17 August 2010 (Tuesday) - Stuff

I’m not quite sure how it came about, but I found myself researching the acquisition of a pig today. Not as a pet, but as something to stick on a barby. Some time over the last few days the subject of a hog roast was broached, and I think it might have been a suggestion for a forthcoming camp. I’ve found a butcher in Woodchurch who has a field full of suitable pigs, and with a week’s notice he can do the necessary so’s we could have a hog roast. And a whole pig isn’t overly expensive – considerably less than two hundred quid, and it comes ready to have the stick shoved up it’s bum. The only drawback is how much pig we’d get. The butcher seemed to think that just one leg would do us for camping for the weekend; the whole pig comes with four of these legs, and together with bellies, loins and briskets would probably do us through till Xmas. Perhaps I might content myself with just sticking a few pork sossies on the barby instead – it’s always worked in the past.

I then phoned a plumber to service the boiler. It’s not been done for a while and is probably overdue. I phoned about a dozen plumbers until I found one who’d actually answer the phone, rather than just letting the thing ring and ring. But it was his wife who answered. She’s taken my number, and said someone will call me back. We shall see…

An email via Friends Reunited. From someone with whom I lost touch some thirty years ago, but remember from before my first day at primary school. The chap’s left the army after twenty-odd years and is now a teacher in Lincolnshire. We started primary school together in 1969, and both went on to the Hastings Academy for Genius Boys in 1979. We lost touch when he left the school in 1980, but thirty years later here he is. There are so many from the old days with whom I’ve lost touch, and so few that I do manage to keep up with….


2 comments:

  1. I learned how to cook a pig in the Philippines known there as Lechon and have cooked them over here, so here are a few pointers.

    1. It takes a long time to cook over charcoal, so you need to start at about 4am for lunch and you need to turn it continuously so you need lots of manpower and plenty of beer or a motorised spit.

    2. In the UK they slit from the tip of the chin right down the body which is no good for spitting as you need the throat intact, so you need to ask them to slit from the base of the neck when they slaughter the pig. In the Philipines this is a DIY job since you by the pig on the hoof.

    3. We've done 100lb pigs which give about 50lb dressed weight and serve in the region of 75-100 people but what isn't served as Lechon is turned into Lechon Paksiw.

    4. Light your charcoal elsewhere and once it is ready bring it to the pig forming two strips, one just either side of the pig, this stops the smoke and flames caused by the fat dripping onto the charcoal and the loss of heat caused by adding unlit charcoal. You will need a constant feed of charcoal from your lighting area as you will be cooking for about 8-10 hours, so once one batch has been moved to the pig, start lighting the next. Lump wood is best as it doesn't break up when you move it.

    5. Invite Filipinos to the Pig Roast and what doesn't get eaten at the time will get divvied and taken away so you have nothing to dispose of other than the charcoal ashes.

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  2. Please check my Bloggy tomorrow Uncle Badger as I has given you an award for strangeness and you can win goodies of a strange dr whooooish natures
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    Molly

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