Another hog roast in the books

Last weekend we had our annual Hog Roast.

Evening Before I injected the hog, coated the inside with Mustard, and put a Heavy coating of Rub on the inside.



We lit the fire at 3:00am


Temp was ready by 3:20 and the hog went on.


Breakfast with Sausage, Bacon, And Jowl Back from a hog we killed and worked up.


Chickens were put on at 1:00pm, Hog and Chickens reached desired temp about 4:30 and we uncovered them.



Roasting a hog is not nearly has hard as you may think!

 

Super simple setup.

Hog Pit is just Dry Stacked Concrete blocks, two runs of 8” with a 4” cap block on top. At each end I have the blocks sideways with middle part of block cut out, there is where I add more charcoal throughout the cooking process. I keep these areas covered with another block when not adding charcoal to hold in heat. As you can see, on top of concrete cap Blocks blocks I put 8” wide boards, this just provides space for the hog, you can see the rebar rack resting on the cap block. I cover the pit with a piece of 1/2” plywood during cooking, it sets on top of the 8” wide boards and we put a few screws in it to hold it down flat. In the plywood I put two thermometers so I can keep an eye on internal pit temp.

As far as cooking goes, I keep the temp inside the pit right at 250*. I put digital meat thermometers in the hams and shoulders, I shoot for a temp of at least 205* to be done. Once the temp gets up, it’s really easy to keep it close to 250*

No charcoal goes under the hog itself, just in the corners. We always keep a couple chimneys going with coals and add as needed. It worked out this time that I added a chimney of charcoal about every 30 mins, I put half a chimney on each end. Took about 75-80 pounds of charcoal to cook it.