Whole Pit Roasted Pig Food

WHOLE PIT-ROASTED PIG

Steps:

• 1. Allow 1 lb. dressed meat per person.
• 2. Dig a hole about 2½ feet deep at center, with a diameter of 5½ to 8 feet, depending on the size of your pig. Line with rocks.
• 3. Stack wood on rocks, Indian tepee style. Light fire. Place dried round rocks in fire where they will get the most heat.
• 4. While fire burns down, wet the burlap, and prepare the pig. Rub inside of pig with salt, pepper and garlic, Place pig on chicken wore. Under legs, make slits big enough to inset round rocks.
• 5. When fire has burned down and rocks are very hot, use tongs to fill abdominal cavity and slits in legs with hot rocks. Tie front legs together, then back legs. Wrap pig in wire, fastening well (so it can be lifted).
• 6. Completely cover ashes with corn stalks and leaves. Lower pig right onto leaves. Cover it generously oin top and sides with more leaves.
• 7. Place wet burlap over leaves (this will hold heat and steam).
• 8. Cover with large canvas; shovel gravel over canvas to keep steam in.
• 9. To uncover, remove gravel, canvas, burlap and covering leaves. Life and carry wire-wrapped pig with hooks. Remove wire to serve.

WHOLE KAHLUA PIG ROASTED IN A SAND ENCLOSED OVEN FOR A LUAU

Steps:

• Dig a pit in the sand 2 feet deep and 6 feet in diameter. Add the river rocks and cover with enough of the wood to get the fire underway to heat the rocks. (You will add the additional wood as needed.) Start the fire (to heat the rocks to 800 degrees F). Add the metal panels on top of the fire to contain heat without smothering the fire.
• Using assistance place the gutted pig in the supine position on the stretcher-like platform and wrap the affixed chicken wire around to mostly secure the pig, but leaving enough room to be able to put the heated lava rocks inside the body cavity.
• Place some banana "stumps" in the body cavity of the pig to serve as a buffer between the hot coals and the pig meat to prevent the flesh from burning.
• Protecting your face, hands, and body with proper gear and using safe equipment, remove enough of the metal panels from the fire to retrieve the heated rocks with fire safe tongs. Someone will use heavy fire mitts to hold the rocks in a pair of tongs, while the other person uses the ti leaves "brush" to dust off the ash. The rocks with the ash removed are then placed one-by-one in the cavity of the pig so it will cook from the inside out with dry heat. Place some additional banana "stumps" in the body cavity of the pig to serve as a buffer between the hot coals and the pig meat to prevent the flesh from burning. The carcass of the pig is then closed with chicken wire and additional metal wire as needed to secure the chicken wire. Remove the attachments that have been holding the chicken wire to the stretcher. Transfer the pig to sit atop the metal panels of the imu, and use the additional ti leaves like aluminum foil, placing them dull side up, shiny side down in a cross configuration to steam the exterior of the pig with the moisture from the ti leaves.
• When the pig is cooked through, approximately eight hours, use assistance to remove it from the fire, let rest for 30 minutes, then carve it down. The cheeks of the pig should be reserved for the most honored guest.

WHOLE ROAST SUCKLING PIG

Steps:

• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare the pig: Wash it, including the cavity, under cold running water, and towel-dry thoroughly, the way you would dry a small child after a bath - ears, armpits, chest cavity, face, legs, backs of knees.
• Sometimes there are imperfections remaining after the slaughtering and processing of the animal. Use dish towels or sturdy paper towels to rub away any dark spots on the ears, any little bit of remaining bristles around the mouth. Like that yellow, papery flaking skin you sometimes find on chickens, which can be peeled off to reveal tender, fresh skin underneath, a similar bit of crud can remain on pigs' chins and under their belly flaps. Clean this little cutie as if you were detailing your car! The purple U.S.D.A. stamp, however, is indelible. But not inedible.
• Bard the pig with all 20 garlic cloves, making deep incisions all over with a thin filleting knife and shoving the cloves into each pocket; include the cheeks and the neck and the rump and the thighs and the loin down the back and the front shoulders, all areas of the small creature that have enough flesh to be able to receive a clove of garlic. (Sometimes I find I have to slice the larger cloves of garlic in half to get them to slide into the incision.)
• Rub the entire pig in oil exactly as you would apply suntan oil to a sunbathing goddess of another era, when people still were ignorant of the harmful effects of the sun. Massage and rub and get the whole creature slick and glistening. I do this directly in a very large roasting pan.
• Wash and dry your hands. Take large pinches of kosher salt, and raising your arm high above the pig, rain down the salt in an even, light dusting all over. You can start with the pig on its back and get the cavity and the crotch, and then turn it over and get the back and the head and flanks. Or vice versa. But in the end, the whole animal is salted evenly and lightly, snout to tail.
• Arrange the pig in the roasting pan, spine up, rear legs tucked under, with feet pointing toward its ears and its two front legs out ahead in front. Sometimes the pig needs a sharp, sturdy, confident chiropractic crack on its arching spine, just to settle it in comfortably to the roasting pan, so it won't list to one side or topple over.
• Put the potato deep into its mouth, and place in the oven, on the bottom rack, and roast slowly for about 4 to 5 hours, depending on the size of your pig. (Plan 15 minutes of roasting time per pound of pig; if you have a 20-pounder, then you'd need about 5 hours total cooking time.) Add a little water to the roasting pan along the way if you see the juices are in danger of scorching, and loosely tent the animal with aluminum foil in vulnerable spots - ears, snout, arc of back - if you see them burning. For the last half-hour, raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees, and cook until the skin gets crisp and even blistered, checking every 10 minutes.
• Tap on it with your knuckle to hear a kind of hollow sound, letting you know the skin has inflated and separated from the interior flesh; observe splitting of the skin at knuckles - all good signs the pig is done. Or use a meat thermometer inserted deep in the neck; the pig is ready at 160 degrees. Let rest 45 minutes before serving.
• Remove the potato, and replace it with the apple. Transfer the pig to a large platter; nestle big bouquets of herbs around the pig as garnish. Save pan juices, and use for napping over the pulled meat when serving.