Pit-roasted Pig

Ingredients:

50kg pig
seaweed or large leaves (eg burdock, curly dock) to cover the pig
sea salt
onions

Method:

The first, and hardest part, is to dig the pit. For a 50kg pig you need a hole that's about is 1.5m x 2.1m and at least 1m deep. The dimensions will, of course, vary depending on the size of the pig, but you should dig it no less than 1m deep. Square walls help in lowering the pig into the pit and removing it after cooking. Make sure you cut the turf neatly as you'll use these to pack the top of the pit during cooking.

Once the hole is finished, place a chimney in the centre (this is only temporary and an aluminium tube with holes cut in the base is ideal). Now fill the hole with your wood. The wood should completely fill the hole and pile up about 60cm above the level of the ground (you will need more than you think!). On top of the wood, evenly space your rocks. You should have enough rocks so that when the wood burns down the rocks will fall and will completely cover the base of the pit (it's these rocks that will provide the heat for cooking).

Next, drop 10-15 charcoal briquettes down the chimney then pour in a whole can of charcoal lighter fluid. Ignite the lighter fluid and get the charcoal going. The safest way to do this is to take a piece of newspaper or a brown paper bag, roll it up, put a bit of the lighter fluid on it, and drop it down the chimney. You can remove the chimney when you know the fire is going well. Once your fire is going, it's time to prepare the pig.

Score the skin and rub in salt and spices. Pig skin is notoriously tough, so you'll need extremely sharp knives and with a larger pig, you'll probably have to sharpen them as you go. Box cutters are ideal. Place the onions in the body cavity then rub inside and out with salt.

Now you need to wait for the fire to burn down. This can be a dangerous point of the project if you're using wet rocks. Bubbles and moisture inside the rocks will expand with heat, and the rocks can (and probably will) explode and crack. You can minimize the problem by placing chicken wire over the fire which will keep pieces from flying all over the place. Once the rocks heat up enough, they'll stop cracking and it will be safe.

Once the fire has burned down, you'll need to place a couple of the hot rocks inside the cavity of the pig. A post-hole digger is good for this. You can use heat resistant gloves but you'll likely ruin them. These rocks are HOT!. Place enough inside the pig to fill most of the cavity.

Wrap the pig first in leaves (banana leaves are excellent where bananas grow), but use the largest leaves you can find like burdock or dock in Europe. Now wrap the pig chicken wire. The leaves will prevent the pig from charring, and any parts left uncovered will burn. The chicken wire will help keep the pig together while it's cooking and will aid in placing the pig in the pit and removing it when it's done.

Make a bed of seaweed on top of the hot rocks. Carefully lower your prepared pig onto the seaweed. Thoroughly soak burlap bags in water, then place them over the pig, covering the entire pig. These will create a type of lid over the pig keeping the heat within.

Cover the pit with a canvas tarpaulin, making sure to anchor the edges and corners with pegs, then moisten the tarp thoroughly. Use the turf to cover tarp completely, starting with the edges to prevent the tarp from slipping in on the pig. Fill any holes with the earth from the pit. Once you've covered the tarp in dirt, soak the dirt and relax. You will need to occasionally moisten the dirt. There's no time schedule on this, but when the dirt starts to dry, hose it down.

Your pig will be cooked in about 7 hours. Just remove the dirt, then roll back the tarp and take out the pig. At this point I find easiest to use a length of rope with a clip (carabiner) at the end. You just attach the clip to the chicken wire and pull it out.

500g of pig meat is enough for 1 person, so a 50kg pig will feed 100 people. For a smaller scale, use a smaller suckling pig.

Pit-roasted Pig

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