Whole Hog

Passport & Plate - A whole hog cookout

USA | Wednesday, February 25, 2015 | 5 photos

1 large live hog, 38 revolver and 1 bullet, Gambrel and Rope, Propane torch, Sharp knives, Meat thermometer, Large cooler and 5-6 bags of Ice and Brining solution: Water, 1 lbs of salt and 1/2 gallon of vinegar, 4 Banana leaves,
1 Caja Chinoise, 10 bags of charcoal and lots of people neighbors, co-workers and family.

How to prepare this recipe. The first thing you have to do is procure a local hog from a farmer. This takes some calling around to all of your friends and extended family. Once a hog is secured you need a pickup truck with a trailer to go get it. This has to be done weeks in advance so you can invite really everyone you know and set a date.
Once the hog is on your property, you need to feed it sweet potatoes and leftovers from your dinner table. Once the date is set you need to set up your cleaning and butchering location. A large table, bags of ice, brine and cooler. Hold the revolver about 5" from the center of the forehead and shoot. Once the hog is down (after the nerves stop quivering) you will need a sharp knife and cut its throat. Once the hog has bled out, you will need your large propane torch and start burning the hair off. This process will take about 2 hours. Once the hair is removed, two 3" incisions need to be behind the achilles' tendon. Then you need to slip the gambrel through the incisions and hang the hog upside down. While it is hung you need to gut the hog and carefully remove all organs with out puncturing any of them. Then wash the inside cavity and start butchering hog. Once you gut the hog, depending on size, you might have to cut it in half and put both halves into two large coolers and pour the brine over it. (leave overnight).

The next day, the hog needs to be removed from the brine and washed on a table. As the hog is drying off you need to light up the charcoal using a charcoal chimney. Once the hog is dry two people have to lay it into the Caja Chinoise and cover with banana leaves and place cover on top. Then spread a whole bag of charcoal over the top. and wait. (typically a 100lb hog with take 6-9 hours). While the hog is smoking everyone who helped prepare the hog can sit around and drink some beer. Don't worry about sides all the people you invited will bring everything else you need from beer to cole slaw, baked beans and buns.

The story behind this recipe: I am not from Mississippi, I was born in Brooklyn New York. My family never owned land or lived in country. So being exposed to the full reality of where our meat comes from and how the whole community pitches in really taught me something about America. As someone who is of Italian descent I am amazed by Southern food and its unique food ways. My wife is from Mississippi and when I met her very conservative and rural family I was amazed by them. They took me out hunting, fishing and really taught me so much about their culture and how they live off the land. During one of these fishing trips they spoke of whole hog roasting. I became completely enthralled by this. I never imagined anything like this occurred in the US before. It was so primal but yet it brings families and communities together. For years I kept asking when are we ever going to do a whole hog cookout. They always talked about it and talked about but after 18 years I had never seen anyone do it. So I began to get discouraged and almost blocked it from my mind. Then my brother-in-law moved to Australia to marry an Australian woman who loved to cook, in fact all her brother is a 5 star chef in Australian. One day, last summer he called and said the whole Australian family is coming to Mississippi. After the call, I immediately stood up and said we are doing a whole hog cookout and the whole family agreed that this is the perfect way to introduce Australians to the South.