Pig in a hole???

[Bill Turner]

Looking for advice on cooking a whole pig(say 150/200 lbs.live weight)in a ground pit. I've cooked smaller ones on my cowboy smoker, but my grandson wants to try it this way. He is having about a 100 people over in August. Thinks this would be cool. Sounds like a lot of work to me, but I'm willing to help as needed. Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

[Blackhawk]

Bill, this sounds like a lot of work, but I bet it's worth it.

 http://www.hub-uk.com/foodpages12/recip0597.htm

[Butts]

Bill,
We have done a few in the past, easy to do and the pig is great.

The hardest part is to dig the pit. Ours was about 4'x3'x3' deep. Build a nice big fire that will produce a lot of coals. After the wood burns down to coals put a piece of barn tin over the coals. This is what we placed the pig on.

This is how we did ours.

The pig was cut into about 8 pieces. That way it was easier to handle. Spice the pig with whatever you want. Wrap in cheesecloth, double wrap with aluminium foil. Place onto the barn tin in the pit. Cover the hole with another piece of metal and cover with dirt to seal in the heat.

We would start the pig around 8pm and would dig it up around 10am the next day.

Remove the dirt, metal and finally the pig. Pull and enjoy.

Some of the best pig I have ever had!

Good luck!

[Al Dente]

The Kalua Pig originated in Hawaii.  A pit is dug and lined with large stones.  Then a hardwood fire is built and left to burn down to glowing coals.  The pig is seasoned inside and out, then tucked into a piece of heavy wire mesh, this is used to carry the pig and lower the pig into the pit.  The coals are covered with banana leaves, then the wire-mesh incaed piggy is lowered into it.  More banana leaves, then a tarp, and finally a layer of dirt is shoveled on top.  Walk away, and come back 12-18 hours later.  The mesh will support the piggy when you lift it out.

[kurtbel5]

Al Dente
You have it right, and the spice is just rock salt, inside and out. Its similar to pulled pork for you southern boys

[Steve in Canton]

Be careful if you use stone that was either at the bottom of a river or sandstone.  I have a friend who is blind because he lined a fire pit with sandstone which blew up when the fire got to hot.  the water molecules inside the rock expanded causing the sandstone to explode.  I would recommend lining your firepit with brick that was made for high temps.

[Joseph]

The way we did it was very similar except we don't have bannana leaves in Montana.  Dug a pit, put in rocks, made a fire.  Rolled out some chicken wire, then put down burlap that had been soaked in water, covered this about 8 inches deep with lettuce.  The pig was put in the middle and all of this was wrapped around the pig and secured with wire.  Put a little dirt over part of coals and rocks then put the pig in, more dirt then coals and rocks with a lot of dirt on top.  Good stuff.  You can also stuff the cavity on the pig with chickens, apples, and oranges.  Joseph

[carparcher]

Here in Oklahoma we have had a wet spring.  We usually have a spring bash and cook a hog in the ground, but this year we had to impravize.  We made a "pit" out of cinder blocks stacked three layers high.  We lined the bottom two layers w/ foil, then put two bags of charcoal on it.  After letting the coal get white, we put the pig (split & between two over racks w/ sucker rod run through for handles) over the pit.  The night before we butchered, scalded, scraped, and injected the hog w/ HeadCountry BarBQ sauce and rubbed it down w/ Wham.  We turned the pig about every hour and mopped it real good.  After about ten hours it turned out like a beauty....

 

[Al Dente]

What, no banana trees in Montnan.  you've got to be kidding me Joe!!!!  Nice piggy Carp!!!

[JMartin]

carparcher.....that looks GOOD!