Dynamic Yet Consistent

For my thirtieth birthday we had a pig roast here in Swaziland.  I am generally not one for big birthday celebrations, but the stars aligned and it just made sense for use to host a big shin-dig and roast a whole pig.  I have never done such a thing, nor had anyone else here, but we figured how hard could it be to slap a whole animal on the grill.  Here is an account in pictures of the event.

We started by slaughtering the pig.  We had a couple of the staff members do the actual slaughtering and obviously Mikayla enjoyed learning about how a pork chop comes from a pig to her plate.

Stadium and Fodo did the cleaning for us and did an excellent job.

We let the meat rest for 3 days to ease rigor mortis.  We would have kept the head for effect, but instead gave it to our staff members (along with the entrails) because they would actually eat them.

Joe and I then made a few simple cuts to be able to butterfly the pig.

Then we put it on a a simple braii (grill) stand.

In order to grill the actual pig, we dug an oblong pit with a stone border in the middle.  That let us build up one side while the the other burned down.  The result was a slow roast that we could adjust.

All smiles about an hour into the event.

Grilling on one side, while the other side was flaming up.

After about 2.5 hours (on a 30 pound dressed pig), we flipped it over to crisp the skin.

Since there were a few people who were a bit squeamish about the idea of grilling our own pig, we took it safe and cut the shanks off to to get some better heat distribution and ensure a through cooking.

Joe and I taking a quick bite to ensure doneness.

The finished product.

Pork wasn’t all we had.  We added to the festivities with homemade baked beans, pizza, ratatouille, pasta salad, bread, rolls and fresh bar-b-que sauce.

This was the serving table once we started the meal

And what what was left… the pot was given away, the bones were use to make a stock, the fat was rendered to cook with and the meat was saved.

All in all… it was a wonderful birthday celebration.  We had no idea what we were doing, but figured it out in style and loved every minute of it.

30 doesn’t feel so bad when you celebrate it this way!