A pig and a pit equals a party.
Whether you call it a pig roast, a pig pickin’, a hog roast, a luau or in Spanish, a lechon, a whole roasted pig not only feeds a crowd, it does so in an unforgettable way. There is something about the sight of meat slow-roasting over a glowing bed of embers.
Because a hog weighs 80 to 160 pounds, that’s a lot of party. (Suckling pigs are smaller, at 25 to 80 pounds.)
“I think a pig roast is the last hurrah of summer. It is a reason for people to get together and enjoy themselves, and it’s casual,” said Christina Anderson, marketing director of Lynfred Winery in Roselle.
“We’ve been doing a pig roast at our Oktoberfest for more than 20 years,” she said. The festival started out as the Grape Extravaganza, but a pig roast has been part of it since the beginning. The roast draws more than 1,000 people each day–this year’s fest is Sept. 24 and 25.
“For that many people, we go through ten or twelve 120- to 140-pound pigs,” Anderson said. “The pig roast is a nice nostalgia thing. It has a German feeling. That’s appropriate, since Lynfred’s president and founder, Fred Koehler, has a German background.”
Hmm. A German thing?
John T. Edge thinks it’s a Southern thing.
Edge is director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
“When I’m cooking a whole pig, I’m not thinking of it as a roasted pig,” Edge said. “In North Carolina, it would be called a ‘pig pickin’; in the [rest of the] South, it would be called a barbecue.”
Whatever it’s called, Edge said, “it’s a product of rural folk who were raising pigs. When it came time to slaughter, you might take some of the pigs and cut them into primal parts to make sausage, ham and bacon. But you might also barbecue one.”
Edge said that whole-hog cooking hearkens back to our farm roots.
“You find it more in rural areas because that’s where the whole hogs are,” he said. “When barbecue leaves the rural precincts as whole hog, it becomes ribs and shoulders in the urban setting. It’s like the blues: When it left the South and arrived in Chicago, it became electrified.”
But barbecuing a whole hog implies something more important that barbecuing the same weight in shoulders and ribs, Edge said.
“In whole-hog cookery, there’s something that says ‘this is a labor of a long time, it’s a special occasion because I don’t usually have 24 hours to baby-sit a hog over the coals.’ That makes it special,” he said.
“Bigger packages look like a party,” said Peter Kaminsky, a longtime pig aficionado and author of “Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them” (Hyperion, $22). He tells of having to put together a birthday party “in 20 minutes,” and says the jeroboam (equal to four regular bottles) of red wine he bought on the spur of the moment made the party.
“It holds true with pig,” Kaminsky said. “It’s something that stands out, and makes a statement of generosity.”
Meals bring people together, he said; “There’s just something that rings a bell in our DNA there. When everyone sits down to eat the same thing at the same time, that communal thing is really reinforced.”
Perhaps the tradition of roasting a whole hog began, he said, back in days before reliable refrigeration. “Once you killed a pig, you used to have to eat the whole thing,” he said.
That people find the meat especially succulent is no surprise, Kaminsky said. “Chefs know that if you roast meat bone-in, the meat is sweeter. So I think you can multiply that taste enhancement by the number of bones in a pig’s body. That’s a whole lot of yumminess.”
Apparently, a lot of people agree.
“We cater four to six [pig roasts] a weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day, plus about two a day during the week,” said Mark Link, managing partner and part-owner of Uncle Bub’s Hickory-Smoked BBQ and Broasted Chicken Catering in Westmont. “Plus we do one every Thursday at the restaurant.”
Link said he prefers pigs from 80 to 120 pounds, but that “under 80 pounds is very lean and delicious; we do a lot of those for Asians, because it means prosperity to have that on the table.”
Typically, his crews start by injecting the pig with a half-gallon or more of marinade, then rub it all over with oil. Pigs roast over a combination of applewood and hickory, he said.
Uncle Bub’s has rolling propane-fired rotisseries crafted from stainless steel and mounted on coaxial trailers that could cook the hogs on-site, but the staff usually starts cooking at the restaurant, Link said, “because it takes about 18 hours. We’re cooking very low and slow. Cooking low and slow helps the meat shrink off the skin and the bone. The longer you cook it, the more tender it becomes. You could put it over high heat and it would be done in five hours, but it wouldn’t be tender.”
John Schalz has been roasting whole hogs for more than 20 years. His company, BBQ on
Wheels in South Elgin, averages about six pig roasts a week, with about half for corporate events and the rest for private customers.
“It’s a summertime thing, mostly,” Schalz said. “Birthdays, graduations, weddings, family reunions, anniversaries–any kind of family celebration. We can do them for anything from 20 people on up, but our average size [pig] is about 90 pounds.”
Schalz credits novelty for the pig roast’s appeal.
“It’s something different,” he said. “People entertain now more than ever, and it’s something different than a fried chicken-mostaccioli-Italian beef kind of party. A pig roast is something you only have once a year, if that, and that alone makes it more special.”
Martin Gomez’s pig roast clients want “special” in a variety of ways, he said.
Gomez, owner of Mr. G’s Grill & Barbecue and Catering in Chicago, said he has “done it three ways: Some people want a pig roast with a rotating spit, where you cook it all day long. Then we do it the Western way, where the skin gets crisp and crunchy. And we’ve also done it where you dig the pit in the ground and put wet burlap on the pig before you bury it under the coals.” Sometimes, he said, the customer wants him to cook the pig at the restaurant and just deliver it, but that’s not the norm.
He does a lot of suckling pigs of about 25 pounds for Latino customers, Gomez said, “but the ones we do on the spit are big pigs. What you want will depend on how many people you’re trying to feed.”
For Gomez, a pig roast is all about feasting and love, he said.
“If you love doing it, it’s not really that hard,” he said. “It’s hot, yeah, but it’s not hard. For us, it’s just the love of it. We love to give people the food they want. We do this because we want to show people some love.”
With a whole roasted pig, you can show a whole bunch of people some love.
Just remember the First Rule of Pig Roasts: Anybody who shows up gets to eat.
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Thinking of having a pig roast of your own? These companies do on-site pig roasts. Prices are about $10 to $15 per person, depending on the sides you order.
Uncle Bub’s Hickory-Smoked BBQ and Broasted Chicken Catering, 132 S. Cass Ave., Westmont. 630-493-9000
Mr. G’s Grill & Barbecue, 8480 S. Commercial Ave., 773-374-5075 or 773-759-8912.
Barbecue on Wheels, 1620 Gilpen Ave., South Elgin, 847-741-6374.
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So, you really want to roast a pig?
“Boy,” you may be thinking, “a pig roast sounds like a lot of fun. I bet I could do that at home.”
I bet you could too. But it’s too much work for me.
If you’re determined, here are some strategies and sources to get your pig on the table.
We’re not giving you directions on how to dig a pit barbecue, because the directions are way too long. Besides, earthen pits can be dangerous: The stones needed to line them can explode. So these directions are how to grill a pig over coals or charcoal.
1. How big a pig?
Peoria Packing sells about 250 suckling pigs and roasting hogs each summer, said Harry Katsiavelos, president. Suckling pigs weigh 30 to 60 pounds; roasting hogs 60 to 200 pounds, he said. Unless you’re planning to serve a lot of other food, figure about a pound per person, which takes into account waste from bone, skin and so forth. Katsiavelos said the price varies from day to day, depending on the market. You can order a pig with or without its head, and they’re otherwise dressed and ready to put on the grill. Order at least 24 hours in advance. Call Peoria Packing, 1300 W. Lake St., 312-226-2600. You also can order a whole pig through many butcher shops.
2. Where are you going to cook it?
Build a barbecue pit, if you don’t have one, by laying out a rectangle of concrete blocks with four blocks end-to-end on each of the two long sides. You’ll need 48 if you’re going to follow our plan.
Place two blocks end-to-end on each of the short sides. (If there’s grass inside the rectangle, dig it out. Building on concrete is OK, but it will stain; building on asphalt isn’t, because it melts.) Then stack each of the walls four blocks high. This makes a roughly waist-high barbecue platform, which makes it easier for cooks to turn the pig. It also puts the pig just the right height from the coals.
3. Spit or wire?
Press down on the pig’s backbone to make it lay as flat as possible (for faster cooking). Wrapping the pig in chicken wire and tying it securely will let you thread long metal or wooden poles through the wire along each side of the pig for easier turning. The long poles also will support the pig over the fire. Spit-roasting is a little more fiddly, especially if you’re using a rented roaster. We recommend the chicken wire route.
4. How much should the pig drink?
Many pig roasters like to marinate or inject their pigs for additional flavor. You can marinate in a bathtub, though the tub will need a good scrubbing before and after, and plenty of ice during. Bill Penzey of Penzey’s Spices recommends injecting a pig with about 30 percent of its weight in water or marinade to keep the meat moist. Because a gallon of water weighs eight pounds, a 60-pound pig could take up to 21/2 gallons of marinade. Penzey suggests using a meat pump from a butcher supply company (sausagemaker.com has a few kinds, from $10, or look for Cajun Injector brand marinades at the supermarket).
5. What time do you want to eat?
Your pig needs to roast slowly for 8 to 12 hours. Count back from serving time. Give yourself a couple of extra hours for the fire to get under way, and as insurance.
Use about 20 pounds of charcoal to start a fire. When the fire’s burning well, divide it into quarters (eyeballing is fine), and push one quarter of the coals into each corner so the fat from the cooking pig doesn’t drip on the coals. Put the pig skin side up, with the long poles atop the long sides of the pit. Now you can move a block carefully on the short ends to add charcoal to the corners every hour or so. Figure a pound of charcoal per pound of pig, plus 20 pounds for insurance. Turn the pig skin-side down about halfway through the cooking time if your guests want to eat the skin.
The pig is done if juices run clear when the interior of the belly is poked with a knife or fork, and when the internal temperature has reached 160 degrees (use an instant-read thermometer pushed into the thickest part of a ham).
6. How much should you drink?
Once the pig is on, your only job is to add fuel to the fire every hour or so. Traditionally, this is when the cooks stand around and drink beer. Regrettably, the cooks often fall asleep by the time the pig is done. A rationing plan might be in order.
Within a couple of hours–long before the pig is done–excellent smells will begin to waft up from the pit. People will start to ask, “Isn’t it done yet?” Cooks may have to fend off eager eaters with large sticks.
But eventually, you’ll be ready to eat. And so will your guests.
— Robin Mather Jenkins
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Memphis-style barbecue rub
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 1 cup
This recipe, from Mark Link of Uncle Bub’s Hickory-Smoked BBQ and Broasted Chicken Catering in Westmont, makes enough rub for a couple of pork shoulders. You can double or triple this amount for a whole pig. Pour what you expect to use into a clean bowl; save the rest for later. Link suggested running a little through a coffee grinder or spice mill to make “barbecue dust” to use at the table.
1 cup seasoned salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon each: brown sugar, onion salt, garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon each: sweet paprika, crushed red pepper, salt, dried thyme, rubbed sage
Combine all ingredients; rub into meat at least 2 hours before cooking. Store rub, tightly sealed, up to 1 year.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
17 calories, 14% of calories from fat, 0.3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 4 g carbohydrates, 0.4 g protein, 2,963 mg sodium, 0.4 g fiber
Barbecued mixed beans
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield: 16 servings
John Schalz of BBQ on Wheels in Elgin offers this barbecued beans recipe, which he serves alongside roast pork.
1/4 pound pulled pork or 4 slices bacon, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon chili powder
21/2 cups prepared barbecue sauce
1 can (14 ounces) each, drained: pork and beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans, northern beans
1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add pork or bacon; cook, stirring occasionally, until some fat has rendered and bacon is unevenly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is trans-lucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in chili powder; cook 1 minute.
2. Stir in barbecue sauce and beans. Reduce heat to a simmer; cook, stirring occasionally, until flavors come together, about 20 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
141 calories, 14% of calories from fat, 2 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 3 mg cholesterol, 24 g carbohydrates, 7 g protein, 599 mg sodium, 5 g fiber
Spicy BBQ rub
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 cups
Here’s a spice mixture that John Schalz of BBQ on Wheels in Elgin likes to rub on pork before cooking. The recipe makes enough rub for several pork shoulders. Pour what you expect to use into a clean bowl; store the rest in a jar for later use.
1/2 cup each: coarse salt, brown sugar, sweet paprika
2 tablespoons each: chili powder, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder
2 teaspoons each: onion powder, ground red pepper
1 teaspoon ground celery seed
Combine all ingredients. Store, covered, in a cool, dry place up to 1 year.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
21 calories, 11% of calories from fat, 0.3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 5 g carbohydrates, 0.4 g protein, 1,562 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Hawaiian barbecue sauce
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 3 cups
Swab your barbecue with this sweet, tangy sauce toward the end of the cooking time so it won’t burn, and pass more at the table, said Martin Gomez of Mr. G’s Grill & Barbecue.
1 tablespoon mustard
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon each: Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce, orange juice
1 teaspoon cherry juice (drained from a jar of maraschino cherries) or grenadine
2 cups ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons each: coarsely ground black pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon each: onion powder, orange-flavored liqueur, such as Grand Marnier
1. Combine the mustard, brown sugar, Worcestershire, hot sauce, orange juice and cherry juice in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat; heat to a boil. Cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes.
2. Stir in the ketchup, black pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, onion powder and liqueur. Reduce heat to a simmer; cook, stirring often, until heated through, about 10 minutes.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
22 calories, 3% of calories from fat, 0.1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cho-lesterol, 5 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g protein, 129 mg sodium, 0.2 g fiber
Sweet and spicy rub for pork
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 cups
Martin Gomez of Mr. G’s Grill & Barbecue likes this sweet and spicy rub for ribs. We found it equally good on other pork cuts.
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sea salt
1/4 cup Spanish sweet smoked paprika or Hungarian paprika, see note
3 tablespoons each: garlic powder, chili powder
2 tablespoons each: ground cumin, ground black pepper
1 tablespoon jerk seasoning
1 3 cup each: honey, corn syrup, molasses
1. Combine the sugar, salt, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, pepper and jerk seasoning in a large bowl; set aside.
2. Combine the honey, corn syrup and molasses in a micro-wave-proof dish; microwave on high 1 minute. Stir well. Rub into all sides of pork.
3. Generously rub reserved spice mixture into all sides of ribs. Cook until done.
Note: Sweet smoked paprika from Spain, which adds a spicy, smoky flavor, is available in specialty markets or online at tienda.com.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
67 calories, 4% of calories from fat, 0.3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cho-lesterol, 17 g carbohydrates, 0.5 g protein, 915 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
