Going Hog Wild!

250 and 200, man those are big/old pigs. Let us know how they come out, I'm not the hog expert, but the ones I've done that big weren't as good as 2 of a smaller weight.

Congrats on the hog cooker, have fun!

Just in after a loooong day.

Agree about the pig size. These pigs were a special request and I had to look for them. The biggest I can get easily dress out at about 150#. I didn't get to try the larger of the two pigs, but my 100# half came out real nice. No problems I would associate with size, but I ran out of time and had to pull from the cooker when the shoulder was at 185*. Good thing I live in NC where chopping is the norm, so no problems to report.

I think I learned something about pumping though. I think the flavor profile of the pump solution needs to match the profile of the sauce. Mine didn't and I think next time I'll adjust that or just use my sauce to pump. FWIW I used 1 gallon of pump juice for the split 200#, or .5gal per side. I remember a debate recently on the board about the merits of pumping, and I can tell you that there was a definite flavor to be noticed, and I suspect it contributed to the moistness of the meat as well. But no doubt, it had a pronounced effect on the flavor.

Everyone liked the pig, and I know by the lack of leftovers that they weren't just saying that to be nice, but I would have been happier with a sweeter pump solution. But I tell you, the crusty outer flesh with the rub was awesome and the crispy cracklin's were gone in minutes. Even people that kind of turned their nose up at first soon caught on once they saw everyone else eating the skin.

And for those of you that need another reason to appreciate what fire fighters do, try loading a 250# dead hog on a cooker sometime. Or even a 100#. Just getting the thing out of the cooler can be a real learning experience. I can't imagine moving a non-responsive human down a ladder.

Lastly, I went pretty light on the pork today, but I held my own in the chicken and corn eating departments. Silver Queen corn is in season in NC, and this is the best I've ever had. Sweet like candy, and with a little gorgonzola butter I put away about 6 ears. Anybody local, a bushel bag(66 ears) is $20 at the NC farmers market.

I had to look pig cooker up, wish you'd got some pigs, er I mean pics, of doing 8 hotdogs on it. From what I can tell it's a huge grill? Or does it cook somewhat differently?

Basically a huge grill, but one that will hold a low temp. A lot of pig cookers won't go above 325*, and many won't hold steady at lower temps, like 225-250*. I held mine at ~320* all day yesterday. It will hit 550* if needed, so it can be used as a grill too, though it's not ideal for that use. Here's one like it with a few hotdogs and burgers:



It does do incredible chicken though. Here's a picture of a cooker like mine doing 1/2 chickens:



And the same size cooker that I have doing a 200# (cleaned weight) pig:



And a bunch of butts:



Inside it's got a 4.5' gas burner under a heavy steel heat deflector. Deflector keeps the dripping grease from flaring up and causing a fire, but it also makes the temp across the cooker surface very consistent.



I'm perfectly happy with mine, but some people have to show off. This is a custom built cooker with 8 4'x6' cookers combined, for those days when you just need to cook 4000# of meat at the same time. Anyone up for making 12,000 BBQ sandwiches?



Anyway, more than most people want to know, but I'm just psyched after using a non rental unit and having everything go so smoothly. Using a new piece of equipment for the first time in front of paying customers is NEVER a good idea, but things went very well. I got lucky. And I sweated off 12 lbs.

Wow, glad things worked out, how long does it take to cook a 200lb pig?

That's awesome. Love to pull something like that up to one of my friends barbecues. It's a tad larger than my Elite.

quote:

Originally posted by doogster:
Wow, glad things worked out, how long does it take to cook a 200lb pig?

The 250# I cooked Friday night took 10 hours, and the 200# I cooked Saturday cooked 8 hours before I took it off. It could have used another 30 min, but we were hungry. Both could have cooked a little faster, but I started them out slow for the first 1.5 hours at about 250*, then cranked it up to ~325* for the remainder of the time.

That looks like a much better idea than a spit roaster. There's a vid on Youtube of one of those. I counted 5 large bags of charcoal being used. That can't have been a lot of work to keep up.

I've been doing this long enough to have had the misfortune of doing it pretty much every way it can be done.

The spit method is fun to look at, but difficult in execution, and we always wrapped the pig in wire to keep it together.

And doing a 200# pig over charcoal takes about 75-100# of charcoal, and lots of attention. Since it's harder to maintain a constant temp, cooking over wood or charcoal usually takes 12-16 hours. That's why so many old pit bosses drink a lot. Using a CS is MUCH easier if all you want is good BBQ.

I was joking mate. 5 BAGS, big ones at that, of charcoal? That thing looked like a bugger to maintain. If it's that hard just go to KFC. The food may not be as good but at least you'll enjoy your day. Your cooker looks like the bomb mate.

Sorry, that went right over my head. But you must understand that BBQ is serious business, with little room for humor and levity. I had to knife a guy once that joked about my sauce.

Face it, any technique that doesn't start out with the BBQ'er needing to dig a big hole is relatively easy compared to what the cave men had to endure. I'm hoping to go to Yellowstone and try my hand at some mega sized sous vide in one of the geysers to get back to my roots.

Now that's a good looking pig cooker right there. Most of the ones I've seen up close are a homemade 'sight'. BTW, how much are whole hog going for per lb?

quote:

Originally posted by redoakNC:
Now that's a good looking pig cooker right there. Most of the ones I've seen up close are a homemade 'sight'. BTW, how much are whole hog going for per lb?

Thanks. I thought it looked good too. I looked at everything I could find, and was willing to drive a ways if needed to get a good unit. I was surprised to see how "home made" some of the cookers looked, and not in a good way. I was even more surprised to find that mine was built by hand. Generally speaking it is so precise that it looks to be machine made, but it's built from scratch down in New Bern. I visited mine while it was being born. Last week when I picked mine up, there were people there from FL, OK, PA, and MA to pick up cookers. I know when I looked that a similar cooker from Texas or Oklahoma seemed to cost 3-4x as much. I guess we cook enough pigs around here to make it a commodity item.

From Nahunta Pork Center at the Raleigh farmers market, under 80# is $1.39 and over 80# is $1.29 per pound as of last week. The under/over applies to the live weight of the pig to determine per pound price, then the selling price is the actual cleaned weight, less head and feet unless you want them. They told me they had sold about 300 pigs Thursday and Friday combined.

Todd:
That is a fantastic piece of equipment you have. Lots of luck with it.

Geaux Tigers!!