Gonna be pretty wild for the 4th go round on my drum. My buddy was so stoked on my first batch of ribs that I brought him when we got my steer hung in his locker that he insisted I bring the drum and we do one of his little pigs when I come back to cut and wrap the cow.
Not too worried about grease, I will just have to be prepared to adapt if it's an issue.
I will plan on S & P and granulated garlic my first time, which is my recipe start point unless there are any other must haves.....
I did one of those years ago on a Weber Kettle. We tied the front legs to the back legs to keep him curved to fit into the barrel. We cooked him about 12 hours indirect, flipped a few times during the day. It was so long ago I don't remember rubs or spices but it turned out great! No Fear, go for it, you can't screw it up.
Wow, that was low and slow no wonder the results were so good.
I am thinking we will lay him out and score his skin to keep him flat, might have to rig him with some wire to help that.....
On board with the sentiment of NO Fear !!!
Easy burn......can I come to play? Baby pigs are great.
I do a small pig of about 50 to 55 LB's each year on my offset.....too big for the UDS but now I'm starting to think about that. There are lots of seasoning and injection ideas for them little guy's.
A friend told me some years ago not to cut the skin and start it on it's back.....keeps the juices in better. Then about half way through the cook (easy could be a 12 hour cook depending on heat), flip it over to finish. And, yes, there will be lots of grease so keep an eye on the fire. Nothing but bones and a little skin left.....
Man fire food on the cooking channel showcased a place that did whole hogs belly down @ 300deg about 16 hours, then flipped for the last hour to crisp the skin. I think i will try that although I am thinking a 15-20lb pig will go much quicker. A 8.5# shoulder last weekend@220deg cooked in 9hrs, so gonna approximate the target time based on the thickest parts.
Seems like the grease is a prominent concern, although hard to imagine such a little critter packing that much flavor.
It was really tasty, thumbs up from all the boys. You can see in the last photo I did use a drip pan, but next time I would skip that step since grease wasn't an issue. He barely fit in there, but you could always find a way if your piggy is a little bigger. The drum really made it an easy cook as I expected and I would recommend anyone give it a shot !!
Same here. Thanks for posting this. Wasn't sure it was possible with the issues of fit and flare up. Looks awesome and bet it tasted the same. Just added it to next years summer list.