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Post by davenott on Feb 25, 2016 20:08:38 GMT
Someone is buying me a whole pig for my 50th, and I intend cooking it in my oven. I don't yet know its size, but they know the maximum length available in my oven is 4ft. I've got a lamb ordered for another occasion and I'm up to speed with how I will cook that, but I haven't yet researched cooking a pig. What temperature do you think would be best, and would I need to remove it and fire oven to a higher temperature before finishing it off, or would I be best with a high temperature at the beginning, in order to get crackling?
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Post by cannyfradock on Feb 26, 2016 19:23:41 GMT
Hello Dave
I've heard of people cooking a suckling pig in a wood-fired oven which maybe cooked in a WFO with good insulation....and with the embers raked out. I would put such a cut of meat in on the descending heat at about 320c ...and leave the oven door off for about 20 mins.....until the hearth and dome lower to about 220c.....then put the oven door back on and leave bake for 2 1/2 hrs..... after 2 1/2 hours your oven may have come down to 140c?......it all depends on your own oven and my suggestion is only a suggestion. As regards a whole pig, there's no way a mature pig would fit in a domestic wood-fired oven....and you would need a low constant heat for many many hours. Sounds like a fire-pit job to me which isn't rocket science to build.....dig a pit about 3 feet deep. Lay some sand and chippings in the bottom and level off with a straight edge or level or piece of timber. Lay insulation blocks (flat) on top of the sand and chippings and lay a layer of fire-bricks or full (reclaimed) clay red bricks on top of the insulation blocks (lay all bricks and blocks dry). If you dry butt 1 course of insulation blocks against the side walls you will be able to fire the pit up and have enough retained heat to cook a cow.
Terry
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Post by davenott on Feb 26, 2016 21:06:59 GMT
Thanks Terry for your informative reply. My oven will be limited by the oven door opening, which is 16" x 12". Maximum internal length available is 125cm. So I can go quite a bit bigger than the normal size suckling pigs I've seen, but certainly not normal butcher size carcass. My oven is very well insulated, and with oven entrance closed, on residual heat I can keep a cooking temperature from 240'C dropping to approx 160'C over a 24 hour period. My last firing was 7 days ago, and the present internal temperature of the oven is still 20'C over the outside ambient temperature. I shall check out what sizes rare breeds are available from; I guess a 35-40kg carcass may be suitable. I like the idea of the fire pit, unfortunately I hit chalk about 10" down, and the problem is the amount and size of the Flint it contains. Dave.
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Post by cannyfradock on Feb 27, 2016 14:15:22 GMT
I've just been looking over your build thread Dave to give me a better idea of what sort of oven that you built. Wow.....what a beast. I touch my forelocks to you Sir. Beautiful oven!!! ATB with your pig roast.
Terry
p.s....I've built quite a few ovens now but have never come across foamglass.(I have heard of it) Nor seen it...or seen it on sale.
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Post by davenott on Feb 28, 2016 7:57:17 GMT
Thanks Terry.
I've been doing some research online, and found it is important to deeply score the pigs skin all over, which helps with heat transfer and helps stop the skin blackening and burning. I did a test cooking a pigs head and when I cooked it without foil found the skin burnt quite easily before the meat was cooked fully to full depth.
I have found some suppliers do larger 'suckling' pigs at 11kg, but ideally I'd want to go bigger than this even. There is an organic farm locally that will supply rare breed pig, prepared as a spit roast at 35-40kg, but this works out pricey.
I have a very good meat wholesaler very close to me, so hope to pop in tomorrow and have a chat with them.
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Post by davenott on Feb 28, 2016 8:04:47 GMT
Another question; would you cook it slow, or would you roast it and cook it quick? Or possibly a combination of both. I suppose the result I'm after, is to replicate the result of a spit roast.
With pork shoulder, when I roasted it, it was obviously not as tender as when I have slow roasted them.
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Post by cannyfradock on Feb 28, 2016 10:06:29 GMT
Dave In all honesty I have much more experience building wood-fired ovens than cooking in them. I would only be guessing......but...if I had to guess I would say that you have enough insulation around your oven for excellent heat retention so I would slow roast the pig. I've seen many pics of a suckling pig being roasted and although the thin skin may "eat" like crackling, I haven't seen one where the skin bubbles up like on a fatty piece of pork. One reason for this is probably the small amount of fat under the skin due to it's age. So...I would cheat a little and after the pork is cooked, I would brush the skin with veg oil and give it a short blast with a plumbers torch to encourage bubbling. Terry p.s....I did have a go at cooking a pig's head once.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptWMvRc2n2o
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Post by oblertone on Feb 28, 2016 10:11:28 GMT
I had a pig & pizza retirement party but the pig was done in a bespoke portable gas oven/cooker not in my WFO. I seem to recall it took about four hours and was incredibly messy due to the quantity of rendering it produced, so factor in some way of removing the byproducts during the process.
ps - It was delicious !
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Post by davidj on Mar 4, 2016 13:12:33 GMT
Another question; would you cook it slow, or would you roast it and cook it quick? Or possibly a combination of both. I suppose the result I'm after, is to replicate the result of a spit roast. With pork shoulder, when I roasted it, it was obviously not as tender as when I have slow roasted them. In my experience you have to go low and slow with pork, if you want that fall apart, "pulled" result. If you're talking a whole hog then I would think (thought admit I've not actually done it yet) that you should cover the hog and go all night with the door sealed. If you start at 170C your oven should still be 120ish next morning based on your posts I think. That should be a good temp and duration to get the pig cooked right. Maybe you'd want to add some more wood next morning then take the cover off for the crispness? Let us know how you go on. I'm hoping to get my oven built this summer, fingers crossed, so would be good to hear your experience.
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Post by davenott on Mar 4, 2016 23:43:41 GMT
Thanks everyone for your replies.
I'm intending to cook it long and slow. I think I need to concentrate on getting the meat nice and tender, rather than concentrate too much on the crackling.
I'm thinking I'll light a decent fire the night before, get up early and use residual heat to cook the pig, with the wireless temperature probe to tell me when the internal meat temperature is correct. If I need to top the heat up slightly, I think I can use charcoal prelit in my Weber starter chimney, and add this to the sides of my oven hearth.
I have sourced a pig. I checked the Internet, and the ones I found wanted £8-9 per kg, with approx £35 courier delivery on top. I have a local meat market about a mile from my house, which I popped into yesterday and they will supply me a 35kg free range young pig for £125. They were really helpful and interested in the wood oven as one of them had been using a WFO in Croatia last week.
I will write up how it goes in a few weeks time. I will also be cooking a sheep next month, so I'll write that up also. Dave
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Post by Bandit on Mar 7, 2016 20:47:42 GMT
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Post by davenott on Mar 8, 2016 10:33:41 GMT
Thanks bandit for the reply and the links look really great thanks, I'll have a proper read of those tonight, so thanks for taking the time to find and forward these. I was thinking about a starting temperature of 160'C, and allowing about 9 hours or so to cook. Dave.
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Post by chas on Mar 8, 2016 16:23:02 GMT
I was thinking about a starting temperature of 160'C, and allowing about 9 hours or so to cook. Dave. Not quite sure what to make of these, but saw them in Sainsbury's at £1.35 for two and thought of the pig... Though I'm sure you have a probe, you can't 'access all areas' while the beast is in the oven, and these might just do the job: they're like golf tees - apparently you poke them in full depth and with the oven at 160c they'll tell you when the meat reaches 82c by popping a little red stopper out the top. Much the temperatures needed, and could save you moving the pig prematurely. Probably best stuck in when you turn the thing around. Chas
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Post by Bandit on Mar 8, 2016 18:21:08 GMT
Google is your Friend?
On tinternet they talk about an oven temperature of about 180 deg C.
Your problem is going to be maintaining a steady temperature, especially if Mrs Pig is so big she needs to stick her head partially outside the oven so the door cant be used.
One of the websites shows a preference for female pigs as testosterone can taint the meat on adolescent piggies.
I use a heat shield to control the radiated het from the coals.
I use a Maverick probe to measure meat temperature.
I would start at about 240 C and have narrow and wide tinfoil to either cover burning skin or to create a tent over large parts of the pig.
Good luck, awaiting your results.
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