Pig Roast.

Roasted pig in our kitchen oven. Delicious!

Have you ever wanted to roast a pig? We roasted a pig last weekend and would love to share all the details and steps with you so you can roast a pig in your kitchen. The taste, smell, and crackle were phenomenal. It’s easy; it just takes some time. We hope you find this helpful and that it leads to you gathering with family and friends to enjoy a whole pig!

A step-by-step guide to roasting a pig in your kitchen:

Step One: Find an occasion to celebrate with family and friends. I turned forty-four, and my friend Hector turned forty in the same week; we decided to roast a pig together.

Step Two: Find a pig. Childres Meat in Bend, Oregon, is our go-to vendor for a small, milkfed pig. Childres is family owned, family operated, and has been around since 1989. They supply many local restaurants in Bend with grass-fed beef. If you are not from Bend, simply ask a chef or restaurant in your town/city who their go-to supplier for grass-fed beef or pork is, call them, and order your pig. We spent less than $200.

Step Three: Brine the pig for forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Pick your favorite brine recipe. We brined our pig in water, salt, honey, fish sauce, a head of garlic, thinly sliced ginger, bay leaves, kafir lime leaf, zest and juice of lime, thai long pepper, star anise. There is room for some creative freedom on the brine. The key is to give it time to sit and soak up all the flavor. We brined our pig for three days.

Step Four: Roast the pig in your oven at 350 degrees. for 90 min back down. Then flip the pig and roast for 60 min back up. We transported the pig to my mother-in-law’s house. About a hour before we ate, we put the pig, back up, in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 min. This allowed the skin to get all crackly and golden.

Step Five: DO NOT CUT WITH A KNIFE! The traditional Spanish method for cutting a whole pig is with a plate. Yes. With a plate! If you can cut with a plate, this shows that the pig has been prepared and cooked properly. Once the pig has been cut to shreds with a plate, dig in, serve up, and enjoy!

ADDITIONAL NOTES: Serve the pig with roasted potatoes, veggies, and anything else you love to eat. Hector prepared a delicious chimichurri sauce (perhaps another post just on chimichurri). The sauce was packed with flavor! Depending on how many people are eating the pig, we had sixteen folks over; there should be plenty of leftovers for tacos the next day! After everyone had gotten their cut and made their way to the table to eat, I stepped up for my slice of heaven. My friend cut the neck off the head and said, “This is the best part.”. The neck was delicious!

We loved every part of preparing, cooking, and sharing this meal with our family and friends. If you would like more details, let’s talk. I’d be happy to chat more and fill in more details.

Give me a call at (541) 797 - 9939

Shoot me an email: Justin@varsityoregon.com