FEEDS 70 TO 80
There is not a single part of the pig that I don’t love—including the ears. I also like the idea of cooking and serving a whole animal and paying respect to that animal’s life by eating every bit of it. When you’re cutting into the finished pig, you’ll notice individuals cruising the carving area, pretending to try to be helpful. What they’re really doing is looking for bits of crispy skin, aka “cracklings,” that they can munch on. The good news is that, as coveted as crackling is, there always seems to be enough to go around. When you’re carving the pig, note that you’ll need a large table to put the pig on, and also serving platters on which to pile the pork. Put the pork that you are not serving immediately in disposable aluminum pans covered with foil to keep it warm for those who want seconds.
14 gallons PIG BRINE (recipe follows), or 2 quarts if using an injector
125-pound DRESSED PIG
Six 20-pound bags ICE CUBES, plus more as needed
KOSHER SALT (about 1 pound)
To prepare the pig, two days before the feast, put it in a place where you won’t mind if it leaks (such as your garage), put the pig brine in a pig bag or a large cooler, and immerse the pig in the brine. Throw the ice bags on top of the pig. Close up the pig bag or cooler. Brine the pig for 2 days, adding more ice bags as needed.
Remove the pig from the brine, rinse it thoroughly, and pat dry. Alternatively, the morning of the feast, strain the brine, then load up the injector with the brine and inject the brine into the pig. Pay special attention to the parts where the meat is the thickest, including the legs and shoulders, and reload the injector as necessary.
Following the instructions in Building and Tending an Outdoor Fire, build a fire in a teepee shape, centered, 2 feet from the back wall center of the cooking shed.
Lay the pig skin side down on a large table. Wearing heavy rubber gloves to protect your skin from the salt, rub the whole carcass liberally with salt. Following the directions, rig the pig for vertical roasting. Insert one of the thermometers in the thickest part of the pig’s rump and the other in the shoulder through the breast cavity. With the help of two other people—you need two people to lift the pig and one to slide the pin in—attach the spit to the rotisserie. Place a large disposable aluminum roasting pan under the pig to collect drippings that can be used for basting. Start the rotisserie motor. The cooking time starts now.