We just got a big smoker at the firestation and the boys have been on me to shoot a hog to smoke, this evening I shot a 180lb. hog, its been gutted and skinned and we are going to smoke it whole. Does anyone have any recipes or seasonings or mops that yall have tried and enjoyed? We smoked one in the past and threw everything including the kitchen sink on it and it was edible.....any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm surprised that this thread isn't six pages long already. I know a guy in Stephenville that you need to talk to, but I don't have his number.

This past 4th of July he smoked half of a fairly big sow (probably ran 170 on the hoof) at 275-300 for somewhere between four and six hours, so extrapolate as you see fit and at your own risk (I kept a close eye on the clock for two hours, then got too drunk to pay attention). He rubs with an unscientific mix of brown sugar, paprika, cayenne, salt, black pepper, onion powder and dried thyme (the ingredients are exact, but he wasn't following a recipe so I have no idea about the portions), then laid pineapple slices over her high side as she went in the smoker. They did mop, but I don't know what it was - very sweet with peach chunks.

Maybe the best pig I've eaten. Really flippin' good any way you sliced her...

We won first place in a wild hog cook off and we cooked it on a rotisary in our smoker. We took one of those little hand pump up spayers and put apple juice in it and sprayed it with that. We seasoned it with brownsugar, fajita seasoning,paprika,salt,pepper.We may have put some tony's on it too!

Come to think of it, I'm sure that their mopping sauce had an applejuice component.

rub w/ salt and cracked pepper....smoke for 3 hours....... pan meat, cover, and continue smoking for 5 hours....... will fall off the bone and have em fighting for more....

and that is advice from Afghanistan.......lol we are tying to get the TX Air Guard to fly us in a smoker and some wild hogs so we can share the wealth here in Kabul......

Merry Christmas All......

I just cooked a whole hog in a pit in my back yard. I converted my kids sandbox into a below ground cinder block lined pit covered with corrugated sheet metal, and put a rebar and remesh grill in it, fire pit on one end.

The pig should be scraped, not skinned as the skin keeps the fat in keeping the meat moist. We injected it with a combination dry rub simmered in apple juice concentrate and let it sit for 3-4 days in a cooler. You could inject it and cook it right away. I place the same pork dry rub inside the cavity. You can use jamaica jerk powder mixed with equal parts brown sugar if you don't want to look up a recipe for pork dry rub. You can find it at most stores, I think Sams carries it and Phoenecia over near Kirkwood and Westheimer carries it too. Slow cook it at about 250F for about 12 hours. I did mine close to 20. It was fallin off the bone. I put the pig on expanded metal sheeting so it can be lifted out of the pit by 4 people with ease, then placed on a sawhorse table on plastic sheeting to be cut up and pulled.

Good thread, great info.

Toryu88, can you eloborate a bit on the scraping of the pig instead of skinning. Like how...what you used.

Thanks,

I used to help my grandfather scrape hogs on butchering day back in Virginia. You have to scald them. We rolled them in a tank of water hot enough to scald but not to start to cook them. 155 to 160F. We had a tank that we built a fire under and lowered the whole hog in lying on chains. Two strong men could roll it by pulling on the chains in a coordinated sawing motion.

In absence of that, a large pot for heating the water, maybe a turkey cooker or crawfish pot would be fine. Then using a smaller cooking pot or sauce pan, pour the hot water on the section you are going to scrape. If the water is hot enough, the hair should pull off. 3-6 minutes is what they normaly scald them for, or till the hair pulls off.

Then any sharp knife will work to scrape it with, just scrap it like you were shaving it.

The problem is you usually submerge them before you gut them to keep from cooking any of the meat, and from tainting any of it with dirty water.

So the spot, sauce pan method is necessary if the hog had been opened up.

My grand father would then lather them up and shave them with one of his old straight razors. He did this because he didn't want any hair in the finished meat. This isn't necessary if you're just gonna cook it in a cooker. The skin will all pull off when its done anyway.

I have found that for rotisserie cooking the fat dripping is minimized and so is the burned fat taste and smell from fat flare if the skin is still on. I cooked a whole pig on a spit once that had been skinned and it was pretty nasty.

^ Good advice right there...

Was this a wild pig that you scraped? If so, I'd like some tips on scraping wild pigs. I scrape domestic hogs, but always skin the wild ones because it looks like a chore to get them scraped.

Get a 350 Lb Hog, take a couple rolls of aluminum foil, whole garlic cloves, onion powder, 4 sticks of butter.....

Crush us the garlic, onion powder, and the sticks of butter

Spread this all over the hog in a thick coat.

Once you have done that wrap the hog in the aluminum foil (its gonna take alot hence the couple of rolls)

Get a hot hot hot wood burning fire....

Take some bailing wire and hook up the legs take an extra two by four laying around and use it as a brace.

Put the pig over the flame and let it cook until almost char.

After you feel its perfect remove the hog throw it in the ditch and then cut the 2 by 4 into eating size and enjoy!

lol. Sorry if you read the whole thing but I aint a big fan of whole hogs. Hope everyone has a good day.

That reminds me of a spoonbill recipe.