Whole Hog for the Fourth

This 4th of July, Chris decided to cook a whole hog for the party he hosted at his place. It was a great time and everyone enjoyed some damn fine BBQ.

Chris picked up this 82lb pig at Steve's Meat Market in De Soto, Kansas. This was the third hog that we've cooked (Chris did the work cooking this one) - the first two being at the BBQlossal contest in Des Moines in June and our practice pig getting for that event a few weeks before. Both of those were much smaller projects in the 45-50lb range.

I came over around 5:30 in the morning and togehter we seasoned and injected the hog, then put him on Chris's 48" H&S Smoker, which he already had heated up with smoke rolling for a while by the time I got there. We loaded the pig for a long cook and I took off, leaving Chris to tend the fire and get ready for the party.

I returned home to start a cooking session of my own...

Earlier in the week I got a call to provide some food for another party on the fourth. The menu included sliced brisket & burnt ends, chicken thighs, legs and whole leg quarters, beans and cheesy corn. I got home and got started on the brisket and later threw on the chicken, corn and beans. We wrapped up around 4pm and my Dad (in town visiting for the holiday) helped me deliver the food to the party around 4:30.

We then made our way out to Chris' place just in time to pull the hog out of the cooker. We capped off the day with some pretty good BBQ, beer and some fireworks. These guys didn't even head inside to eat any of the other food - they just picked the remaining meat off of the cooked carcass.

Next week we are finally back on the competition trail. We'll be heading to Shannon, IL for the Illinois State BBQ Championship and the Butt to Butt Invational. We are really looking forward to it and should be a great time!