The beach front big pig barbecue that wasn’t to be

Posted by Michael on Aug 19, 2008 in Recipes | 0 comments

The plan was to roast a whole pig.

Mother Nature though, that greasy bitch, wasn’t having it.

The swine was fine. A 62 pound specimen grown in the Sussex, New Brunswick area and delivered beautifully cleaned and fresh to a local restaurant where we picked it up last Thursday. My friend Dan and I sampled a few beers and a few ideas for marinade for the pig before settling on a well rounded mix of lemon, lime, spanish onion, olive oil, gobs of garlic, cumin, fennel seeds and black pepper. After a 12 hour brine and 12 hour soak in cuban marinade, the pig hit the fire.

Then the rain hit everything. All efforts to cover the pig, bail away water and keep coals fired were no match for the teaming blast of pummelling rain over a two-plus hour period, after the pig was just 45 minutes into what should have been a six to seven hour slow roast.

In the end we simply cut up the pig into individual roasts for each of us to finish in our own ovens. I put a shoulder into my pressure cooker with some additional chili powder and cumin and made a great batch of pulled pork tacos that fed eight people that night.

Overall it was a costly venture, but we’ll try again next year perhaps. We at least know that 25 cinder blocks and 30 bricks makes for one hell of a good barbecue pit. Top that with a grate made from four-foot lengths of steel rebar and you can grill one huge load of food in no time. I might just make a temporary bread/pizza oven out of the blocks to use for the rest of the summer and fall so watch for future photos of that.

Also watch for future lawsuits against The Weather Network that forecast “less than 1mm” of rain on Saturday, August 16. Somebody dropped the goddamned ball on that one, boys.

Pig Roast 2008. Dang it

Preparing piggy for the marinade application.

Assembling the grill grate and covering with foil.