Tasty Trotter, Hog Roast cooking guidelines

Our Tasty Trotter professional spit roasting oven can cook many different types of meat, however the most popular is pork, hence the name Hog Roast. With this in mind our meat preparation guide has been written using pork as the main meat.

There are several different schools of thought on how to prepare a pig for roasting, the best advice would be to consult with your local butcher or meat supplier. The most important point is to firmly secure the pig to the spit distributing the weight as evenly as possible; ensure you fit the spit as close to the top of the rib cage as possible. Most butchers will do this for you and if you are doing a lot of roasting it would be advisable to purchase an additional spit assembly (this consists of one spit shaft and 3 pairs of retainers- 2x U shaped, 2 triangular and 2 end retainers).

You will need to decide if you are going to keep the head and feet in place; our professional spit roasting oven is big enough for the largest pig complete with head and feet in place. Please bear in mind occasionally some customers don't like to see the head or feet, so you may like to give your customers a choice.

The U shaped fixings are used in the middle and take the majority of the weight of the pig, the two horizontal spikes are pushed into the ends as above, the two triangular ones are used to retain the feet and to assist when removing the pig from the oven.

To score or not to score
Scoring requires cutting into the skin about 10mm deep in several places, ensuring lines do not cross. Tasty Trotter Event Supplies do not recommend scoring you are cooking the meat for the meat and not the crackling, the crackling is an added bonus! (the above pictures show a scored pig on the right and an unscored pig on the left)

We believe that scoring the meat increases the risk of the meat falling off the spit and more importantly it can increase the risk of dry meat. Not scoring the meat means the juices are kept inside which we believe makes for far more succulent and tasty meat, the only drawback with this is the need to cut the crackling afterwards.

There is very little preparation required for the meat but best results can be obtained by sprinkling the skin with salt and rubbing it in. If you decide to score then it is important that the score lines are not linked and cannot form islands of skin that can fall off. Use short score lines of around 50mm long and NOT criss-crossing other lines will ensure the best results.

Cooking times will vary depending on the weight of the hog and other factors; we have devised this set of cooking guidelines for you to follow until you have established a satisfactory cooking routine of your own. You will develop your own cooking methods, time and temperatures but the following is our general procedure

If possible allow the pig to get to room temperature; it is likely to have been refrigerated at around 3 ° C so it will ideally need around 1-3 hours to get to room temperature prior to cooking.

For filled bread rolls with stuffing & pork, you will need to allow approximately 160g to 225g per person, 175g per person is usually adequate for most calculations as this is equivalent to a normal average appetite.

No need to pre heat the oven, this way you don't need gloves to put the pig on.

For the first 35 to maximum 45minutes put both burners on in the oven and cook the pig at around 250° C, this should sear the meat and result in a less visible loss of juices. Meat fibres contract when heat is applied, squeezing out juices from the inside. With a high heat applied first these juices will be burnt into a crust on the outside of the meat; sealing it and retaining more of the juices on the inside resulting in more succulent & tasty meat.

Reduce the oven temperature to around 200° C for the next 4 to 5 hours; don't forget slower and lower heat cooking results in better meat flavour. You will find one burner will usually provide enough heat to achieve this temperature.

Test the meat is fully cooked with a suitable temperature gauge and visually check the juices are running clear.

NOTE The meat must have reached 75° C to be classed as safe (78° C in Scotland)

PLEASE do not trust the temperature gauge on the oven as due to its position it takes some time for the true temperature to soak through to this gauge.

IMPORTANT
Only cook in a well ventilated area, ensure that no combustible materials are within 1 metre of the oven, ensure vents are not obscured in any way and that the oven isn't in a windy location. Do not leave unattended and check that the burner(s) are lit and the spit is rotating on a regular basis.