Whole Pig Roast

 The Kingston Farmer's Market

Roasting a whole pig over a barbecue is not for the faint of heart.  Before we share our recipe for this week’s event, we need to give you some background. 

Charlie visited from London England and Reid from Montreal

People who know us understand that our kids are scattered around in some great cities:  Toronto, Montreal, New York and London (Ontario and England).  There is NOTHING we like better than packing our bags and going off to visit them wherever they are.  This weekend, we headed off to the student ghetto in Kingston to visit our friend Bev’s son, Geoffrey, and the extra double bonus was that some of our children joined us at the festivities.  

The summer before last, Geoffrey spent his free time designing and building a charcoal barbecue big enough to grill a whole pig.  He even designed a special rotisserie “cage” to hold the heavy pig in place while it turns.....not a bad engineering feat for a fourth year Queens Commerce student.  Last year he hosted the first annual Aberdeen Pig Roast, and it was an epic success.  This year’s event was even bigger and better.  We will try to recreate how Geoffrey managed to feed 200 people with a 125 pound pig, and several kegs of beer.  

Whole Roasted Aberdeen Pig

1  125 lb dressed pig

3  3lb  smoked chickens, recipe below

1 double recipe stuffing, recipe from our July blog

Brine, recipe below

3 Litres apple juice for basting

Advance preparation:

Order pig from butcher and pick up the day before the roast.

Prepare apple juice brine (recipe below)

Prepare the chickens and place on smoker at 300⁰F for 2 hours (recipe below).

Prepare stuffing recipe taken from the July blog

Inject pig with brine. Rub with Lemon Pepper. Set aside on ice until ready to smoke.

Go out for a BN (big night)

Getting ready to roast the pig:

It will take 12-15 hours to roast the pig. As we said previously, this is not for the weak of heart, so be prepared to get up in the wee hours of the morning, or as Geoff recommends, do not go to bed in the first place.

Load up the roaster with 2 big bags of lump charcoal and allow coals to burn down to the desired temperature (250⁰F). Meanwhile stuff the chickens. Stuff the chickens into the cavity of the pig and pack around chickens with the remaining stuffing. Truss the pig with butchers twine and secure it onto the spit.

Roasting the pig:

For the next 12 hours, the temperature of the roaster must be constantly monitored and maintained at 250⁰F. Adjust heat by opening and closing the vents to allow for more or less air flow and by adding more charcoal as required. Spray pig with apple juice every half hour. When the internal temperature of the pig has reached 140⁰F, increase the temperature of the roaster to 350⁰F.  This will allow the skin to become brown and crackling. The pig is ready once an internal temperature of 160⁰F is reached. Remove from roaster and allow to rest half an hour before starting to carve.

Notes:

If the roaster gets too hot, spray water on the charcoal to cool it down quickly.   Concentrate the charcoal under the shoulder and butt areas of the pig.

Recipes:

Apple Juice Brine for Injecting into the pig

12 cups water

12 cups apple juice

1 cup sugar

1 cup salt

loads of red pepper flakes

ton of garlic, mashed

Let boil for 30 minutes

Cool and strain

Inject all over the pig

Geoff injected the pig with the brine using a large brine injection needle that he purchased for $7 from Loblaws. In his words “….it breaks easily but can still be used if broken, just use some extra force.  The big injection needle is good for really muscular places – the muscle will bulge out and look like you bruised your pig but the brine will eventually spread throughout and the pig will thank you for making him so delicious.”

 Smoked Chickens for stuffing into the pig.

3 3lb chickens

3 lemons

tons of lemon pepper

Put the juice of half the lemons on the chickens. Rub with lemon pepper and stuff with lemon halves. Smoke for 2 hours

Epilogue:

Yesterday Geoff gave us some more tips on how he continued to enjoy the rest of the weekend and share the bounty with his friends!!

10:00am Wake up Sunday morning after the best BN(Big Night) and chill with the boys, talking about how great a night you had.

10:30am Prepare the first of many pulled pork sandwiches of the day.

11:00am Open up the 'soup kitchen' for all of Aberdeen for neighbours to come in and have sandwiches.

We were a little concerned about the protein/vegetable balance that would be on offer so we brought a platter of Green Bean Salad from our cookbook.

             Green Bean Salad

 

  2        pounds  green beans, stem ends removed

                        For the Vinaigrette:

  3        tablespoons  dijon mustard

  3        tablespoons  honey

  1        lemon, freshly squeezed

  3        tablespoons apple cider vinegar

  ½       cup  olive oil

  ½       cup  fresh dill, finely chopped

            salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add beans and cook until

just tender crisp, about 5 minutes.  Drain and place beans in a bowl of

ice water for 5 minutes.  Drain again.  Lay towels or paper towels over

cooling racks.  Dry beans well, then wrap them up in damp towelling, and

refrigerate until ready to use. (Can be prepared one day in advance to

this stage).

Combine all the dressing ingredients if using the same day.   If preparing

more than one day in advance, omit the dill until the last minute.

Arrange the beans decoratively on a platter.  Just before serving,

drizzle with the dressing. 

 

Another (unrelated) highlight of the week was playing in a golf tournament to benefit the MDRC, an amazing research facility at Wilfrid Laurier University helping hundreds of patients dealing with the effects of Parkinson’s Disease.   We had a beautiful afternoon at the Elmira Golf Club to charge around the course and demonstrate our awesome swings. 

Bev, Mary Ann and Kris