Birthday Pig Roast

We roasted a pig for Tony's 30th Birthday party last weekend.  I wouldn't say it was easy but it was surprisingly straight-forward.

Tony did quite a bit of research in advance.  He got a lot of tips from this New York Times article. 

The weekend before the pig roast, Tony and his dad, Terry, dug a large pit by hand.  On the weekend of the pig roast, Tony started a big fire mid-day on Saturday and let it burn for about 3 1/2 hours.

The pig was prepared by rubbing a mixture of spices (paprika, kosher salt, cumin, brown sugar, garlic powder, sage, and oregano). If we did it again I would rub the pig with a sauce and maybe some molasses and beer for a little more flavor infusion in the meat.

Then we stuffed the pig with fruits and veggies (pineapple, yams, sweet potatoes, red onions, and squash). 

Once the pig was stuffed.  Tony added some hot rocks from the fire to the inside of the pig to cook it from the inside out.

Then the pig was wrapped in corn leaves and wet burlap coffee sacks. 

Then the whole package was wrapped with medium-gauge un-galvanized steel wire to hold it together through the cooking process.

 

After it was wrapped up tightly,the ends were connected to large chains so the pig could be lowered into the pit of hot coals and covered with dirt.

 

Then. 24 hours later. We ate :)