The Most Ridiculous Pig Roast Ever:
Roasting a Pig on a Backpack Trip!!!!
1/24-25/09
OK, this may not count as a Commercial roast, but it's a pretty silly story about roasting an 18lb pig on ... ... a Backpack Trip!!!
BACKGROUND:
During my catering offseason, I try to reconnect with all the friends I've blown off during the summer. I really try hard to "have a life", and do things I enjoy. One of my hobbies is "Backpacking". I've been doing this for years with a core group of 6 or 7 College Buddies, who've pulled in a small handful of other like-minded friends. (The age range of the core of this group is now 44-46 or so, although some of the newer additions are in their late 20's) . I usually find myself on 3 backpacking adventures per year....
One of our "regular" trips is what we've coined "The Manly Man Backpack Trip". Every January, we hike into Harriman Park, NY for usually an overnight trip, sometimes a 2-night trip. Being that we're "Manly Men", we pretty much deal with whatever Mother Nature has to offer us. We've hiked in single digit temps, with a foot of fresh snow on the ground, we've hiked out as a blizzard moved in, etc.. Persistent Freezing Rain is about the only reason to think twice, because 1.) It's kinda hazardous to be cold AND wet (but we've "been there, done that") and 2.) We're beyond the point of trying to prove anything to anybody. Easier just to extend the party scene back at my house and delay entry, or worst case, abort..
Although it's still "Backpacking", the January trip is unlike standard backpacking trips where we pack the lightest, most efficient gear possible so you don't kill yourself over 8-12 miles per day of hiking. This trip is only about 1.3 miles into the woods, which allows the bringing of overstuffed backpacks full of "luxuries".. Like 5L sized Kegs of Beer, vast amounts of Food, and equipment that would be unheard of if you were doing a "standard" backpack trip. Lots of wood management tools, like Long Handled Axes and collapsible Sven saws. (Fire/Wood duties becomes our primary mission). The primary focus of this trip however, is gluttony. Without exaggeration, we end up eating almost every 15 minutes for the entire duration of the trip!! (Calories burned: 4000; Calories Consumed: 20,000). So although you can call it "Backpacking", a more accurate term might be "Buffet Packing", or at the very least "A Party In The Woods". I should mention that some of my friends are "foodies", who really have some higher level culinary skills. (a couple of those guys are also Crew Members of "Eddie's Portable Pig Out!" (Karl & Kevin)).
THE SPAWNING OF AN IDEA:
I've gotten into the habit of trying to "up the ante" culinarily on each trip.
Always trying to do something tasty, easy/efficient and cool! Almost as long as I've been doing commercial pig roasts for EPPO,
the Manly Man have been joking about having me do a "Pig Roast" in the woods.
[The sick joke was to bring a LIVE pig in, making it carry it's own cooking
apparatus with it's specially fitted harness, then butchering it up in the
woods. I'll spare you the rest of the sick jokes, but suffice
it to say that once these drunken buffoons are standing by the fire, the humor
is about as twisted and disgusting as you can possibly imagine. .....My
favorite part of the trip]. For years,
the idea of a Pig Roast had popped up as a topic of discussion, then we
rationalize why we'll never do it, then move on to the next tired old subjects
(which usually involve bodily functions, sexual deviancy, tales of substance
abuse from the days of old, the latest in stupid things we or others did, the
whole host of repulsive jokes, followed by the discussions of how our aging
bodies are failing us, one hair follicle at a time. etc).
But the idea of a pig roast never quite left my mind.. I love a
challenge..
REALITY:
The reality is, that a pig roast for a Backpack trip is completely, grossly, and stupidly inefficient!! Aside from the obvious absurd amount of weight to add to a backpack, and the unusually long cooking time.... The pig itself has a large amount of waste: Head/legs/bones/fat, etc. A significant percentage of the pig will end up being discarded. And the apparatus to roast the pig also adds packweight. We're not just talking about the Spit itself, but all the smaller odds and ends necessary to make it happen. Could easily be 10-15lbs of extra support gear required. And then, there's LOTS OF WORK involved, sucking EVERYBODY into the process. The pig roast ends up taking center stage for hours. What it all boils down to, is that there are FAR BETTER choices for backpack trip meals, such as steaks, pork chops, chicken breasts, or any other thin cuts of meat....or Boilable meals from Dehydrated Pouches, or Wok-able meals...etc, etc.. Yet, still a pig roast is not impossible...
JUST DO IT!!!
Anyway, stupid as this whole entire concept was, I decided to do it! If nothing else, we'd get the "Bragging Rights" for doing something completely silly...and we'd be guaranteed a whole lot of fun in the process!. Something spoke to me here. Maybe it was the need to just stop talking about it! Maybe it was the desire to perform Pig Roast R&D. Maybe it was because I knew I'd get a charge out of trying! Maybe it was to heed the motto of "Let's Party Anywhere!". For sure, it would be a huge Culinary Adrenaline Rush for me!!! Another factor: I had some scrap material onhand, perfect for making the apparatus.
So, the chain of silly emails began. Within a 24 hour period, I talked myself out of, and then back into doing it. A few of the Manly Men immediately voted this down... But then I pulled the trigger. I ordered a 13lb Suckling Pig, then announced to the Manly Men that we're officially doing it! I kinda steamrolled this onto them, but was happy to see that everyone eventually got onboard enough to "give it a go", despite the obvious ridiculousness of it all.. Psyche was building!!! I then built the spit, reporting the step-by-step progress to the Manly Men via email. In that chain of emails, we kicked around several options on how to do it too...one of the bigger debates was whether to have two fire pits or one large one. (Raging fire for warmth, cooler fire for cooking).
THUMBNAIL SKETCH:
(For those of you who don't want to read any more) Flashing forward to the gist of the story: I picked up an 18 lb pig, 5lbs more than planned. I brined it on Friday night. On Saturday morning, I somehow managed to get the pig attached to my backpack.. We hobbled into camp.. we built the fire pit, got the pig on by around 3pm... 3.5hours later, we were eating outstanding tasting pork!!! It exceeded everyone's expectations and went down as one for the record books, thanks in part to the teamwork showed by all 10 guys. Very little left!!!
THE REST OF THE GORY DETAILS & IMAGES:
What follows from here down are all the gory details, specifically written for other backpackers, other cooks, other pig roasters, or anybody else who has a deeper curiosity in how it all transpired.
Although I have a hell of a lot of experience roasting pigs on professionally fabricated roasters (~30 pigs/year), I never roasted a pig on a backpack trip before. And since there wasn't much guidance out there, I had to engineer this from the ground up. Like any other project, you start with a "Vision", then you work towards a "Plan", then you "Enact the Plan". But "The Plan" only takes you so far. Once committed, the plan takes a back seat to the "Reality" of the situation. At that point, all you can do is "Adjust and Adapt", "Roll with the Punches", and GET IT DONE. How it actually turns out versus how you thought it would turn out are usually two different things, because that's how all projects work! There was huge potential for utter failure.
There's only been a few points of experience with large hunks of meat: On a previous backpack trip, I humped in a fully-cooked, spiral-sliced Holiday Ham. After 2 hours, it still didn't heat thru enough, so Plan B was enacted (grilling slices). However, Kevin once brought in a large hunk of beef, and suspended it over the fire with a wire. It came out very nice.. But an overarching thought was: They've been roasting meat on spits since the beginning of mankind. Why wouldn't it work? We've got several smart guys onhand, who can engineer their way out of anything. This will happen, one way or another!
From the outset, I tried to build some flexibility into the plan. As an example, I knew the existing fire pit could have been any diameter, so I built some adjustability into the spit. (the 6 sided block with the set screw). I brought extra wire (rigid AND flexible) and huge sheets of foil, because I knew we'd have to rig up something for the foil wind shield. In the event that the whole thing failed, Karl brought a Wok so we could hack the pig apart and stir-fry it up. And everyone brought more than the usual amount of food, just in case things didn't work out at all!!
As I write this, I'll try to discuss what we THOUGHT would work, then what ACTUALLY worked, which will also touch on IMPROVEMENTS that could've helped the process for "the next time". .(or for any of you who'd like to try something similar).
Planned Apparatus Described:
First Image
-4' long 1/2" Diameter Stainless Steel Rod is the spit itself. Crank Handle bent into it (5" offset, 5" handle). Several (4) small holes drilled laterally thru the spit, to allow Stainless Steel TIG Welding Filler rod to lock the pig to the spit.
-2" long hunk of 2" wide, 6-sided rod stock, machined to slide onto the end of the Spit. This will stay put with a set screw (not a thumb screw as shown here). The 6-sided block will contact the hopefully level rocks on top of the fire pit. Will allow the pig/spit to be turned 60 degree's every so often, and stay in position...even if the spit is unbalanced, perhaps with the help of the weight of a large rock.
-6 or 7 lengths of Stainless Steel TIG welding filler wire, intended to lock the pig to the spit, and be utilitarian (use wire on foil wind guard?)
Note: All Images are Clickable!!!
Here's a closer look at the "Planned" Backpackable Pig Roast apparatus, as
it was intended.
Second Image
-3 long (6') sheets of Heavy Duty AL foil, seamed together to make a heat reflector to "enclose" the pig & firepit as much as possible (temps will be in the teens during cooking).
-A digital meat thermometer and extra batteries. (cold weather and batteries don't mix)..
-Ice pick to work TIG wire thru pig. (Needs a sheath to protect pack from pointed tip).
-Buck Knife for Carving.
-Tongs for pulling meat and serving.
-Leatherman Tool for Cutting wire.
-Wok & Wokula
-Paper Towels
Here's
a closer look at the rest of the "Planned" Backpackable Pig Roast Apparatus.
Not Shown
-A small ash shovel to manage coals.
-Very Thin Poly Cutting board, which is part of my base backpack contents..
-2 1/2 Deep sized Foil Pans (one was used).
-Hand Sanitizer
Moving on with the story: I picked up the Pig Friday after work from Sussex Meat Packing in Wharton, NJ. Even though I ordered a 13lb pig (figuring on the usual 7ppl), they handed me an 18lb pig!! Not really great news at the time because the roast just became 5lbs more ridiculous, $25 more expensive, and probably another hour longer of roast time. (In case you're wondering: $4.50/lb, $80 Dollars!!!) By the way, the pig is "Dressed", which means it's gutted, cleaned, hair removed, etc. Probably only a few months old, and likely processed on the Wednesday prior.
When I got
home, I prepared a Brine
(1 Liter water, 1/4 C Kosher Salt, 1/8 C granulated Sugar), Boiled it, cooled
it completely, and injected it into the pig. The pig was placed
inside double large plastic garbage bags to sit in the refrigerator overnight. I
haven't worked with Brines on Commercial Pig Roasts for logistical reasons...but
this one was small enough to experiment with. Brines add flavor, and
increase the liquid retention of the meat. Better to submerge the pig in the brine, but I decided to inject it
directly under the skin. The brine DID add a nice
flavor, may have been responsible in part for this being the best pig I ever
tasted, so I hope to experiment with brines some more.
The guys all started to show up to my house on Friday night to stage for the next day's insertion. (The Friday night gathering has become more of an excuse to get the party started early). And they all got a charge out of the pig prep. Right away, we got into gluttony-mode. We tore thru mounds of snacks/beers, then roasted Judd's 8lb Chicken (intended for the backpack trip, but abandoned), and had a huge pepperoni Sicilian Style Pizza. Watched "The Machine Girl", a very violent Japanese flick. The next morning, I fed everyone a hearty breakfast. We were pulling out of my driveway around 10am, and at the Tuxedo Park, NY Parking lot around 11am. Already each of us 5lbs heavier than the day before.
Here's what my pack started to look like. The Black Gym bag with the
yellow lettering is where the pig and some pig roast accessories were kept.
The gym bag itself allowed easy attachment to the backpack frame, although it
was poorly placed in the picture. On Rich P's suggestion, I switched the
position of the pig with the sleeping bag, placing the pig's gym bag lower on the frame.
Notice also my "Hiking Poles". You can see the
welding filler wire Scotch taped
to the handle of the spit. You can also see the 6-sided block
at the bottom of the pig spit. I think I walked 10
feet before the Welding filler wire started to fall off and annoy my hands.
It had to go elsewhere. (Kevin
carried it in). Scotch Tape=Bad Idea.
Here's
me! Note the different position of the pig's black gym bag on the backpack
frame. The entire pack weighed 65lbs. Includes Ridge
Rest, sleeping bag, solo tent, 2.5L water, 6 random other beverages, a huge bag
of Eddies' Special baked goods, and the rest of the base pack. A
Heavy pack for sure, but not impossible. I just took it
slow and steady on the icy trails...but made it without any incident.
Wished I had Cramp-on's for better footing though. Was happy to shed that friggin' pack after the 1.5 hour walk.
I was fully expecting backpack failure, as some of the straps seemed stretched
to their limits. (I also packed in some repair parts for the pack,
just in case).
Comments on the Spit as a Hiking pole: Sucked to the F-ing max. The weight of the pole was like 5x or 6x the weight of my standard hiking pole. Not only wasn't there a very ergonomical place to grab the pole, the weight of it quickly became super-annoying. Took me by surprise how heavy that spit/hiking pole became. My shoulder actually became rapidly sore from the constant lifting of this pole, and I found myself swapping arms frequently. [Maybe there actually *IS* a reason hiking poles are specifically made so light!!! Go figure!!!]. At some points, I wished I packed the spit into the backpack somewhere in favor of having TWO standard hiking poles...but packing the spit in the backpack would be super tall, and would hang up on branches.. It was MUCH better on the way home, when the 2lb heavy 6-sided steel block was removed. Suggested modifications to spit: Point at the end, so it digs into the ground. And a "Cap" at the crank end of the spit...so if you slip, and that handle hits you in your throat, it doesn't impale you. Maybe some sort of removable handle. But for a 1.5 mile homeward bound hike (without the 6 sided weight), it was actually OK and I did get used to it. Another potential modification, but would require some machining: break the spit into sections, and include a robust connection.
Here's
our
destination in Harriman Park, NY. Temps upon arrival were in the high teens.
Temps dropped to near zero during the overnight. A crust 4 or 5
inch snowpack and frozen ground made tent erection somewhat more annoying. This
season's tent placement also influenced by a small group already camped in the
choice spots.
We set up the cooking area and fire pit here under the overhang, and erected our tents a short walk
away from this rockface.
Here's the 18lb pig all wired up. This shot taken
around 1:30pm. We rebuilt the fire pit from the ground up, to accommodate
the roasting spit. One thing that took me by complete surprise
is how difficult it was to get the pig wired onto the spit.
Remember, it was like 15-20 degrees out, my hands were wet and coated with dry rub
pig shmutz, exposed to the frigid wind gusts.... I couldn't
even stick my hands into gloves to rewarm them. For about a
half an hour, this chore was damned near excruciating, and the colder my hands
got, the less dexterity I had.. A terrycloth towel
would've made this easier (which I had in my backpack, not where I needed it).
Vinyl exam gloves could've helped. I used paper towels and some Hand
sanitizer to finally clean up. The pig went onto the fire at about
3pm. Good thing too, because the pig was beginning to freeze.
Pete assisted me on this chore, and commented later that he was pretty shocked
at the "scene". LOL.
This is a
great overview shot of the fire pit in action, in it's finalized state.
Note that there's a large raging fire in the forward area of the pit...this was
the place that the coals were prepared. The hot fresh coals
were then regularly pushed back under the pig for more gentle heat under the meat. (A simple test:
Hold your hand over the coals near the pig: If you have to remove your
hand before 4-5 seconds, the fire's too hot). Then the
raging fire would be rebuilt to prepare the next batch of coals. Also note
than some notched firewood was used to help suspend the spit and make clearance
for the spit's crank. Also note some of the welding filler wire was
used to hold the wood "bushings" to the rock. Also notice that the
aluminum foil was erected on one side of the fire pit, to aid with heat
retention. The foil was secured to some branches, again with the use of
small scraps of the welding filler wire. That
filler wire also ended up repairing the ash shovel....very utilitarian
stuff.
The Steel 6 sided block was removed from the spit at this time. Once removed, the spit rotated much more easily, and for the most part, was very well balanced on the spit. (Note on balance: The spit handle oriented opposite from pig's back. In general, for any spit roasting, it's important to have the meat somewhat balanced on the spit. Even more important for something as large as a pig.). It was so cold out that nobody minded sitting near the fire for the chore of constantly rotating the spit. The whole point of the 6 sided block was to allow unmanned operations with periodic spit rotation, but once somebody was willing to rotate the spit constantly...the block was deemed unnecessary. I wished I had the luxury of hindsight when I was building the 6 sided block. It was an ordeal to make, and was a wasteful extra 2lbs of weight to drag up. Oh well: "Judge Success by the height of the Trash heap"!.
Here's another view of the fire
pit. Very smokey image, but you can see the foil wind barrier and the
"wood spit support" on the other side. Also gives you some perspective on the actual
size of the piglet. (Some of the other images make it appear larger than
it is).. If I had a do-over, I may have brought longer lengths
of foil..7', and maybe a 4th width of foil.
Here's
the pig near the end of the roast....maybe 3 hours into it.
I brought along a digital meat thermometer (w/extra batteries) and was happy to see things
progressing very well. It took roughly 3.5 hours to roast the
thing thru, and reach internal temps of 170 degrees*. Due to
the length of the pig on the spit, and the proximity of the butt to the rocks of
the fire pit, the butt didn't cook at the same rate as the rest of the pig.
It lagged about 20-30 degrees behind. But we sliced off the
undone couple of pounds, and they became the "Pork" in Karl's "Pork Friend
Rice". (Karl packed his Wok** in, as a backup means to cook the pig, if
things weren't going so well).
[* Note on Internal Temps: 155 degrees is the absolute minimum doneness, but my target for most pig roasts is at least 165 degrees, to be extra sure. You can cook it longer, and it'll still be fine. I've even roasted pigs up to 190 degrees! But as the temperature raises above 165, it becomes more and more overcooked and shreddy. (Falls apart). I would consider 190 degrees "way too much"...but still quite edible. I'm not sure what temperature is "ruined", and I hope to never find out.].
Improvement: If I knew the pig was going to be 18lbs and so long, I might've made a slightly longer spit. Another foot (5' length total) would've been perfect (although much more difficult to use as a hiking pole). I also think more holes should be drilled thru the spit, to offer more diversity in it's use. The 4 holes worked well for the pig, but had something else been added to the spit, another few holes could've helped. Also could've fixed the firepit so the pig's butt would've roasted quicker. I coulda whacked the head and feet off, but then ...it's just a hunk of meat, not a "Whole Pig". Strong Consideration to making a spit extender piece, with a machined interface to keep the sections together.
[**Re: Wok: Chinese Folks got it right 2000 years ago. In China, wood is in short supply. So they had to get the best mileage they could out of the available wood. The perfect answer: Rapidly cookable bite-sized pieces cooked quickly in a very thin Wok. It allowed rapid cooking on hot, short duration fires. The wok is the perfect tool for Fire Pit cooking, and as we discovered this trip, is now mandatory equipment for backpacking, especially when feeding to a group.]
The pig was served with a few warmed sauces for dipping. a Mustard Based BBQ sauce, and a Hoisin based sauce that Kevin and I whipped up in my kitchen.. The pig was served "Pig Pickin" style where some of the hunks of meat were carved and placed into foil pans. And people picked what they wanted, either from the pans, or directly from the carcass. 10 people made the 18lb pig practically vanish in a few minutes. The bones and carcass went right into the firepit and incinerated quickly. There were about 2lbs leftover pork, which got mixed with beans, rewarmed, and served for lunch the next day.
It was good that the pig was done around 7pm. Because as the external temps dropped rapidly, we were then able to build the fire back to the full size of the fire pit, to stay warm. One of our big concerns from the start was how the pig roast would effect the warming effect of the fire pit, hence the discussions/debate about establishing a second firepit nearby (one for the roast, one for warmth). But the singular firepit with an early roasting of the pig worked out particularly well, as it allowed for easy coal management.
Here's
the aftermath. We left the head behind to look over all future users
of this wonderful spot.. We wished we had a Pig-Cam to see
how long it would take for some critter to discover this tasty morsel.
(was probably being devoured 20 minutes after our departure).
Here's the 2009 Manly men, excluding the photographer (Me).
From Left to Right: Boris, Pete, Kevin, Mark (Feet visible), Erik the Small, Judd, Erik
The Large (aka "Yak"), Karl (aka "Hungus"!), and Rich P..and just above Rich's head, the guest of Honor:
Hamlet the Pighead.. I'm very proud of these guys for
the teamwork they showed this weekend (and always for that matter).
And of course, their willingness to indulge me, and tolerate the absurd.
This pig roast was NOT a one man show....rather it was a total group effort, as my
buddies assisted in a multitude of ways to allow the roast come together.
Rock on Manly Men!!!! I look forward to our next outing...
We hiked out of the forest about 2pm on Sunday, 40 minutes to the car, another half hour home....my pack was never so light! Go figure! ;-)
I should mention that we are indeed good stewards of the resources we've been entrusted with. We "Leave only Footprints, and Take only Pictures". And very often leave extra cut wood for the next group. We leave our campsites spotless, usually packing out other people's garbage as well. (The garbage bags used to pack in the pig, were used to haul out the trash). Please do the same...
If anybody has any comments, I'd love to hear them. If you've attempted to do something strange like this, it would be fun to hear your story. I'd also really like to know if this webpage helped you out in any way. Mail your comments to eddiezucker@optonline.net
Please Call (973) 627-2722 to Discuss Your Event. Usually 6pm-10pm, Weeknights. Please leave a Message otherwise. Also be sure to mention the potential date(s), estimated headcount, location, and the nature of the event. Thanks!
CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO EPPO's HOMEPAGE