See more details on our hog & lamb roast catering on our website - click here
We went the whole hog for a birthday celebratory evening at Upper Court near Tewkesbury a few days ago. The pig was Berkshire/ Gloucester Old Spot cross from Home Farm, so had been reared around 2 - 3 miles accross the fields from where we were serving it.
There are two ways we do them - like this (above) is the more economic version which is cooked in the local bakery ovens which have the high heat (and space) to crisp up the crackling while cooking the middle like a confit in the pig's own fat (it renders as it cooks). This is then kept warm over the barbecue and carved while the guests watch (and pick......).
The other way is the way we cooked the whole lamb a few months ago - on a roasting machine which is set up at the venue and you can watch it cooking - you can see more phoptos of that by clicking here.
Either way the whole hog (or lamb) roast is a great talking point - both while your pre-dinner drinks and watching (and picking at the tit-bits), while your eating, and afterwards too (there's always seconds!) and tastes amazing.
Carving the hog
The crackling is the first thing to take off - the bit that everyone loves. This was cut into small pieces and finished off under the grill.
Then you can take down the pig (above), carving each section at a time - loins, shoulder, legs, knuckles, belly, ribs etc.
This is part of the loin (left). You could not get a more tender, more flavoursome piece of pork if you tried.
The parts of the animal with the most serious flavour though are, as I found out at the first hog roast I did, the trotters, tail, cheeks, snout and ears. While I was cutting the crackling, everyone was eager to get a taste, so I cut off the cheeks and trotters and gave them that on a small plate to nibble with their drinks while I carried on carving. It was gone in a flash.
Crispy pigs ears - if you love crackling you'll love these too!.......
...... and the same goes with the the tail.
This was served with homemade bread rolls (walnut, raisin and rosemary; Granary; Sun dried tomato, olive and basil), stuffing, apple sauce, mustard and mayonnaise. Accompanying it were nicoise salad, tomato and basil salad and cous cous and pearl barley salad.
Dessert was strawberry meringue roulade (made fresh that afternoon) with strawberry ice cream (made over the preceding 3 days).
As it was a relatively small party for the pig roast I carried on carving and left all the remaining meat in their fridge for them to eat the next day.
Related posts:
Whole lamb roast
Some roast Sunday lunches we have served
1001 Kitchen tips #50 - How to get crispy crackling
Slow cooked shoulder of pork with lentils, spinach and chorizo
Honey and mustard Home Farm pork loin steaks with glazed apples on the barbecue
Slow cooked belly pork in cider with creamy lentils
Pork curry
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