Pig Roast ......... Vt style

[scott_vt]

Well on Labor Day weekend we had a Pig Roast up at Uncle Daves place. We were hampered with some pretty gusty winds from the remnants of Ernesto, but we some how perserved

We made the mistake of setting up two 10 x 20' tents on friday, that was our first mistake By saturday morn they were pretty much flattened out with a bunch of broken plastic

We never did get any rain durring the day, but we thought we would

This first shot is a pic of where it all starts

 

[scott_vt]

This next shot is well, proper hygiene, hair removal

 

[scott_vt]

OK, so I told you about the wind Well it was blowin so hard we had to move the roasters into Uncle Daves pole barn to keep a more constant temp, we had a slight smoke problem

 

[scott_vt]

We had some happy pig patrons gracing the grounds, along with their pig noses Of course the beer always helps

 

[scott_vt]

And we all know what happens when the first pig makes it to the cutting table, vultures out of no where

 

[scott_vt]

A good time was had by all despite the threat of inclement weather

 

[Bird]

A good time was had by all despite the threat of inclement weather

I'd say so. Looks like a fine party. I never knew anyone to burn the hair off the pig, although I can remember my grandpa scalding and scraping them.

 

[3RRL]

Scotty,
Those are geat pictures. Looked like a real fun day for everyone. How long did it take to roast that pig?

 

[dooleysm]

We used to put on a pig roast in our neighborhood every year on Labor Day. We lucked out every year for the 5 or so years we did it. Perfect weather every year. That first year we were sweating bullets, because none of us had ever roasted a hog before and weren't for sure how it was going to turn out. We had 200 people showing up and weren't for sure if we'd have bloody pig or burnt charcoal. It took 8 hours in the roaster and turned out absolutely perfect. It's hard to beat the flavor of a well roasted pig.

Several years later a buddy of mine was roasting 2 hogs for his wedding reception. We got up early the morning of his wedding to cut up the hogs that had been roasting all night. We had lots of offers to help, but nobody actually showed up. That was an intense morning as the 2 of us tried to cut up 2 whole hogs before it was time for the wedding.

Those pictures you posted brought back the memories from all those hog roasts. Always fun for me and looks like you guys had a great time too!

 

[Thomas]

Morning scott.
Soooo that explains the wonderful smell in which VT winds push into NH.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Guys,
Glad to here the winds were blowin towards NH Thomas

Bird, I think they did that so people like me could snap some of that crispy skin off after the pig was done, and well you know, eat it

Rob, we started at 5 am and the first pig was done at 1 pm. That pig was 205 lbs. The second pig was about 25 lbs larger and that took another hour.It was alot of work but the guys incharge of the cookin got to drink a little extra beer

Shawn, it was a learnin experience for me even though Ive done this before, after your finished you swear that you wont do it again for awhile

And Eddie Walker, you aint got nothin on these good old boys up here

 

[kossetx]

Scott, Would you go through the process of burning the hair off again? I know scald and scrape is a lot of work. Is burning as bad.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hey Scotty,

How'd you get the pigs in the cages??? All our pigs are wondering around in the woods and it's hit or miss if we'll even see them, much less have one for a get together. Funny color too??? Never seen any that light in color here, all the ones we have here are black, brown or red. hmmm

Obviosly you're doing something diferent than I am.

Eddie

PS, Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[RonR]

I used to work in an ag mfging place. We had a lot of young engineers, specifically one guy from Kentucky who was a real farm boy. He was always in our shop building something or other, or turning in sketches for our shop guys to fab parts for him.

Well, one spring, he started working nights on some special project. He ran a lot of parts fabbed through the 2nd shift metal shop. All sketches, with notes that said "Just put it on a pallet outside and John will pickup tomorrow."

Over about 10 days, no one noticed any unusual activity. Then one day, his boss came out and had me order 10 gallons of Stove Paint. HUH? We didn't need stove paint for anything we did. The boss yelled at me and said just order it already, so I did.

I came to work early a few days later and saw what the deal was: John had built a HUGE pig roaster on a 2 wheel trailer. It would likely hold a 400# pig! I walked by the paint booth and John was just hooking the roaster to his jeep ready to pull it offsite.

I was invited to the group picnic about a week later, where the marvelous roaster (it had a rotissouri!) contained a delicious pig!

That roaster hung around the plant for many years, and was available widely for those that wanted to do a pig roast. That was 30 yrs ago, and it's probably still in use somewhere.

Ron

 

[scott_vt]

Scott, Would you go through the process of burning the hair off again? I know scald and scrape is a lot of work. Is burning as bad.

Afternoon kossetx,
We gutted the pigs, washed them down and then used the flame tip hooked up to the propane to burn the hairs off and then wash again. We did that on friday afternoon and then transported the pigs to a large cooler where we hung them by the rear legs on hooks. Sunday morning we ended up having to cut the heads off because they were too big to fit inside our cookers with the head intact Of course we didnt realize how long these guys were until we put them on the spit

I dont have any good pictures of the holding mechanism, but we had two large plates, one at each side, and they had 8 slots around the edge. We used 1/2" threaded rods with nuts to lock them in position to spin the pigs. Although, after cooking for a few hours we had to readjust the rods because the pigs started to shrink

Then we ate and drank copious amounts of Otter Creek Golden

 

[scott_vt]

Hey Scotty,

How'd you get the pigs in the cages??? All our pigs are wondering around in the woods and it's hit or miss if we'll even see them, much less have one for a get together. Funny color too??? Never seen any that light in color here, all the ones we have here are black, brown or red. hmmm

Obviosly you're doing something diferent than I am.

Eddie

PS, Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

Ahh Eddie,
I was just tryin to flush you outta the woods, heck it worked your head popped up Actually one of our pigs was a little darker than the other Maybe cousins or somethin, Dunno You guys are havin the fun down there, you get to hunt them first, which is a good way to get your appetite workin

Ron,
Good story, I think I might know somthin about govt jobs myself !

 

[RobertN]

We've done a couple of pigs over the years at the Fire Station, for volunteer picnics. One of the guys used to have a big rotisserie. It was open to the air though. I did one for the neighbors party last year; we were able to rent a big rotisserie. Have to be carfeul though, these apparatus will only hold a 100lb pig.

We took 8-10 big red onions quartered, 8 or 10 heards of garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, and some rock salt. Put that in the cavity and sewed them up. Then it was off to the rotissirie. Seems we went through about 100-120lbs of charcoal. We wrapped the pig with chicken wire, and tightened it every 20 minutes or so; kept the meat from falling off as it cooked.

The best part was the ribs, after cooking right next to all the onion, garlic, and seasoning

 

[Ductape]

Red cups, red cups...... everyone at the pig roast is walking around with a red cup ! Hmmmm........ whats in there, koolaid?

 

[scott_vt]

Red cups, red cups...... everyone at the pig roast is walking around with a red cup ! Hmmmm........ whats in there, koolaid?

Mornin Ductape,
Nope, Otter Creek Golden Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we put turkeys inside them and sewed the gut back up, so good tastin turkey to boot

 

[DavidA]

Congratulations! You ole Yankee boys done made barbeque. The smell of it slow cooking will starve you to death. That must be the kind of food served in Heaven.