Cooking a half pig...any advice?

[schoolsout]

I HATE you right now.. I am so hungry for some pulled pork LOL

Just wondering.. What temperature did you cook at? What temp did the meat get to before you pulled it off?

I recently did my first butt, I did mine on a gas grill (i know the shame, the shame) - i cooked at 225 until the meat got close to 190.. (this is what ppl on another forum suggested) - it came out great and was delicious.. It took longer than it should because I thought I was suppose to pour sauce over it while cooking - which really slowed it down getting from about 160 to 190 degrees.. My 8.5 lb butt took close to 18 hrs - I was told the rule of thumb at 225 was 1.5 to 2 hrs PER pound..

Brian

Can't regulate the PDQ all that well. It was designed to just load the trays with charcoal and let it do it's thing. Cooks hotter than most guys do, but it cooks very well. Probably cooks some of the better butts/pigs I've done. 190 is the internal temp you want it to reach so the meat breaks down and "pulls" easily. When I cook on a cooker with thermometer, I try to stay around 220 as much as possible. I think you did right except for putting the sauce on, but that shouldn't mess it up that bad. I spray apple juice/apple cider vinegar on it pretty good for the first 3 or so hours I'm cooking. After that, I don't bother too much. That's pretty much all I do.

Another trick that I do sometimes is to wrap the finished butt up in foil and stick in a cooler overnight. It continues to cook and will still be warm/hot 8 hours later. Problem with that is...you have to wait even longer to eat the **** pig!

 

[schoolsout]

We are roasting a 100lb half pig next week. I am building a concrete block pit, using charcoal, and smoking/roasting for ~10 hours. Any tips, advice, recipes, etc?

When is the big day?

 

[gregfender]

When is the big day?

Saturday. The weatherman is calling for clear skies and 84 degrees:thumbsup:

 

[gregfender]

Just in case any of you guys were wondering, PigStravaganza 2012 was a blast. Pur the pig on at 5:00am and kept it low and slow until 5:00pm...took it off and pulled it apart...bathed it in some Eastern NC vinegar sauce and it was great! The only hiccup of the day was when I first put the pig on and it started dripping fat, i had a little flame up...the tarp didn't survive...lol

 

[schoolsout]

Nice! I'm hungry now

 

[Car Doc]

Looks great glad it turned out that is an interesting and fairly simple setup for a smoker/grill! I like it especially if a person has room for one I can see lots of possibility's! :thumbsup:

 

[PossumHound]

Looks mighty tasty! Glad your soiree was successful.

PH