll be upgrading to a 3/4" hexagon spit rod.

Four OneGrill spit forks

Two stainless steel U-bolts (1/4-20) used to clamp back bone to spit rod.

A 100' roll of 22-gauge Stainless steel wire. Next time I'll use 20-gauge SS wire. Near the end of the cook 20ga wire started to cut thru skin near the shoulder area. SS wire was used for tying feet together and securing them to the spit rod. About 20' of wire was used to secure pig to spit

10' butchers cotton twine and a trussing needle. Twine was used to truss the belly area.

Two charcoal baskets were fabricated from an old 22" Weber kettle. Two SnS deluxe baskets for a 22" kettle will work just fine.

20 pounds of Royal Oak lump charcoal and 10 fist size apple wood chucks.

A 120-quart cooler, one ratchet strap to keep the raccoons and possums out of the cooler.

One new heavy duty 44-gallon Rubbermaid Brute trash can. Pig thawed in a trash can along with 100lbs of ice. Ice was added as needed. Outside temps were 44L to 68H. Total thawing time was 24 hours.

Sturdy table coved with 6mil plastic for prepping raw pig. Prepping needs to be done outdoors.

150 pounds of ice:100lbs for thawing pig, 40lbs for brining and 10lbs to keep beer cold.

Box of 100 nitrile gloves and a few pairs of cotton liners.

Welding gloves or similar.

Heavy-duty stainless-steel injection needle.

Two rolls of paper towels, 18" wide heavy-duty aluminum foil, disposable aluminum pans for collecting grease under pig as it's cooking and for serving.

Two saw horses and two 2"x4" x 48" to rest WRK lid.

12 gallons of bottled water and four pounds of canning & pickling salt for brining


Brine and Cooking

Pig was brined for 24 hours in a 120-quart cooler. Brine mix was 12 gallons of bottled water, 6-1/2 cups of brining & pickling salt with six each sliced oranges & lemons. The extra 1/2 cup of salt was to account for ice melt.

Forty pounds of ice was used to keep pig cold while brining.

Pig was removed from cooler and placed on table covered with plastic.

I did the spit rod and loading myself. This is definitely a two-person job.

Spit rod was inserted from the backend about a third of the way thru empty belly area. Spit fork #1 was slide down the rod facing the back toward the hams. Fork #1 is now inside the belly area, pushed into the hams and tightened.

Fork #2 is installed on the outside at the tail area, after the rod has been pushed thru the mouth.

Fork #3 is installed around the mouth and tightened.

Two SS U-bolts inserted and tightened pulling the backbone against the spit rod.

Whole pig with spit rod was test fitted on the ranch. I had to reset the fork positions for a proper fit. Pig was returned to the table.

Dry rub was applied to the inside belly cavity along with a few quartered oranges and limes.

Belly opening was trussed with butchers' twine and a sharp trussing needle.

Used 22-gauge SS wire to tie the legs and secure them to the spit rod. I'll use 20-gauge wire next time.

Pig fit well the second time, with the exception her front feet and tail. I used a sharp knife to remove the tail and tree loppers to remove about two inches of the front feet.

Plugged in the roti motor and turned it on. Pig was well balanced and not flopping around.

Pig was injected with a mixture of apple juice, cider vinegar, water, salt and Worcestershire sauce.

Pigs ears were sprayed with Pam and wrapped with parchment paper and heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Pig was patted dry with paper towels. For crispy skin I mixed a 1/2 cup baking powder and 1/4 cup of kosher salt. Liberally sprinkle mixture all over pig and rub it in. If I had more time, I would have liked to let pig sit a little longer before firing up the coals. Solo pig prep took longer than expected.

Standard Weber chimney was loaded to the top with Royal Oak lump charcoal and fired up.

Half of a chimney of lit coals were pour into each 22" char basket. Two bottom daisy vents under char baskets were open to about the diameter of a toothpick. Third vent under drip pans was closed. Top vent wide open.

Out of the gate, pit temp ran 275F. Temp was little hotter than I wanted. It settled back to 250F.

Method for monitoring temp was with a Thermoworks Smoke air probe thru the top vent and WRK lid thermometer. Both units read close to the same temp. I could not figure out a better way to monitor temps.

When probe registered 210F, I lit up 3/4 of a chimney with more lump coal. Each char basket received 3/8 of a chimney of hot coals. Intervals between refueling was about 75-90 minutes.

When a new chimney of lit charcoal was added to the char baskets. I basted skin with extra light olive and apple juice in a spray bottle. I'm sure there are better basting mixtures and methods.

Two loaf pans of baked bean were loaded in ranch and cooked next to the char baskets.

U-bolts were tightened three times during the cook.

Everything I read suggested a cook time of an hour and 15 minutes per 10 pounds. So, in theory my 42lbs pig would be done in five hours and 15 minutes. I've been grilling and smoking for over 30 years and gave myself seven hours of cook time. Nope it was 9-1/2 hours.

Crisping skin, Carving and Serving

Nine hours into the cook I recorded the following temps:
Hams 165-180
Front shoulder 180-190
Back loin area 190.
Skin was not burnt and had good color. This being my first pig roast I deemed it ready to crisp the skin.

Two chimneys filled 3/4 full of lump were fired up.

Each char basket was filled with a chimney of lit coals.

The next phase happened quickly so I'm not sure how long I tried to crisp the skin. Best estimate would be 10-15 minutes.

Skin tightened quickly and the SS wire was cutting thru the skin near the shoulder exposing juicy pork.

WRK lid was removed during the crisping process.

Pig was removed from the ranch and placed on aluminum foil covered table. Pig rested for 30 mins.

Shoulders and loin were removed whole with ease and shredded.

Hams were more like sliced pork and a little dry.

The best meat was the thin bacon around the belly, small amount of meat on the ribs and jowls.

After breaking down my first whole pig. I have a better understanding what I need to do next time.

Skin was like eating an old leather shoe, not crispy. Total fail!!!

I rarely eat leftovers, so all the leftover pork went home with friends and neighbors.

Is roasting a whole pig the best method for cooking pork... NO!! I've made better BBQ pork!  It was a great journey and a fun cook.

Cheers

[michaelmilitello]

That's a helluva way to bring in the new year!   Looks like a really fun cook. 


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[toiga]

Damn! Great way to start a new year!

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[bamakettles]

Way to go Robert, looks like a great time was had by all, and certainly some good eats at your place.  Nice pics too!

[HoosierKettle]

Wow that looks fantastic!


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[bbqking01]

Now, that's what I would yell soooie, to. Very nice, great pics. Thank you for sharing.


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[Kain]

Now that's cool


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[crowderjd]

Love it!

[SMOKE FREAK]

Well yer havin way more fun than I am.
Nice cook.

[willian m Pineda]

That's a real luau it looks so damn good

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[bbqking01]

Where are the grass skirts? I see a blue peeking in one of the pictures. Very nice.


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[AZ2FL]

@bbqking01
Most of the grass skirts were in the house, doing what grass skirts do  lol

[cigarman20]

Awesome cook!


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[pbe gummi bear]

Awesome setup and cook. The color on the pig looks perfect.

[AZ2FL]

Thanks for all of the comments.
I'm looking forward to roasting an other pig this summer.

A 42 pound pig is pushing the limit of a Ranch. Next pig will be in the 25-30 pound range.

Next Ranch cook is a 4-1/2 foot alligator for my annual Super Bowl Party on 2/7/21.

Cheers