Meself, JA inquired,
>My son just called to ask what could
>make up the best ingredients for brining
>a whole pig he will be roasting
>underground....
I learned after posting that instead of underground, this year he's
using the "smoker" he built out of one and a half 55 gallon drums. Last
year's piggie did turn out quite well using the smoker, so he'll not be
"grounding" anymore.
Barb
>comments....
>>Jeanine, I've never eaten pig roast
>>meat that I felt would have benefitted
>>from brining. Whatta bunch of work, if
>>you ask me.
Picking up the pig in the morning, to be roasted beginning at midnight
has to be kept on ice anyway, so why not add brining ingredients to that
huge, three door cooler he uses for that keeping cold purpose? No more
work, other than boiling a few2 quarts of water in which to enliven the
seasonings before tossing into the ice.
>>Piggy I've eaten has sometimes been
>>stuffed with a large muslin bag filled
>>with kraut -- bagging the stuffing makes
>>it cinchy to remove from piggy for
>>serving.
I don't remember all that he stuffs his swines with, but I do know he
glops in a few cut apart chickens, along with whole celery ribs,
quartered onions, and whole carrots with lots of black pepper. Because
of his impatience for a brine ingredients tell, I ended up giving him a
quantities guess and used Bob Pastorio's (saved to share) tell of (I
think, but probably not complete here) two boxes of brown sugar, one box
of kosher salt, one whole bag of black peppercorns, an entire cup of
dried herbs (rosemary, oregano, parsley, garlic, thyme?), a bag of bay
leaves, and I can't remember what else there may have been.
>>If you take pictures of this, though, I'd
>>be happy to put them on my website for
>>all to enjoy (since you're not sharing the
>>pigmeat, wench!)....Can't wait to hear
>>about the party. Who you feeding pig
>>roast?
BabyJohn and I would both be honored to
become a click on your always entertaining webpage, dear Barbara. But,
alas, my son lives across too many miles for me to be there for what has
become his expected pig roasting New Years bring-in. He's doing this
for the fourth time now, for which friends all gather at the
large-yarded home of his running buddies here in Southern California.
John's dad does live nearby enough to have made the trip last year,
though, and this is a man that loves hosting very involved and different
cookings. Dad overwhelmed John with compliment that the piggy was even
better than what he'd enjoyed on any one of his several Hawaiian trips.

Last year's pig was a 120-pounder, head and all. This year it will be a
headless, ninety pound one. Of what I remember about his doing tell, he
stuffs it and runs the rotisserie rod through it's spine with wiring all
around the outter skin, then heavily wraps beer drenched cheesecloth all
around, and they frequently spray beer on the piggy for not only keeping
flames at bay as it roasts, but to aid in keeping it moist. Dad reports
that it is the most tender and delicious pig ever, and of course the
chicken parts are superb.

Picky ~JA~