Warning: If you loved Charlotte’s Web, are a member of PETA, or a vegetarian, I really doubt you want to read this story.
Forget the leis and the tropical drinks, pig roasting can be done right in your own backyard. So that’s exactly what we did for a friends bday celebration over the weekend. Where do you find a whole pig in the middle of the city? Well, before we get to that. Let’s talk about how your gonna cook this pig without digging a 5 foot deep hole in your backyard. Order your very own roasting box from La Caja China or build your own if you feel so inclined.
The La Caja China roasting box.
Now for the pig. Surprisingly there are options around town for securing whole farm animals. After all, we do live in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country. We got our 55 pound pig from Alexanders Prime Meats at Howie’s Ranch Market in the San Gabriel valley. You should call ahead to pre-order the pig and then pick it up a few days days before you plan to roast it. Throw it in a large cooler with some ice and drag that bad boy home.
Stop in at Versailles and ask them for some of their homemade mojo sauce (a Cuban sauce made of sour oranges and garlic). Pick up about four 750 ml bottles and inject all parts of the meat with a kitchen grade injector and rub the skin down with some kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, orange peel, lemon peel and chives. Get it back in the cooler and let it sit for a couple of days while it soaks up all the flavor of the salt and juices.
The pig is placed face up in the roasting box.
Fire up those coals, spread them out evenly once they are nice and hot.
Buy about 4 bags of charcoal, enough to keep the fire hot for about 3-4 hours. Set the pig out to bring it down to room temperature before you start to cook it. You’ll need a digital meat probe to monitor the temperature of the pig through the cooking process. Preheat the coals and load that lovely marinated swine into the roasting box per the instructions, then cook it, belly up for about two hours. Cleaning and re-stoking the coals after the first hour. Turn the pig over, add more coals, and let it cook for another hour, getting that skin nice and crispy.
After two hours of roasting, open up the box and flip the pig over.
Once the skin is crispy, and has reached about 170 degrees, it's ready!
Commence the hog picking.
During the cooking process drink lots of wine and/or beer. You can even buy a grill attachment for the box to cook up your veggies and other assorted meats while you wait for the pig to cook. Remove the pig from the box when it reaches about 170 degrees or when the skin has a nice crisp touch to it. Move the pig to a large table, wait for it to cool off a little and go to town. Start the hog picking when it’s cooled down enough to handle. The meat will fall off the bone, there isn’t much you can’t eat. Take the pulled pork, throw it in some Hawaiian snacker rolls, douse it in BBQ sauce, and you’ve got dinner for about 40+ people.
Mon, Aug 3, 2009
Food