Locally Grown Girl

A Pig's Progress

Cap'n signed on for making the last few phone calls to various butcher shops. Never once did he hear that they just don't exist/can't order them that I heard twice, so perhaps it pays to sound manly when calling butcher shops. Our starting point was a week's lead time and $220 for a pig somewhere less than 49 pounds, and hopefully somewhere in the range we were actually looking for--the 18-24 lb size.

A very friendly locally owned grocery store told us that he didn't like being the middle-man in these transactions; they had to mark them up a lot and his source didn't mind if we called. So we called Mohammed at Select Gourmet Foods and he totally hooked us up. Mr. Dignified Pig should be close to 20 lbs--no less than 18, no more than 25, and be a flat rate of $175.

We also settled on a fancy grill I call an outdoor oven to cook him in. Digging a pit (there was a backhoe available, briefly) sounded cool, but it also sounded the trickiest, because your basically build an underground oven, fill it to a proper height with hot coals, insert the thing to be cooked, wrap it in more coals, and continue to refresh the hot coals during the time it takes to cook. So, some constantly-running fire pit is needed in addition to the pit oven. Not for this group.

The method that sounds most appealing takes gear we're not ready to invest in. Among the four couples signed on for the Pig Project, there are two solid-quality outdoor grills. There is one backyard. There are three infants. This is not the time to shell out a grand for a cast iron spit roasting kit. But I do still have the directions, and it can't be that hard to find a blacksmith, between my geek connections (think chainmail) and my farm connections (think back-to-the-earth DIY folks with mad skillz). So spit roasting will happen someday. I would love to try it with goat.

In the meantime, we have the pig source, the date, the cooking method and are lining up a few side dishes. I read a suggestion of placing a pan filled with sauerkraut under Mr. Pig as he cooks, so it gets all porky-delicous. I plan on doing lots of cross-hatching of the skin and hitting it with lots of fresh thyme, black pepper and kosher salt. Tinfoil earmuffs to prevent burning; occasional basting with butter to get a really crisp skin. I am looking forward to this, I must say.

Pig Project 2: The Confusion

Recipes were one of the first things I used the internet for, back in the days of SOAR (Searchable Online Archive of Recipes) which is now known as Recipe Source and I don't think is hosted at Berkeley anymore. And in fact, what I continue to think of as SOAR still rocks. I had given up the search for an actual recipe on pit-roasting a pig; yet here one is.

The odd thing about it is that it seems like the final result is likely to be awfully close to what we could accomplish in the barbecue--wrapping the pig in many layers of heavy-duty foil and then tucking hot coals around it sounds like an oven to me. We've also been looking into the possibilities of spit-roasting which sounds the tastiest--apparently the crispy skin is delicious, and My Hero Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall supplies quite precise instructions on what it takes to spit-roast a pig.

The first thing it takes--other than the actual pig--is a spit-roasting kit built to hold a 50 lb animal. I found one online for the bargain price of $995, and that actually didn't include the skewers. I have spread the word among the GeekBoys to find a local blacksmith: I am not far removed from people who have their own chainmail, so getting a simple iron or steel kit put together should be possible, hopefully for less than that bargain-priced set. If not, we'll need to determine the time commitment to this meal. Pit roasting seems to take many more hours than simply oven roasting.

Procuring the pig continues to be interesting. A highly recommended shop on Queen Anne says they can't get them at all; at the specialty groceries, apparently we need to speak with the Meat Manager, whose day starts at 7am and ends at 1pm and for four days running, I have remembered I need to call him right around 2:30pm. We still have our one good source, so once we determine the availability of the roasting spit-kit, we'll be able to determine the size of Mr. Pig: a 40-pounder for a spit, or an 18-pounder for the big outdoor grill.

The Pig Project

MJ recently suggested roasting a suckling pig with a bunch of folks. Since most of us are condo dwellers, there was some talk of descending upon the Lawn People and digging a big barbecue pit in their backyard...which actually sounded OK to them. MJ dreams big--which I love about him--but I tend to dream practical, and since exactly none of the group has ever A-dug a roasting pit, B-cooked a whole piglet, or C-cooked anything in a pit at all, I suggested scaling back a bit, and using the Lawn People's gigantic gas grill to roast one in. These seems both fine and exciting, and thus the Pig Project is taking shape.

Looking through my stack of cookbooks, I have found three similar roast suckling pig recipes, but as the books span about 100 years, there are some major differences. In 1903, it's clear that any piglet was likely to be killed and prepped entirely on the property where it would be eaten--directions are provided for pig prep, but it also takes for granted that some fairly gruesome practical matters will be done by the home cook; it's also suggested that one washes a stick before propping piggy's mouth open with it. In 1963, the butcher seems to take care of the messier parts, but this one does include directions on removing eyeballs and later decorating this animal to a preposterous degree, like some kind of Jello salad. For 2006, it's expected that the butcher does every last bit of prep except actually putting it in the oven. All of them said the pig would weigh between 12 and 16 pounds, and all of the cooking instructions are basically identical--it's just like roasting a turkey.

I was down at Pike Place Market today, picking up things for a Sunday dinner, and checked with a couple of the butchers about piglet availability. My first stop was a pleasure, as always. Don and Joe's was incredibly helpful and humorous about the steep price: there is a flat rate for pigs under 50 pounds, which is $220. It doesn't matter whether the pig is 15 pounds or 49 pounds, it costs the same. At another place--where product are service are typically fine but I will not name them here--I was informed that suckling pigs are hard to find these days as they are "fetuses". I said, "oh, we're looking for one around 15 pounds", knowing that it's not at all a fetus. He said again, "yeah, a fetus". Trying one more time, I said, "OK, I must be using the word incorrectly...are young pigs around 15 pounds available at all?" He said no, he didn't know anyone at all that sold them anymore. Since Don and Joe's had just given me an advance ordering time of about 10 days, I knew he was wrong, so I just smiled and gave up.

Another route we're talking about is ordering directly from a local farm, but my current thought is that with a butcher, I'll get the 2006 recipe, and from a farm I'll end up with the 1903 version. I'm also going to do a bit of comparison shopping with a few other butchers and markets; since we really don't have space (or eaters) for more than about 20 lbs, the $220 does seem a bit high. But life shouldn't come cheap, either.

I expect the process will be as interesting as the final meal--stay tuned.

A Curly-Haired Pig

I had no idea, but animal lovers MUST go look here, at the curly-haired piggies. They come in blond, redhead and brunette, too. Honestly, they look like some freaky genetically-modified sheep-pig. Or poodle-pig. Pigletoodle?