Cook a Whole Hog Over Wood

Hello, my name is Ashley Wheeler, this is my brother-in-law Trent Howe, today we are coming live from Rose

wood

North Carolina, we are partnered with North Carolina Port Castle and we are demonstrating how to

cook

an entire dish.

wood

en pork I'll tell you how we

cook

a wooden one what we have here we have a 112 pound pig um we have it turned skin side down first we're going to clean it a little bit right? Quick, not every time you get a pig from the butcher, it's going to be perfectly cleaned like you'd want it to be, so we're just going to dress it up, get the little blood spots off it. to remove the fleece and we're going to clean the spinal cord that way, when you're done for the day and if you're picking up pigs, you're going to have a nice presentation, so let's get started.

So what is Trent doing here? He is removing the fleece. We do it a lot for the simple fact that it will be one of the first parts to burn on a pig because it is such thin skin that it is nothing more than fat, so you should try to get it. Take out as much as you can while he's doing that, I'm just going to run my finger down the spine, pull out the spinal cord, usually you run your finger through it, it'll come out, just put them in the middle. a bit like opening them up you don't want to go too far because you don't want to split the skin i'm just doing this so it really lays flat sometimes you don't have to do this like i said it just depends on where you get the heart no pig will be the same every pig it will be different, like I said, you don't have to do this, we just do it to make the presentation in the The end looks better, especially if you are peeing, peeking, it's done, let's take our mosaic a little for the blood , so we have our pig clean.

What we're getting ready to do is We're getting ready to put a little bit of salt on it, this will help draw out some moisture, but it's also at the end for the final product, this will give it a little bit of flavor, so that's it. what are we going to do. Make it slightly salty, we will prepare to turn it. The way we cook our pigs is especially in wood. We cook our meat side down and skin side up. Let's take it, clean it real good, like I said, you might get a pig next time.

You may not have to do all this. Each pig will be different. Make sure you remove the meat from the belly. You want the pain to be as flat as possible. After that, we're going to stop the skin very well. This would also attract moisture. and this will help with the crispy texture of the skin. Everyone likes crispy skin. Okay, let's give this pig some fire. What we're getting ready to do is, for the first batch of coals under the pig, we lit some charcoal. We always like charcoal first before lighting our wood pit, so what we're going to do is just take it and throw it in there.

My brother-in-law will come after me and spread them out for me. What we've done is spread the colds in there, all they were is just regular charcoal. We'll do that the first time, for the first time, we'll light charcoal under the

whole

pig once and then what we'll do after that. We will start cooking with wood and once we start cooking with wood, we will go from there right now. We're getting ready to light the pig. Get some of these wonderful embers from here. With attention, be careful. The fire is hot. and it will burn you have our charcoal to spread all over the pig so what we are doing now is we are getting our first batch of charcoal meaning wood underneath and from here on what we are going to do is we are going to take the wood and we will shoot from both sides when I say fire from both sides we will shoot from this side and we will shoot from the back we will not put more ashes no more heat no more fire under the real urine because you will risk burning it.

Our temperature that we're trying to go for is we want to stay between 200 and 300. We don't want to go any higher, probably around 225,250. It's going to take a good 7 8 10 hours, so once our temperature starts to drop that's when we'll turn it back on. It usually takes between 45 minutes and an hour. A good method my grandfather taught me was anytime. you can hold your hand up here if you can hold your hand up here for a long period of time it needs to be shot if you put your hand up here and take it back you have enough heat here so that's just another trick of the trade uh if you don't have a thermometer, you can always put your hand on the side of the cooking pot like I said, if you can hold it there for a long period of time you need to shoot it, but if you can just take it out and there's a lot of heat in there which means you have good heat , so we will return shortly.

Thank you. Okay, we talked earlier about the traditional, uh, barrel burn style, that we use today, uh, we're using. our offset burner uh the barrel works for the simple fact that the weather being cloudy requires a little bit of rain wind so we normally use the top burner open, the barrel we actually have holes drilled in the side, they're all just oh uh car axles that we acquired and we got them where the wood could sit on top. We usually had the wood stacked next to that car and just kept it burning. We have a hole cut in it.

Downstairs is where we normally get the embers from, sometimes you might see us come up here shake the barrel, get the wood and everything we're doing, we're just trying to get the embers to fall to the bottom, so this is what we normally do. we use today, we are using, like I said, the barrel offset by the simple fact that depending on the weather you can pick up barrels anywhere, I usually see people that have them on the side of the road for sale, it's your choice. a barrel for five ten dollars you get a blowtorch, cut it up and you're ready to go get more fire now we'll do the front again shoot down the side a little inhale again in the back 275 about where we are We're going to try to keep it a once again.

We are using a thermometer, but we also use hand touch. She is hot. Look at how the bolts touch the corners, so if you look down the spine of the pig, you'll see the water where it is. it had moisture, what is it, that's where the salt is and it's actually dropped that moisture and where the pork is cooking, so what we're going to do is just wipe it off, just put it right on the grill. It's not going to hurt at all, I promise you what we will do. We'll just apply a little more salt to the spine and bring it back down, doing that, that's one of your key points that, uh, you don't want. have moisture because if you have moisture, that's where you're going to have the hardest time getting your skin crispy, it's going to be along that spine, because it's holding that moisture, so you're constantly having to check it to get it out.

We are currently on our seventh hour of cooking this

whole

wood-fired pork barbecue. Right now, you're getting to the stage where you have to be careful when you light how much charcoal you put in because you can burn it, so what? what we're going to do is look up under the pig, look up, uh, it's good to have a flashlight so you can see, make sure there are no burnt spots and then we'll lift the lid off the pig or lift the lid off the pot. and check that the pork is cooked, that way we will know how long to work, how much longer we are going to be there so we can start preparing other things to start cutting the barbecue, and what we will do. is we're gonna come down here and we're just gonna look and everyone that's looking is gonna make sure they've got the burnt spots so far, it looks good dripping grease like we talked about before, uh, you see the grease on the bottom, that's another reason why we don't you want the fire on the pig to be directly underneath because the fat is dripping, it will catch fire and if your pit catches fire you won't have any problems, okay, let's check this out.

Pig, look what we're going through, so while we check the bottom, now we're going to check the shoulders and as you can see, we're going to take them out a little bit and hold our hands as well while we clean. now we're checking to see if this came loose on that skin as you can see how it's starting to come loose right there letting you know it's getting done this was still a little tight so we probably still have another hour to go and Half an hour left. Let's review this front. You see how the front, the shoulders, are broken much looser than the back hams normally were.

Your hands will be one of the last places to break, but I mean, for the most part. part everything looks good what we're going to do is go ahead and clean it up a little I just want to remove all that salt you better get it all I'll start with a little salt on my body I have a nice color it a different thing between cooking with gas or with wood , again, your gas will be a little bit lighter in color or your wood will be trending darker, you'll see that it's come away from the side flesh, so like I said, probably about another hour 45 minutes to an hour we'll turn it on. again a couple of times and we'll go from there we'll turn it over and check it later see you shortly getting the saw all set uh right now we're getting ready to turn the pig we're going to try to brown some of this skin , hopefully we can make it crispy.

Consider making Christmas fur in a traditional backyard style, as the weather has a lot to say. do with that um some of the old timers we've heard them say that uh boom phases uh the humidity in the air has a lot to do with it so what we're going to do is just wet it a little bit I have an old rag, we'll wipe it down a bit. My brothers will bring me some more salt. Damn, let's flip the pigs. Once we turn the pork, we will put the sauce inside. those hams and shoulders, soon we will reach the top of the barbecue and we will have some cubito for dinner.

If you noticed earlier what we talked about with the paddles, see how the right area became loose and wrinkled. It's a little bit the same as with the hams back here, once we turn it over and it cooks a little more, it will loosen up even more. We checked the internal temperature a minute ago just to make sure everything. It looked good, you're thinking about cooking your pork, you want to check your hands and shoulders and have it at least 195 uh, 190 to 195 200 at maximum, I mean, you can't overcook it, I mean, the more you cook it. of course the better it will be, but at 195 what the pig advice says is that it will fall completely off the bone, so that's the range we're going for.

We were just observing it, but we did it for our safety aspects. I checked it and made sure to see what the temperature really was, so let me grab my gloves and we'll get ready to show you how to turn the pig. What we've done is we're ready to flip the pig. There are several different ways you can flip the pork. When we started we had pig panels. Now we have a little fantasy. Now we have these grates that we used in the old days. They use backup sticks. I have never been. brave enough to try that because I've always been afraid that I was going to drop the pig, but we actually have these, uh, Grace here has handles, so we're ready to demonstrate how to flip this pig just like that, now you have to do it. be careful because your pig may be stuck, but there is nothing wrong with that, if you just crush it, sometimes you may have to feed it, sometimes you may have to take out your pocket knife, trick that is above, just take your pocket now, probably your skin now, especially.

If you're doing a pig picker, you want to try to keep as much pig and contact as possible, so right now we're getting ready to break her hands and shoulders while she's doing it, she'll get the front to back. hem and all we're doing is allowing a little bit of that sauce to get in there and cook a little bit to give it a little flavor, it's going to come right up to the shoulders and while it's doing that, I'm going to go right behind it, let me go. some of that award-winning barbecue sauce and rub it over the ribs, bring it up to the shoulder, put it on the shoulders, just let it sit there, soak it a little bit, something I always come back to here, you're ready sooner.

We showered here to try it out, it tastes like more wood barbecue right here to me, okay, you're okay, so what we're going to do now is get some of these good coals in, this is where you have to be careful. Notice, I said in the beginning we are not going to shoot in the middle no more times the last time you will shoot well, this will be the last time I will start from the sides, then I will go down and I will shoot through my waist a good moment and what we are What we're doing now is working on getting that skin nice and crispy, we're going to shoot through the roof in the back one last time, like I said, you've got to be careful because you're in there, so before we tried to get the skin a little crispy, so If you want to make a presentation for your pig collection, we are happy with it right now.

You hear it? Do you hear that skin what it means? It's going to be tough, it's going to be crunchy, it's going to be one of the best meals you've ever eaten. It's a little dark in here, but like I said before, cooking with gas, sorry, cooking with wood, it will be a bit. darker all you want to do isjust clean it up a little bit, but like I said, we'll turn it over, you won't see the back, you'll see the meat side for the previous presentation if you notice here, we talked about putting that salt here, look how it's a little soft, It's done, but the problem is that's where the water was wet before, that's why we're trying to get it out. a little bit faster, but you can see around us how we get it out.

We put a little more salt on it and it got a little harder, so what we're going to do is turn it over and we get. Ready to cut up some barbecue now here comes the fun part. We're getting ready to tear this pig apart. Get ready to chop it up and we're going to serve minced pork. Today I decided not to pick up pigs, so if you could. pick up a pig this is how you would leave it people would come pick it up you have your hands on your back you have your shoulders you have your ribs you have your loins and you have the belly meat but today we are going to do this like we are really going to chop it so What we're doing now is getting a little bit of that fall-off-the-bone rib meat look and getting ribs that are everyone's favorite any other time we wouldn't do that.

If we have ribs, we would eat them before. Beforehand, at some barbecue restaurants, you can buy just the ribs and have a real dish. When you look at all that meat that comes on the ribs, look how it soaks up that sauce right there. make someone happy like I said, in a lot of places you can buy only real plates, so right now I'm going to get the spine, try to remove all the meat from the spine, as we can, we leave a little bit up there, that's okay, it is not a big thing. Good deal, so what are we going to do now?

Let's wrap them up. We're going to take them aside. You can skip them later. You can serve them as an appetizer. Like I said, they're usually kind of a delicacy. I want to bite into the ribs so now we're ready to tear off some meat because when I start to tear the meat Trent will come in and chop it up so now the ham will be the driest part of the pork that I still want. to get some of that handmade watch the bone come off that's the indication you know it's ready be careful when you pull it off the bone make sure you get all the meat but you gotta make sure. throw away all the bones also make sure there isn't any cartilage that gives a bad taste in people's mouths nothing worse than gnawing on a bone or a piece of cartilage seeing that meat falling apart as you come off that bone seeing that ball come good That's a indication that you know it's done, that's what you want, like I said before, 195 degrees, watch it fall off the bone, okay, let's move on, all right, next we'll get some of this tenderloin, right ?

This is where pork chops come from. Put some of that good meat in there. Look, get out of that ditch of bones. He's watching me making sure I don't throw any bones. I would like to say that he will be the one. cutting today while you're cutting, the sweet music will play, nothing beats hearing the sound of a clever mini piece of wood knocking, okay, we'll be fine, right here, this fibrous part that's going to be your bacon, look right there. That's going to be where your flavors are not going to be any better than that, right there, right there, some pretty meat, okay, what we're doing now, we're just going to put the meat on the cutting board, just put it. here next to it and what does Trent do, he stops with his knife, his butcher knife, so what he's going to do is he's going to cut, he's actually going to chop it, he's not going to cut it too fine, it's not going to be um. because it's cutting, it's actually for bristle bones, if you notice the different types of meat you have, your ham and your shoulder, part of the bacon, you can distinguish it by different colors, some lighter, some darker, once it arrives to the top, he will throw it. put it in the cooler cooler keep it warm and it'll stay warm until all the barbecue is really chopped, then we'll come back and show you how we season it so you can take it like this, that's how it's being prepared.

To start with the backrest, always be careful, put your hands there so you don't cut yourself. We definitely don't want our fingers getting into our barbecue. No, it wouldn't be good and you'll find little things like this. The good thing about cutting it by hand. unlike some people they put it through a meat grinder which is nothing wrong it just depends on how thick you want to get the top but to get that old traditional look we always do it so this is what we are preparing to get when we add the skin. barbecue, give it a little more flavor, don't overload, put too much, but a little skin is fine.

The skin has a pleasant touch. Come here, this little bit here, press twice, here, move right towards it. cover and block again now what we're getting ready to do is this is going to be the last step of the barbecue process before we get ready to serve it, we're going to salt it really well, add a little bit of salt and then we're going to add our style barbecue sauce from eastern north carolina, shake the jar real good and we're going to pour well, what I'm going to do, we're going to come down here and I'm going to start mixing it, usually it goes to take about a gallon and a half of seasoning for every 100 hog. pounds, what we normally put in is a good gallon per quart, you want to taste it as you're going to put it in, you want to put a little bit in there, we'll mix it up.

A good time over there in the middle if you listen, there's good humidity down there, here comes the fun part, let's try it, see what it needs, we have a lot of salt, a little more sauce, mmm, I said we have a very good barbecue today, believe. Us too, he doesn't like to eat some good old North Carolina barbecue style dishes, so guys and girls, I hate that you're missing out on the show's gimmick. They want whatever they want to add for today's episode on how to cook a whole house barbecue. It's not that hard, go out and do it guys, you can't mess it up that much, so if you have any questions, you can always go to the Whole Hog website, Whole Hog Barbecue.com, and it also gives you the rules and the basis, a benchmark of what we talked about today as far as how much wood you need to use, how much charcoal, what your cooking times are, and it gives you basic information on how to make potato salad, make cole slaw, make Brussels stew. recipes good little reference uh a good little tool for your toolbox is what we call it hey you can always hit the print button print it put it in your notebook your folder that we talked about before that could be part of your notes that you keep up top with you