Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Cooking a whole pig

Long weekend coming up. I’m going to bbq a whole 35 lb pig.

I’ve been to many pig roasts over the years, but this is the first time doing it myself. Got a good charcoal bbq and rotisserie. I’m an experienced bbq’er with my Weber, Kamado and various smokers, but this is my first whole pig and I’m hoping to avoid mistakes.

Looking for tips on cooking temp, length of time, stuffing (if any). Anything else you can think of.

Tagged! I have done a whole hog (120-130 lbs per half), but never one of these little ones. Very interested to hear if anyone has experience with these!

I remember when I toured Mount Vernon the "cookbook" belonging to the Washington's cook was on display. The page it was turned to dealt with roasting a whole pig. The part that I remember is that it was done when the eyes fell out.

Like SS, I've done the butcher-sized hogs, but never a little bugger.

I've had good luck with recipes from this guy though. The video shows the whole process.

https://howtobbqright.com/2018/02/01/suckling-pig/

Let us know how it turns out. Good luck!

Some rich people who owned a lodge near me decided to throw a party (of course no locals invited, which was fine) and they hired an outdoor catering outfit. I was told they trussed the pig on a spit with stainless 'chicken wire', basically boiled the pig (yuk) until it got 170 deg in the hip joints, let it dry, spiced and oiled it, put it over the barbecue fire to a beautiful brown crusty finish and pretended to the guests that the whole thing was barbecued from the get-go. It must have been bigger than 35# though, because the caretaker told me they fed 60 people and he ate roast pig for a week afterward.

Ive done them 60ish to about 130ish pounds. Have always used a "block oven".

Basically a ciderblock rectangle 3 blocks high. Very similar to this: https://cowgirlscountry.blogspot.com/2007/03/cooking-whole-hog-on-cinder-block-pit_19.html

Build a little charcoal fire in each corner and add wood/charcoal as needed. Always hangs around 300 and will do a 90 pound pig in about 8-10 hours.

Keep it indirect and around 250 to 300 degrees and you'll be GTG. For pulled pork take it off around 195/200. Sliced pork you can obviously take it off earlier. 145/150.

One that small, I'd be tempted to brine in a cooler!

Here some folks use a grill/cooker made from a 275 furnace oil tank. They BBQ market weight hogs, 250-300 pounds.

10 hours at about 265.

Not to derail this thread, a lot more roasting goes on up on the freak show.

Cook to the same temps you would a pork shoulder.

Have some good scissors for cutting up the chicharrone.

small pigs cook at 200* tell the bones will pull out of the meat . that's from squirrel size to 50 lbs thicker meat need a little more heat to get it done on the inside

As others, I've only done 130 ish pigs whole. Mexican or Southern BBQ seasonings on the inside, or just SPG. Rub the outside with salt and baking soda. Cook at 275-300 till 200 ish internal, and the shoulders and hips wiggle easily.

i've helped and done a lot. rotisserie and butterflyed. never a 35 but did one about 60 on rotisserie. do not stuff it. the stuffing swells and could blow it out. have the heat source closer to the hams than the ribs. i prefer the butterfly way now. a lot easier to get an even cook. turn it about 3 or so times during the cook. takes some practice to get the spine split right. get the butcher to do it if you can. if butterfly, start cavity up and do some googling for cuban mojo and soak it good with that. flip about half way done and then again to finish it on its back.

Heat source in relation to ribs/loin and hams/shoulders is good info. That’s the nice thing about the block oven and the fires in the corner. It keeps the heat on the hams and shoulder with out nuking the leaner and thinner rib/loin area.

There is no way to cook a whole hog perfectly. It’s a balancing act. The butterflied carcass and block oven works pretty well. Just make sure to have some good sauce on hand. 👍

Good ideas here. I’m not going to stuff it and I’ll be sure to focus heat more on the ham and shoulders. Crank up the heat for the last hour to crisp the skin. It’s going on the rotisserie, just because I want the look.

225 until shoulders are 185 is what I’m thinking.

This I the method I use. Roast pig is a common thing in Miami

https://cuban-christmas.com/pigroast.html

Small ones like that are a bit more technical. Cook very low and slow... also, take some alum foil and block the heat to the loins/tenders for about half the time you are cooking it so that they don't dry out to jerky.

We use a rig kinda like the block oven except we start out with coals on top and when almost done spread a few under the pig. More around the outside edge than right under the hog. Don't want a grease fire. Just enough to brown the skin. One guest we had called it a Cajun oven. Most are built out of scrap metal, bed frames and roofing metal mostly. 150 lb range for weight, cooked skin down. If its done and skin isn't browned up enough hold coals on a flat shovel right under where you want to crisp it up. Poking small holes thru the skin will let some of the grease out so the loins aren't swimming in fat. All this is a lot more fun when its cooler outside for sure.
Having rambled through all that, never done one less than 100lbs. I could see me drying that one out that small if not careful.

We do a neighborhood pig roast every year. Run to the farm, kill the pig, butterfly it and put it in a trailer pulled smoker and then pull all night shifts drinking beer. When it's 200ish, it's good. Chop the next morning and have everyone bring sides. Have a bunch of kegs of beer flowing, tables of food. It's everything anyone would want.

Sonofabitch butcher sold my pig!!! I’d ordered and given a deposit and when I showed up today they had none. I was pissed!

He offered to tie up 4 pork loins together to roast. He said I’ll thank him when everyone says how good it was. I told him I can cook pork loin any day of the week - I ordered a damn pig!

Anyway, I took it, but now need some idea of cooking time. It’s about 20 lbs of pork loin, seasoned and spiced, tied into one big roast.

Suggestions appreciated. A search of the web wasn’t much help.