Everyone would love to have their own Pig Roast.
Ok, read on …….
So you want to have a PIG Roast!
We obviously get a lot of calls about this subject. Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t. There really is a lot more to it than most people think. We will try to lay it all out for you, so you have an idea of all the things to consider. Hopefully, this will save you time, money and a lot of disappointment.
Go Slow!
We have a lot of customers who decide one day to do a pig or lamb for a bunch of people. Sounds like fun and it can be, if you have a little experience and the right equipment. It can wreck your day if you don’t. Rotisserie cooking is the ultimate way to cook enjoyably with the best flavor and tenderness. There are a lot of factors to consider when rotisserie cooking. We will cover them one at a time for you.
Experience
The first thing we need to understand is what our experience level is. It is important to be honest with ourselves, especially since guys are supposed to have that BBQ gene that has been passed down from the first dinosaur roast. If all you have ever done is burgers and dogs on a gas grill, you probably are not ready (You’re not ready!). There is a huge difference between 4 oz of meat and a hunk weighing 120 times that amount or more. Then factor in you are going to spin it and it is not close to being round and balanced. If you have never used the rotisserie on your gas grill, you may want to start there. It is like training wheels, knee pads and a helmet with your dad holding on to the handlebars. After all, you didn’t learn how to ride a bike going down the side of a mountain.
To get that experience we next have to look at what we have or are willing to work with. Do you want to get it on your gas grill or over a fire pit? There is a very big difference here and you need to be aware of the differences.
Gas Grill – You probably have one
- Located next to your house where you have access to everything you could ever need.
- Complete control over the heat source temperature.
- Access to electricity, tools, knives, microwave, stove, tables, pots and pans, aluminum foil, beer fridge, etc.
- A lid you can open and close on your grill.
- A limited sized area to cook on.
- The ability to control exactly where the heat is applied to the meat you are cooking.
Fire Pit – You may not have one
- Could be located in your backyard or could be hundreds of miles away.
- A lot less control of the heat source.
- Possibly limited access to all the conveniences in above section.
- No lid. You can’t just kick up the heat and apply it like an oven.
- A large area you feel compelled to fill with meat. It may need a lot of fuel to keep going.
- Factor such as wind, rain, coal bed preparation, construction of fire pit, height control.
To begin with you can start with a 5 pound chicken. The reason is that they are cheap, readily available and easy to prepare. It will also be about 1/6 – 1/8 of the weight you will ultimately cook. We won’t cover seasoning and cooking nuances here, just the mechanics.
Equipment
If you have a gas grill you obviously need the rotisserie attachment. You will want to make sure that your motor and spit rod can handle the weight. In some cases you will need to remove a cooking grate or grates. You also will want to decide on the cooking method such as direct, indirect or infrared.
Motors - are not really rated to a standard and so it is very confusing for someone to know what they have or need. They may have a wattage rating or a load rating. These are some help but not enough. These ratings do not really tell you the whole story. What you really need to know is the load rating which is how much weight the motor can support. This is determined by the manufacturer and is a factor of the internal support system and shaft design.
The common shaded pole rotisserie motor is not a high torque type of motor. They are built for higher speeds and are very inexpensive to produce. They have no torque to speak of and can be stalled with your fingers. They are typically used in fans for example. By converting that speed through a high reduction gear train, the torque is magnified many thousand times.
A motor rated at 40 pound load for example simply means that you can put a little less than 40 pounds of meat on your spit. The motor supports 20 pounds and the other end of your grill supports the other 20 pounds. You will find it difficult to put 40 pounds of meat on most gas grills.
The other factor is torque. For some reason this rating is never published. It is a critical factor in determining what you can actually cook on your spit. In reality if you could support your meat on both ends in bearings and not have the motor hold it up, get it perfectly balanced, just about any motor could spin say 100 pounds. You could spin it with your fingers. From the time you load your first spit you will realize that it is never perfectly balanced. You will also realize that balancing is the hardest thing to do.
Torque is the ability of the motor to apply power to an unbalanced load. When we are talking about a 5 pound chicken which is close to round and not hard to balance it does not take much torque. Especially with a motor that can spin 2, like the one you got with your grill (well balanced). When you have a pig which does not have a nice hole down through the middle and is probably going to be loading the motor at near capacity, you don’t have any reserve to play with. The plastic basic motors do not have the torque. That little pig has got to be balanced and that takes time and patience. It could easily take 15 minutes to do it right and someone else helping.
Spit – rods come in various sizes and shapes. The most common is 5/16” square. This is what is almost always supplied with your grill. They are fine for small light loads like a chicken, rack of ribs or pork tenderloin. You generally would not want to do a large roast or heavy turkey on it. We say generally because the load capacity of a spit rod is mostly a factor of size and length. The other factor is how the load or meat is supported. If you want to put an 18 pound turkey in the middle of a 45 inch long 5/16” spit it is not a good idea. If on the other hand you put it all the way on the end opposite the motor on a 37 inch long 5/16” spit you can make that work.
Rods are available in ½” hex which can carry a lot more weight. You want to make sure it has a 5/16” square drive on the end for all the standard rotisserie motors.
Balance
The most important thing to consider after the proper equipment is the balance of the spit. If the spit is not properly balanced then the motor will have excessive intermittent loads applied to the gear train and that will reduce the life of the unit. These motors are an exceptional value for rotisserie cooking; however they are not industrial gear head motors. It is imperative that you balance your spit before using. A few extra minutes spent on this operation will make a huge difference in the life of your motor.
A perfectly balanced heavy spit can be turned with your fingers easily. An out of balance spit, of the same weight may need a wrench. You should load your spit and test the spinning in your hands. If you can spin it easily and you have good balance, it is ready to grill.
The counterbalance weight is to make up for a minor out of balance condition. The easiest way to set it is to let the heavy side get to the bottom of the rotation. This is easy to see and hear, and is a natural condition for the load to want to be in. Then have your counterbalance weight pointing straight up. This will be exactly opposite the heaviest side. These weights only compensate for ounces.
Since a pig is not round, you are really looking at balancing in 2 dimensions. Think of it as a rectangle. You have to center the spit on the thin side and on the tall part. Since the cavity of the pig is hollow, you have to do some work to keep the rod in the center of this little guy. Actually, he is not going to be very little, and 30 or 40 pounds does not sound like much. Remember that last bag of water softener salt you carried? Now imagine putting that on a spit and balancing it and handling it. That would be many times easier than balancing a pig.
I know by now you must think we are vegetarians or something. It is not different than flying a plane. You don’t just go buy one and take off. The instructor is going to spend a lot of time teaching you how things work and preparing for a crash before you ever take off. Same goes here.
Location
If you are on your gas grill you are probably at home. Not a lot to go wrong here with supplies and things like power. Just make sure you have a lot of gas.
If you are out in your backyard then you really need to just make sure you are familiar with your pit. What this means is that the construction of your pit has a tremendous influence on how your food will cook. We will cover this later.
If you are at a camp then you will want to make sure you have planned ahead. Make a checklist. Some things to consider here are:
- What to put the pig in to keep it cool while transporting it.
- The grilling system you are going to use. Have all the pieces? Will it support the weight? Enough gas or wood?
- Electric cords and power, knives and forks, trays, pans, plates and cups.
- A large area to put the pig on to balance and prepare.
- A large area to cut it up later.
- What to do with that carcass.
Environment
What we mean here is the factors that affect how the meat will be cooked. It is simple enough since all that cooking is about is time at temperature based on weight and configuration of food. Ok, kind of simple.
A gas grill can be a lot like an oven. You have complete control over the heat. You can open or close the lid to further control cooking conditions. You don’t generally have to worry about wind (rain maybe). You can play around with pans of seasoned water and wood chips.
In a fire pit you don’t have as much control and you don’t have a lid to make up for it. The wind can drastically affect your cooking time. And rain will be a complete disaster.
Ok, so how do you make this work to your best advantage? First of all have plenty of wood, and then get more. Start your fire at least 1 or 2 hours ahead of time. You want to make sure you have plenty of coals. Coals are your ace in the hole. They allow you to keep up the infrared heat cooking your food. They also allow you to quickly start more wood if you need it. If it is a windy day you are going to have to be on your game. Getting the heat positioned so the wind is moving it at the food and not away from it is critical. The hotter the coals and fire, the harder it is to blow that heat sideways. Infrared is line of site and that plays to your advantage.
Next, make sure you have a rotisserie that you can change height over the fire easily. This will give you the ability to adjust cooking time and heat more easily. Sometimes you have real dry wood and you will have very high flames. Other times the wood is wet and you can’t keep the heat up where you would like. A flame hitting your food, unless you are browning it at the right time, is not where you want to be.
Earlier we mentioned the construction of your fire pit. A pit that you want to sit around for a campfire should have short walls so the heat gets to you setting beside it. A fire pit for cooking should have high walls so the heat goes up and not out. If you have a pit with low walls you are going to have to work harder to get that heat to the food. The wind will have a field day with blowing your heat away. Your cooking time will increase dramatically and some days you will be hard pressed to do anything about it. I have had to stand up plywood and lay down lawn chairs before. Adjusting the height of the spit is a big advantage. A fire can vary in height greatly.
Time
Here is the key to success. You have to use time to your advantage. This is where the novice is ill prepared and doomed to failure. Time comes in the form of experience. This is the number of times you have done this, and the amount of time spent doing it. It is also in the preparation and planning which also comes from experience. You also have to plan to be done early. That is really hard to do when you don’t have a clue how long it is going to take. Multiply that by the unforeseen something that went wrong.
We don’t want to get into how long in this article. There is plenty of info out on the web about that and also how to season etc. What we do say is that if you put your hand face down t the same level as the food. You should only be able to hold it there 3 seconds. Please be careful and don’t go cooking your hand. You do this by first holding it about 4 feet above the fire just beside the food. You then make a trail run and move it down until you are beside it. Immediately take your hand away. Now, do you think you can move it in horizontally at the height of the food and hold it for 3 seconds? If you can’t it is probably too hot. If you can just hold it there, you are not going to cook anything.
Your fire is going to have to apply enough heat to bring the food up to temperature. In the case of a chicken for example, that is 165 degrees. If the temperature at the height of that chicken is 140, it is not going to happen.
You need to plan to be done at least 1 hour before serving. You are not just going to take it off the fire and serve it like a chicken (which still needs to set 5 minutes before cutting). You have to get the spit out and it is super hot. Then you have to get the pig on a table and start carving and shredding with a fork (pulled pork). You need time to get it into trays and get all the other fixings in order. Don’t be afraid to put it somewhere to keep it hot. You don’t have to serve it hot off the fire. Most people will put the pulled pork in a pan and add broth or something to hydrate it anyway. Ok, there’s a cooking tip for you.
How about a pig roast without the pig?
It is pretty funny but I have to admit I did all this wrong before. Yep, I did however go to a lot of pig roasts and I highly recommend you do the same. Don’t go just in time to eat. Go at the very start and watch them. You can’t replace that training.
When I said I wanted to do a pig over the fire one of my friends said “What for!!!???” What? What does that mean I said? He said, “That is the biggest pain in the A#@ you could have, do a pork butt!” A pork butt? I want to have all that good flavor you get from a pig roast. He went on to explain that all that good pulled pork comes from the butt. It has a lot of good meat and fat. It is its own miniature pig roast all by itself. He said if he did one and he served it to me it would be impossible for me to tell it was not a pig roast. He was right. I was shocked at the flavor and it is easy to do.
I know, if you take the body off a Ferrari, it just does not look the same. But, it is still pretty fast!
Practice
We highly recommend you practice with chickens. Start with one and see how that goes. Then try four (assuming your rod is heavy enough), big difference. Harder to balance and load. It is a lot heavier to handle too. Now imagine twice that weight or more. Chickens are kind of round and pigs are not. The pork butt mentioned above is fine too. I would highly suggest that before you do a pig you try the pork butt.
By now you can see that things vary depending on a number of variables such as weight, type of food, heat source, wind etc. One of the best tools to have at your disposal is a digital thermometer. Unless you have a lot of experience, it is very hard to know if your food is fully cooked by looking at it.
Conclusion
We hope this article has prepared you for one of the best times of your life, your very first pig roast with friends and family. And now you know the secret to making that day a success. It wasn’t your first at all.
Happy grilling from your friends at OneGrill!
