Thursday, August 28, 2014

Dad's New Jersey Pig Roast Mid August 2014

Roasting A Pig



Here are some highlights from my Instagram:
(But scroll down for more in depth photos of the process)






We also had burgers, and many many other things, including 8 slow smoked racks of ribs.

Me waiting for my friends to show up.

Much of my hard work in setting up. The tables & chairs were all hand washed by me.

The Waters Slide:



















The Process of Roasting a PIG:

Step One: GET A PIG. 
This pig was specially selected, free range, had a nice happy piggy life. My father knew the people, the company, and everything was arranged. The entire slaughter & butchering process was humanely done, clean, and above highest standard in NJ.

Step Two: 
Set the carcass somewhere wrapped up, and on ice so as to stop it from spoiling, attracting pests, bacteria, premature rot, prevent odor, maintain freshness.
Here's it's set in the bathtub, which was washed before hand, and also after it was removed.





Step THREE: Move the pig to the place to be roasted, and have it fit with a rotisserie shaft, and wrapped in chicken cage wire to keep the tender meat in place while roasting all night 7 all morning long. It will need to roast for about 12 hours or more.



This spray bottle has oils, and water, to help the pork skin, and meat maintain moisture, but also to crisp up and brown on the outside to help seal in the natural fluids & juices throughout the process.




Step FOUR: Roast the pig all night, slowly on low heat.

My father is an electrician/inventor, so he built & rigged all this equipment to specification all on his own.
(My mother says I take after my father... but, she learned to build stuff herself from him, and does similar things as well, but not at this scale necessarily, unless she is friends with welders... which could happen because she knows lots of blue-collars.)



 







After about 1-3 hours roasting:



By Morning and noon times the pig looks like this:



All that's left is to remove the roasted pig to cool down, guests arrive, and then finally start carving it up, then serve to guests.

Even after it's been set to cool down, it's several hundred degrees, and when I was served mine over an hour later it was steaming hot to the touch.

I was also drunk, which is why I have no move DSLR photos to show you...



If you would like to see more of the pig roast & the picnic you can check my album on Flickr, and my other blog posts:

* If you would like to read my blog post about the party decor it's found HERE.

* If you would like to read my blog about my little party spot at the picnic with my friends it's found HERE.

* If you want to see more of the Photography I shot in New Jersey you can keep checking my Photography Blog for August which is scheduled to update daily for the next few weeks. But, it is also scheduled to update throughout September as well. So, just keep checking the front page.

* I also have an album of much of the stuff I photographed in New Jersey on Flickr also (still being updated since I have quite a lot).