Winter Pig Recipes

WHOLE ROAST SUCKLING PIG

Steps:

• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare the pig: Wash it, including the cavity, under cold running water, and towel-dry thoroughly, the way you would dry a small child after a bath - ears, armpits, chest cavity, face, legs, backs of knees.
• Sometimes there are imperfections remaining after the slaughtering and processing of the animal. Use dish towels or sturdy paper towels to rub away any dark spots on the ears, any little bit of remaining bristles around the mouth. Like that yellow, papery flaking skin you sometimes find on chickens, which can be peeled off to reveal tender, fresh skin underneath, a similar bit of crud can remain on pigs' chins and under their belly flaps. Clean this little cutie as if you were detailing your car! The purple U.S.D.A. stamp, however, is indelible. But not inedible.
• Bard the pig with all 20 garlic cloves, making deep incisions all over with a thin filleting knife and shoving the cloves into each pocket; include the cheeks and the neck and the rump and the thighs and the loin down the back and the front shoulders, all areas of the small creature that have enough flesh to be able to receive a clove of garlic. (Sometimes I find I have to slice the larger cloves of garlic in half to get them to slide into the incision.)
• Rub the entire pig in oil exactly as you would apply suntan oil to a sunbathing goddess of another era, when people still were ignorant of the harmful effects of the sun. Massage and rub and get the whole creature slick and glistening. I do this directly in a very large roasting pan.
• Wash and dry your hands. Take large pinches of kosher salt, and raising your arm high above the pig, rain down the salt in an even, light dusting all over. You can start with the pig on its back and get the cavity and the crotch, and then turn it over and get the back and the head and flanks. Or vice versa. But in the end, the whole animal is salted evenly and lightly, snout to tail.
• Arrange the pig in the roasting pan, spine up, rear legs tucked under, with feet pointing toward its ears and its two front legs out ahead in front. Sometimes the pig needs a sharp, sturdy, confident chiropractic crack on its arching spine, just to settle it in comfortably to the roasting pan, so it won't list to one side or topple over.
• Put the potato deep into its mouth, and place in the oven, on the bottom rack, and roast slowly for about 4 to 5 hours, depending on the size of your pig. (Plan 15 minutes of roasting time per pound of pig; if you have a 20-pounder, then you'd need about 5 hours total cooking time.) Add a little water to the roasting pan along the way if you see the juices are in danger of scorching, and loosely tent the animal with aluminum foil in vulnerable spots - ears, snout, arc of back - if you see them burning. For the last half-hour, raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees, and cook until the skin gets crisp and even blistered, checking every 10 minutes.
• Tap on it with your knuckle to hear a kind of hollow sound, letting you know the skin has inflated and separated from the interior flesh; observe splitting of the skin at knuckles - all good signs the pig is done. Or use a meat thermometer inserted deep in the neck; the pig is ready at 160 degrees. Let rest 45 minutes before serving.
• Remove the potato, and replace it with the apple. Transfer the pig to a large platter; nestle big bouquets of herbs around the pig as garnish. Save pan juices, and use for napping over the pulled meat when serving.

WINTER PIG

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
• Mix together 1/4 cup sugar, the coffee, Aleppo peppers, salt and black pepper.
• Put the rub onto the pork belly strips and put into an oven-safe deep-dish pan. Submerge the pork fully with the beer. Cover and cook for 4 hours.
• For the preserves, melt the butter in saucepan, Add 5 of the apples, 1/2 cup of the sugar and some salt. Cook at a simmer for 2 hours 30 minutes.
• For the pickled apples, in a medium saucepan, place the hot peppers, vinegar, the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the cinnamon, caraway, celery seeds, juniper berries, peppercorns and mustard seeds. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and reduce the mixture for 30 minutes.
• Pour the mixture over the 5 remaining apples. Allow to sit for 1 hour. Then refrigerate.
• Then, assemble the sandwich! Take the ciabatta and cut in half. Build each sandwich with some apple preserves, Cheddar, pickled apples and then pork belly. Finish with fresh mint leaves. If the food items are cold, build the sandwiches except for mint, and put them in the toaster oven or oven for 10 minutes. Once warm, add the mint and enjoy.

ROAST SUCKLING PIG

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, combine the orange, lime, and grapefruit juice and whisk together. Wash and pat the pig dry with paper towels. Sprinkle inside and out with the salt and pepper and place it in a large roasting pan, belly side up. Place the grapefruit, oranges, limes, onion, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme inside the cavity and skewer it closed. Turn belly side down and place a ball of wood or a rolled up piece of aluminum foil about the size of a lemon in the pigs mouth. Skewer the legs into position by pulling the forelegs forward and bending the hind legs into a crouching position (this will help a large pig fit in a home oven, if it fits already, this is not necessary). Cover the tail and ears with small pieces of foil to prevent them from burning. Place the pig in the oven and baste with the citrus juice mixture. After the pig has roasted for 15 minutes, baste it again with the citrus juice mixture and reduce the heat to 325 degrees. Roast for 20 minutes per pound longer, basting generously every 15 or 20 minutes with the juice mixture and then the pan juices. To test for doneness, prick the thigh with the tip of a sharp knife to see if the juices run clear. The internal temperature should read 165 degrees on a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the leg. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes, loosely tented with a large piece of aluminum foil. Distribute the parsley and watercress sprigs loosely around the edges of a large warmed oval platter. Halve the trimmed blood oranges and place them around the edges of the platter, nestled in the greens. Remove the foil from the tail and ears and replace the wood or foil from the mouth with a lemon, lime, or apple. Carve at the table, with confidence.