Whole pig on a spit Dunedin

Hello all,

I've just had a request from a local community to cook meat for a gathering of about 100 people. The theme of this event is 'farm to table'. My job us to prepare and cook a while pig over a spit, which is something I haven't done before. I have some questions!
1. Would a 60kgish 2yr old female kune kune be suitable? (There will be other meat and food) I have kunes in my back yard and always wondered what they taste like.
2. Are there any tips out there from somebody who has done this before?
3. Is there a Dunedin local that has a setup already in their backyard that would be suitable for getting hair off a pig? Happy to pay. The local butchers I've called aren't very keen.
The event is in February. We are designing and fabricating a charcoal spit currently.

I'd appreciate any advice please!

Ive done a bit of this with my own spit which I made.

Ive never cooked a Kunekune before. Ive heard that they arent that nice to eat, but Ive never tried to cook one before so unsure about that.

Right so the spit part. Yep, have you got a design in mind?? I don't use the charcoal types. Mine was LPG fired and did a great job.

Don't try to spit venison. I've never had any success with doing it that way. It seems to be too lean for spit roasting and it never seems to go well. Lamb and pork are the go.

lets have a look at yr design before we go into anything further

I’ve cooked x2 sheep on a Manuka fired spit a few times. It takes a long time as you don’t really want high flames, but a deep pile of continually fed embers. Once my fire was going, I fed it with shorts of Manuka so I could target certain areas of the meat. Basting with some home made concoction works too. I’m guessing kunekune would be very fatty so meat yield may not be that great, but fat dripping on embers should help the heat. I now use a blowtorch to singe any pig. The job stinks but skin surface can come up nicely by scrubbing with dairy brush after singed hair is scraped off. When I scalded pigs in an old bath, my go to temp was 72C. Too hot and you may have the skin/fat blubbering off. Finally, my rotisserie was powered by an electric motor thru two old washing machine gearboxes back to back, about 1 rpm. A mate still uses it.

Kunekune are terrible eating

I’ve never done a whole pig but have done a whole sheep for our street party. I only use charcoal, a whole animal is cool but time consuming cutting up. The easiest meat is rolled boneless.Attachment 214270 also get it cooked early and let it rest, it will keep warm for hours with just a few hot coals.
This as for a work do of about 50-60 people. Two rolled beef, two rolled pork a side of home kill lamb and four chooks. Sausages for the kids.

I've only thought about this for a couple of hours this morning, so no plans drawn up yet. This one is going to be charcoal.
I was going to keep it cheap and simple. An old barrel cut in half length ways, holding a bed of coals and catching drips. Then a rotisserie suspended above somehow, with the ability to raise and lower. But I'm not familiar with this sort of BBQ so I'd appreciate your input into my ideas tac a1.

Don’t worry about adjusting it up and down just adjust your fire.

Ryan, are you speaking from experience? I've heard mixed opinions about kunes. Some say they're the best pork they've eaten, some say they aren't good.

Whatever you do don’t put the Kunekune on for a feed. They have more body fat than Rushy after Christmas dinner.

Thanks 2post. That's helpful.

Okay so it sounds like I'd better find a different breed of pig than kunekune!

These kune's are a bit leaner than most, because they primarily eat grass, very few scraps, and they roam about on 7 acres of land so they're relatively fit for a kune. I've heard kunes dont get bred for meat because they're very slow growing, but many who have eaten them say they taste amazing. A quick google search verifies this. So i don't know! Love to give it a try though.

Attachment 214278

I've never done a whole animal either but agree with 2post, individual roasts are easy for carving and cooking as well as allowing some variety of flavors. Photo shows 2 lamb legs, 4kg beef rump & 11kg pork leg. Cooked over coal 6 hours.Attachment 214280 This fed 80ish people with bread, salads and the usual sides

Get a wild 50kg pig,skin it.Wrapp up and slow cook.Islander way,cooking above ground,UMU stye,slow cooker=buitifull meat.Got any islanders down there that can help you?

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Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Kunekune are terrible eating

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Agree they are not good - normally balls of fat -if doing a whole pig - open it right up and say a 60 kg porker 7-8 hrs

I've killed a few kune's when I was working with the cousin doing farm kill. Never really noticed the difference in the animal but then there may be something about slower growing and feed type etc etc. The one comment I guess is that the kune's seem to be more of a 'pet' type pig vs breed-to-eat style of porkers which are usually gotten, fattened and farked off to the freezer - I suspect in this case the kune's are a lot older and in that case probably only fit for pork mince... Pork is very quick to take a taste from what you feed it too.

On the subject of venison, roll it in pork and make a wrapped and tied roast, goes well then. For the kune for a dinner, if you are cooking for 100 I would be looking to get a 'known quantity' and trying one of your own out later. As said, doesn't need to be a charcoal spit but it does need to have a basting tray under the meat to collect the marinade juices so you can keep pouring it over the meat as it turns on the spit. Keeping it juicy so it doesn't dry out is the absolute key to good tasting moist and tender spit-cooked meat, I actually prefer steamed (hangi in a can) to spit-cooked as you can drown the meat in a commercial tinfoil 'bath' and cook it in it's marinade and juices. Impossible to overcook it then, can put it on in the morning and 6-7 hours later sort it out for dinner at your leisure...

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Originally Posted by Brad S

Ryan, are you speaking from experience? I've heard mixed opinions about kunes. Some say they're the best pork they've eaten, some say they aren't good.

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They are mostly fat and are awe full to eat….. great friendly pets though.
I was given one years ago and it was horrible. Basically all fat and tasted terrible.

You won’t get crackling if you baste it.

Get BBQ Bill!:D

We did them at work on a spit the guys made.
Both pigs and sheep.
The spit doesn't need to turn, just turn occasionally.
The one we used had a lid so was basically a big oven about 5 foot long.
Low and slow on the heat, gives you time to have a beer.

Over coals have your main fire away from the animal, shovel coals from it to either side of the spit. Kune are fat, I've seen kune chops catch fire on a gas bbq, the cook turned the gas off by they happily kept burning so he picked one up with a set of long tongs and shook it to try and put it out, it just sprayed burning fat around. Dropping them in the ice barrel with the beers worked.

want it done right, contact your local filipino club/association, they can roast a whole pig to perfection. throw them a few bucks as they are generally a bloody group of people. (also damned hard workers and ultra polite)

I met a guy years ago who was boiling a whole pig over a fire in a 44 gallon drum to precook kit for a bbq the next day. Ive eaten kune kune once and wont again. It was pork flavoured oily meat

Hi Brad. If you decide to build a quick bbq/rotissery my best advice would be use 2/3 of a drum for the coals and the remainder (or another 2/3) as a hood, I didn't make a hood and I use 1kg of coal per kg of meat

How are you getting on with this Brad??

Ive seen a couple of ways to cook in this style now. One was a Argentinian style where you make a bed of coals and then have a sheep boned out on a rack made of re enforcing mesh. It sits beside the fire on an angle to the heat and cooks slowly. I think that they turn it over a few times.

Another the other day was a spit over a bed of tea tree coals. They had a fire in a barrel with the coals coming out the bottom. Shovelled them onto a steel tray under the sheep. Looked like that would work well.

The height over the coals didn't look like it made that much difference. Just adjust the coals to suit.

Hello tac a1, unfortunately it all became a bit difficult and the organizers decided to feed a lot of people a different way. I'm a bit relieved - I'm not experienced with such large BBQs! I'll give it a try at some point though.

I like that tea tree idea! I have seen videos of a similar American restaurant setup, although in that one the coals were fed into a huge offset pit made out of bricks, which cooked 100s of kgs of whole pork sides every day. This is the vid here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=39ii9LvnDoE not really relevant to what I was trying to do but very cool vid!

I used one after being roped in to cook AGAIN..... it was hired unit and frankely was a pain in the arse.

I have cooked a lot using spits. For pigs the best way is to cut them in half. Bone each side out and roll them around the pole like a rolled roast. As you roll it take some of the meat of the hind quarter and fore quarter and even it out through the flank area. some stuffing at this point never goes a miss.

The advantage of this method is that it cooks a lot more even with no issue trying to cook under the shoulder. Carving it up is a lot quicker too which means hot meat instead of a congealed mess.

Never bast pork if you want crackling. I used to use coals but its a pain, Now use gas and can cook a pig with a 9kg bottle with gas to spare. With a temp gauge its easy and repeatable. Mines made out of an old diesel home heating tank.

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Originally Posted by Brad S

Hello tac a1, unfortunately it all became a bit difficult and the organizers decided to feed a lot of people a different way. I'm a bit relieved - I'm not experienced with such large BBQs! I'll give it a try at some point though.

I like that tea tree idea! I have seen videos of a similar American restaurant setup, although in that one the coals were fed into a huge offset pit made out of bricks, which cooked 100s of kgs of whole pork sides every day. This is the vid here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=39ii9LvnDoE not really relevant to what I was trying to do but very cool vid!

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If i can get it on here I will draw a plan of what mine was. I'm a stainless welder by trade and used to do a lot of sheet metal and pipe work from stainless.

Basically, it's an octagonal cross section design. It has a full piano hinge along the back edge which allows it to open in half.

It has two full lengths of schedule tube lengthways inside it as the burners in the sides. There are BBQ jets in the end of these pipes to inject the LPG. Holes along full length internally to let the gas out and burn. You adjust the flames by moving the jets back and forth till you have a nice crisp blue flame for cooking.

The driver for the spit was a vat drive motor. I have now seen that you can purchase a specific right angle drive reduction box and motor which is slow. You only want about 2 to 3 rpm.

I will see if I have a picture of it somewhere or I can draw the plan again if anyone is interested. Don't ask for a price to build one unless your used to shocks. It would be expensive now due to the price of stainless.

That would be awesome if you could find a picture of it.

I think you dodged a bullet there Brad- catering for a heap of people is a big responsibility and you DEF don't want to be in learning mode when doing it.

https://www.savebarn.co.nz/spit-roas...MaAi8WEALw_wcB

Not sure on the quality of the one above, but is the same concept as Tac a1 described I think.

Years ago, we hired one similar from hire quip, but it didn't turn. You laid the pig split on a mesh plate, and the heat came from bottom back, up the side. Ie the heat rotated and not the meat. Worked bloody good.

Sort of. Thats much smaller than my one.

I've seen the Waipu Lions spit roast in action. The steel rods the meat is hung on and the drive mechanism I'm not sure of. The spit was fired with Manuka embers from a separate fire. They were shovel spread and raked out on 1/2 sheets of corrugated iron split lengthwise and placed on concrete blocks on the ground. They fed a big crowd.