PIG ROAST SITE PREPARATION AND COOKING PROCEDURES
Several alternative site arrangements have been utilized for cooking the pig. The basic arrangement involves either digging a pit approximately one foot in depth, four feet wide, and six feet in length -or- using concrete blocks to build up a frame of the same dimensions. It doesn't take a gas company engineer to figure out that the latter is the easiest. Three reinforcing rods six feet long are placed over the pit. The pig is bought in two halves; each half is wrapped at the site in concrete reinforcing wire. After salting the pig, the two halves are placed over the three rods (see figure 1). The fire is started by piling two bags of charcoal in the pit. The coals are doused in lighter fluid, just as in a back yard setting. When the coals achieve a nice grey hue, they are spread over most of the pit area. A rake or hoe is helpful for moving and spreading the charcoal. Future adder coals can be accommodated in one of several ways. Unlighted charcoal can be added early in the cooking process, if time is not critical. Later in the process, though, it is necessary to add hot coals in order to keep the heat level high enough. The new coals can be started in a pile at the end of the pit, in a "stove pipe" starter, or other creative way of your choice. An alternative to the pit and ground fires is the use of a portable cooker that can be towed to the site. This method is generally easier and must be used in situations where fires are not permitted on the ground. There appears to be a lobby developing to promote this new approach on a regular basis. In the past several years, the process has migrated almost totally to the “cooker” approach. The vehicles supporting the cooker have varied from a basic 2-wheel trailer to an imposing “house on wheels” complete with hydraulic lift for ease of observing the pig. This extreme edifice, while impressive, had several drawbacks. The most notable was the intensity of heat experienced by the “human” cooker as he (politically incorrect) performed routine chores of the process. Included in the trade-offs, on the positive side for the new cooker approaches, are the elimination of the pit, wrapping the pig in wire, and reducing the turn intervals. The negatives are related to the simplification of the process; the simpler the process, the greater the beer consumption, and the longer the "war" stories. The cooking arrangement moved to another level with the 1999 PR. To say that the cooker was “state -of-the- art” would be an understatement. It was a “home - mad e” construction , using a stainless steel drum and other assorted “bells and whistles.” This cooker defied the traditional elements that drained the typical veteran cooker on PR day. It included a self-contained firebox where the mundane charcoal and its associated heat could be separated from the delicate contents of the cooker. Also included were three heat control devices, allowing temperature values to be set and maintained in minute increments, and a rotisserie, consisting of multiple shelves driven by a one revolution per minute electrical device. Perhaps the most incredible benefit of the cooker was the ability to stand inches away from the metal and feel little or no heat. The device was manned by its creator, who provided guidance to the traditional cooking crew and hereto-unknown facts related to the art of barbequing. At the end of the day, hats were off to the hosts at TVA and to the marvelous display of cooking never before experienced by the PR contingent. As the crowd dispersed,
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