whole sucking pig

G

goldentouch

New member
I have a friend that wants me to smoke a small around 20 lbs pig.  He has a lot of hogs on his property and loves the ribs I have been smoking.  My plan was to get one of the pigs.  scald the whole pig and scrap it clean.  Gut it and cut it in half and smoke the two halfs.  Any suggestions or a big thumbs up and go ahead with plan
 
What model Smoker do you have? Depending on length of the pig my first thought would be; scald/scrape, then saw through the sternum to open it, split the vertebra with a hatchet and the pig will lay open flat. If you need to cut it in half due to size I would go from nose to tail leaving the head attached. With either method of cutting leave the skin intact, salt or apply rub to the interior and smoke skin side up.
 
Man ..................that sounds awesome because I also have a number two Smoker and that very same thing has entered my mind but ..............................my question is.............. how long would the smoke be ( hours )and would you have to flip the pig from side to side or ...............?
 
I read up on it a little bit on SMF last night and I'm a little less excited now.  It sounds like a 25 lbs dressed pig only yields about 12.5 lbs of meat.  The rest is waste.  Filling my smoker with butts is sounding a lot more productive.  LOL! 
 
You CAN'T go wrong following Brian's (Pork Belly) advice on anything he posts WRT cooking.  He seems to only comment on what he actually knows.
 
Thanks Walt, but WRT whats that? As for time I  have done two heads off of 300 lb hogs for 16 hours without rotating and they were great. The overall mass was likely near capacity for my #3. I had them on the second from the lowest shelf and the noses nearly touched the top. The rack was full and I had to force the door shut. I ran those at 250 for 16 hours the head in the back was more fall apart tender than the one near the door but both were done. The single head I did was centered in the smoker and went 16 hours on 235, it was fantastic. This was my first head, it is actually a half
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1837.msg10838#msg10838
When I cooked the other half of that head I went longer about 14 hours.
I would weigh the pig head off and guts out and see what you have figure 1.25 a pound at 235 and look at it when that time expires. That should give you a baseline as to where to go to finsh that one or to smoke another.
 
I plan on doing it after all the ice is gone.  I know some of you are under several feet of snow and ice but here in Texas just a dusting brings everything to a hault  I will post the results
 
Helluva mess in the DFW area today, Eddie!  What were they thinking?  Guess the mayor and Gov didn't learn anything from the fiasco in Atlanta last year! 
 
I've got a #2 and love it.  I'm interested in the results on the piglet. Any updates? I just acquired a fresh 35 lb. piglet that has been skinned, gutted and head removed. I think the only way to smoke in #2 is to quarter.  My only question is how long to smoke.  The ribs will be done long before hams. Anyone been down this road?
 
To me thirty five pounds is a "small pig" not a suckling pig. Suckling pigs are still on or just removed for nursing and are much smaller. You will likely need to section out that 35# for smoking in a #2. When cooking whole or half a hog you worry about the finished temp in the hams, the meat in the rib section mostly falls off the bone.

Since you have to whack that little guy up you might consider cutting it into a saddle and smoking that whole. Tis video shows what cut I'm talking about, https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=saddle+of+lamb&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001 Around the 2 minute mark he forms the saddle.

 
I really like the idea of doing this,,,Been wanting to do a hole hog for a long time now,,,looking around and all the cook positions I think with the right sized pig in this position it might just fit into my number 2...
Wheels are tuning,,,LOL
PJ
 

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puddle jumper said:
I really like the idea of doing this,,,Been wanting to do a hole hog for a long time now,,,looking around and all the cook positions I think with the right sized pig in this position it might just fit into my number 2...
Wheels are tuning,,,LOL
PJ
Click to expand...
I was too but after reading a lot of the posts on the internet, it sounded like there was so much waste that you ended up with the equivalent of a couple of pork butts for a lot of extra work.  And the clincher was going to a picnic a few weeks ago that included a smoked whole pig.  The flavor was just not even close to what we produce with our standard cuts of pork.  The allure of it has now passed. 
 
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