El Chancho/The Pig Roast

My husband's Uncle Juan celebrated his 50th birthday over the weekend.  And for his birthday he decided he'd like to roast a pig, Cuban style.  I agreed to do on-site blog reporting of this event with more than a little trepidation.  Back in the U.S. I was a vegetarian for 14 years.  Now that I eat meat I feel like I understand exactly where it comes from.  I can eat fish with the eyes still in them.  I even ate some chickens I helped raise.  But a piglet on a spit? Piglets are very close to puppies in my mind.  And I draw the line at puppies.

We stopped by Juan's house in the morning to see how things were going.  The pig was already mounted on the metal device Juan had built just for her.  My initial reaction was dismay.  We took some pictures and went home to give piggy time to cook. 
We went back to Juan's house in the afternoon.  The pig was a darker color and juices were starting to drip out of its... holes. People mingled and talked, kids played, babies were admired.  It got later.  The pig was not yet cooked to perfection.  Then it started raining.  The family served all the other food, and the pig was carved up about an hour later.  I hate to admit it, but I couldn't do it.  However, I wasn't alone.  Someone asked Juan's wife how the pig turned out and she just shook her head.  "No,"she said, "I can't eat it. It's grossing me out."

Cuban Pig Roast

1 pig                                                                    water

salt                                                                       wood

** First you need to find a pig.  If it's alive, you'll need to kill it, take the innards out, and shave it.  I cannot believe I'm writing this.  If you're ordering your pig from a butcher you should ask him or her to make only small incisions when s/he takes out the organs.  You should calculate 1 lb. of pig per person.  Each person will not really eat a pound of pork, this factors in the weight of the bones and hooves.
** Burn firewood down to coals.  They should still be hot when you mount the pig over them but there should not be flames.  The coals should be assembled in 2 piles.  One should be under the pig's head and the other should be under his hind legs.

** Open the pig's mouth and drive a stake into his butt.  Push it through til it comes out his mouth.  I cannot believe I'm writing this.

** Cooking time is calculated by cooking 1 hour per every 10 lbs. of pig.  However, Juan's pig took longer than calculated.  This might have been because his coals weren't hot enough.

** Half an hour before the pig is finished spray it with a salt water mix.

     Food Haiku #1
        It's lunch time again!
  What's that cooking on the coals?
        Oh.  Pig on a stick.