Cuban Pig
- 1 whole dressed pig, butterflied approximately 90 pounds (see Pitmasters Tip, page 159)
- 30 Naranja Agria (sour orange) or seville oranges (12 cups juice), or the juice of 25 limes (3 cups), 20 sweet oranges (8 cups), and 12 lemons (1 cup)
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup dark rum
- 1/4 cup garlic salt
- 8 teaspoons salt
- 8 teaspoons soy sauce
- 4 teaspoons onion powder
- 8 heads of garlic
- 1 cup chopped green onions
- 5 tablespoons dried oregano
- 5 tablespoons black pepper
- 8 teaspoons salt
- Carribean Mojo Sauce (page 236)
- Combine the injection ingredients in a large bowl, and blend well.
- Place the pig on a tabletop, skin side down.
- Using a meat syringe, inject the entire amount of injection solution evenly into all of the meat.
- To make the rub, separate the cloves from all 8 heads of garlic and peel them.
- Place the whole garlic cloves, green onions, oregano, pepper, and salt in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
- Rub this mixture onto the belly of the pig, working it into all crevices and making sure that all exposed meat is seasoned thoroughly.
- Light 20 pounds of charcoal in the bottom of your direct cooker.
- When the charcoal is hot and grayish white, rake the coals into 4 equal piles in the corners of the cooker.
- Top each pile of glowing coal with another 5 pounds of unlit charcoal.
- Place the pig on the cooker grate skin side down.
- Center the pig, making sure it does not lie directly over the piles of burning coals.
- Every 2 hours, add 5 pounds more hot charcoal to each pile through the side access door.
- Cook the pig at 260F on the covered cooker for 8 hours, or until the internal temperature of the hams and shoulders registers 190F.
- Let the pig rest for 30 minutes prior to serving.
- The pig can either be offered whole, letting the guests use tongs to pull their own meat, or hand-pulled, chopped, and served.
- Serve with plenty of Caribbean Mojo Sauce on the side.
- Inject the meat evenly with the sour-orange mixture.
- Cover all exposed meat with the coarse rub, pressing it into the crevices.
- This will ensure more flavor and moisture both inside and on the outside of the meat.
- If you want to serve the pig with a traditional apple in its mouth, cook the pig with its mouth pried open.
- A stick about the same length as the diameter of the apple works well.
- When the pig is cooked, replace the stick with a raw apple.
- Indirect heat in a single-chamber cooker
- Hickory, Oak, Apricot
- 1 single-chamber direct cooker (with firebox inside the main cooking chamber); 80 pounds charcoal
pitmasters, oranges, extravirgin olive oil, dark rum, garlic salt, salt, soy sauce, onion powder, garlic, green onions, oregano, black pepper, salt, mojo sauce
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cuban-pig-377310 (may not work)