Hog Wild Feast

Feasting is an ancient tradition, stretching back far into the days before refrigeration or artificial freezing could preserve foods and mitigate the threat of famine. If mountains of food were suddenly available, often coinciding with a butchering event, then copious amounts of eating ensued. This tradition also wove itself into the calendar of holidays, so that a gathering of friends and neighbors for marking important annual events is today synonymous with a big meal—roasting a turkey or a ham or cooking loads of steak or bratwurst.

Traditionally, our Christmas meal has been one of our pastured turkeys, with Christmas Eve as a fun and different ethnic theme each year. But with travel plans being bantered about by inclement weather, it was hard for many of the family to be at the farm before Christmas Day. So two food adventures became wrapped together in a special feasting extravaganza on the snowy day of Christmas.

But the adventure started well before that. In fact, it started with the birth of our first litters of piglets back in June. One little fellow had become oxygen deficient during the birthing process, which can happen, but was lucky to survive the incident and live with his siblings amicably. But he soon earned the name Corkscrew, or “Corky” for his classic spinning-around whenever he became excited and his cocked head position, as if he was always questioning what would come next.

As Corky grew, he stayed smaller than the others, spending more time spinning than eating his share at the trough, and Kara became concerned that Corky wouldn’t make it to full size without complications. Instead, it might be more humane to have him as a pig roast when family was up for the holidays. Corky would have enjoyed a good young pig life without undue suffering, and the family would equally enjoy him at the table. That’s all part of the cycle of life on the farm.

But no area butcher could help us with processing Corky for a pig roast. Normally, butchers skin the animal, remove the head and feet, and then cut to order. For a pig roast, the animal must remain whole, though gutted, much like a deer, with the skin on. That means the fur needs to come off, which includes scalding, much like with processing chickens. Dunking in hot, soapy water allows the pores in the skin to open, which allows the feathers (or in this case hair) to be plucked or rubbed off. But since the area butchers don’t process poultry, there’s no scalder on the premises. That meant we were going to have to do the job ourselves.

It took some preparing to get all the tools at hand, but with the help of a hunting friend, Corky’s end was as swift and as kind as possible. The chicken scalder was prepared with “Old Baldy Hog Scald,” and the disk-like scrapers went to work. When finished, the black-and-white 24-pound piglet was pretty in pink skin, ready to steep in a marinade of garlic, capers, lime juice, oregano, curry, olive oil, and cilantro. We skipped the apple in the mouth, but otherwise he was ready.

After the autumn’s success of cooking leg of lamb and Thanksgiving turkeys in the wood-fired oven, Kara and Mom’s cousin Jeff worked out a way to roast whole pig in the new outdoor contraption. With a starter fire the day before to warm the concrete and floor bricks, the day of the feast included starting with a hot fire until the dome shone white. The fire was then pushed to the side with fire bricks set up vertically to shield the roast from the raw flame. With the oven and fire still hot, the goal was to sear the skin to hold in the succulent juices, then allow the fire to cool for a long, slow roast.

“He’s trying to escape,” Kara came in to report, half-way through the sear. “I think we need to tie the legs together.” She and Jeff headed out with some cotton cording and flipped over the roast in the rack to catch the gravy.

Winter squashes roasted in the oven and Grandma’s famous cranberry sauce was being ladled into a bowl when they brought in the fully-roasted Corky. Brown and crispy, his white teeth were in a remarkable grin. Lena was simply beside herself chewing on a crunchy ear while the carving commenced. It was our first taste of this new Kunekune breed of pig since the arrival of the parent porcines on the farm over a year ago.

Passing the brazed cabbage and leeks, everyone remarked on how the meat was amazingly succulent and tender. A little sweet and smoky, with hints of the oregano, garlic, and capers, it was a wonderfully delicious centerpiece to the family gathering. Thank you, Corky, for your life to grace our table and nourish the family. Our porcine adventures will continue into the New Year, with more piglets on the way.

We weren’t able to finish the whole roast, so I’ve head the tamales are in the works, after we enjoy the turkey in the oven today. So much good food on the farm during the holidays! Guess all that hard work through the summer pays off, as we warm ourselves by the fire, split wood, play card games, and think towards the plans and adventures of the New Year around the corner. Happy gathering to you, and a Happy New Year! See you down on the farm sometime.