I need a pig roaster

Every July for the last 30 + years our block does the block party thing. The party is always food focused with breakfast , lunch and a blowout pot luck dinner.
This year a few of us have decided to do whats never been done at the party and roast a pig!
We've already sourced the pig, fuel etc. but what we now need is a rig to cook the pig. One of the crew has volunteered his parkway to be dug up for a pig pit however most of the able bodied males on the block fall into the too smart / too small catagory and the hole digging idea doesn't seem to be gaining much traction.
We have access to a Caja China which is probably the easiest way to go, but then the piggy is hidden from view eliminating the visual thrill of watching it cook...kinda like watching porn with a bag over your head.
So if anyone cares to share their pig cooking experiences / ideas we're wide open for suggestion.

The way we used to do it was make a decent fire and let the flames die down, and have cinder blocks that could hold steel screens. The pig was split and put onto the screens and every once and a while we would take a spare screen, put it on top of which ever one we wanted to flip, and the spare was now the base.

i cook my hogs(pigs) skin up head on whole time.100 to 160 lbs
but the skin come out best on the la china box.

Attrill has a real nice design that breaks down easy and gives you really good heat control.

I'm still tweaking the design on mine, but so far I'm pretty happy with it. It is as simple as you can get - 2 T shaped stands that bolt together and support a spit made from 1" steel pipe:



I try to go for a roast pig vs. a BBQ'ed pig - i.e. I want the loins cooked to 130-150 and the ham and shoulders cooked to 180+, I don't have any coals in the center, and cover the ends of the pig with a foil tent to hold in more heat. I take the center foil out for a lot of the cook. I'm planning on replacing the foil with 6 sheet metal doors, 3 on each side. If anyone has anything made out of sheet metal (old file cabinets, appliances, etc.) let me know - I'll be glad to take them off your hands!



At the end I crisp up the skin through the judicious use of a weedburner, which not only produces a great skin it also provides a great spectacle!



I've used a variety of stands for charcoal grates, but I built it low enough so that you could just build the fire on the ground and use rakes to move the coals as needed. The whole process is fairly labor intensive, but it works well. Let me know if you're interested in borrowing it or if you have any questions.

Thanks everyone for the input. Attrill I really like the simplicity of your rig , and appreciate your offer to use it. I have a lead on a rig here in the neighborhood that I need to check out this week.
How big is the pig you cooked and how long did it take to cook ? Ideally we'd like to start cooking in the morning and be ready by dinner time.

I believe that pig was about 80 pounds, it took 7-8 hours to cook and rest. I think 100 pounds is the size limit for roasting a pig in the manner shown, above that it's best to splay them out and BBQ them in an enclosed cooker (like a Caja China or cinderblock pit).

The blowtorch skin crisping pic is awesome

AlekH wrote:The blowtorch skin crisping pic is awesome

The Mekons t-shirt is even more awesome!

While the Caja China lacks the visual thrill it is absolutely idiot proof, which is why it's perfect for me. Once the pig is in the box you just add more charcoal to the top every hour.

Last year I cooked a 75 lbs. pig in less than 4 hours.

Inject marinade, put the pig in the box, cover and light the fire. 3 hours belly/inside facing up, open box, flip pig, 1 hour skin facing up. Done. Tender pork crisp skin. It was crazy simple and really amazing.

There's a ton of good info on this site already, but in addition to the caja china (works well but is an oven, not a BBQ, and has size limits) very good instructions are (or were) available on the icuban/3 Guys from Miami site to make a temporary brick pit. I'm biased, but in my experience, Eastern NC whole hog cookers and Cubans know how to cook a pig and this is how they do it - especially advantageous if you intend to cook a larger animal. Splaying the animal flat and roasting covered is the easiest, most efficient, quickest way to get a good final product that tastes like smoke. It's basically cement blocks, rebar and some cardboard or metal roofing. Or have Attrill weld you something up.

If you do the temporary pit, my #1 pro-tip is this: pre-heat the pit the evening before you start to cook, and do not start with an ice-cold animal. These make a huge difference in terms of timing and consistency.

thanks JeffB , Since my original post I've dug a bit deeper. The 3 guys from Miami site is still up as well as a few others espousing the brick pit / splayed method which is looking like the way to go since we will be feeding a rather large group.
One of the cook crew is Puerto Rican, his only pig cooking experience is buying finished pigs from T&C meats. His wife however seems to have a lot of experience making mojo.

in case you're looking for it (I usually have a hard time finding it), Harvestime had a large supply of the Goya Sour Orange marinade last week--it's not a bad option--I usually doctor it up with some fresh orange and lime juice or grapefruit juice...

JeffB wrote:If you do the temporary pit, my #1 pro-tip is this: pre-heat the pit the evening before you start to cook, and do not start with an ice-cold animal. These make a huge difference in terms of timing and consistency.

This is awesome advice. Cold pigs take MUCH longer (I learned that the hard way through experience) and pre-heating whatever smoker/grill you're working with is a must.

traveled to brethern,mi. last week end to cook hog for all mi. college fishing club.
turned out great
115 lbs
partys are booking fast for this summer.