Roasted Suckling Pig

BOURDAIN

Before beginning the subject of today’s blog I cannot proceed without a comment on the sudden and tragic death of Anthony Bourdain. I became a huge fan after reading “Kitchen Confidential” and later “Medium Raw”. I loved and sometimes, although rarely, hated the guy based on one theme or another of his TV shows especially "No Reservations". His superb writing talent and story-telling skills combined with his New York attitude made for great reading and listening for anyone interested in food, culture and anthropology.

My daughter Andrea gave me his final cookbook, “Appetites” last Christmas.  Here is a quote from his Introduction:

“I recognize that I am, in some ways, overenthusiastic about this late-in-life move into responsible parenting (Bourdain referencing his becoming a father at age 50) And that I have a tendency to try and make up for lost time. Since so many of my happiest memories of childhood – summer vacations at the Jersey shore, off-season Montauk, trips to France – are associated with the tastes and smells of the things I ate, I feel uncontrollable urges to smother the people I love with food. I’ve become the sort of passive-aggressive yenta or Italian grandmother stereotype from films who’s always urging people, “Eat! Eat!” and sulking inconsolably when they don’t.”

As a form of remembrance during our somewhat annual summer reunion with friends in Brewster, Cape Cod we will prepare one of his recipes.

Again, from Bourdain’s “Appetites”…."one of the first things I discovered as I transitioned into my new “Daddy” phase was that I was usually more frantic preparing a dinner party at home than I was cranking out five hundred a la carte dinners in a restaurant.”

He will be missed.

Plenty of time to select one or two of Bourdain's recipes.

ROASTED SUCKLING PIGS

So in reviewing some of our pictures from our first visit to Italy in 2002 I was reminded of the mouthwatering, indescribable roast suckling pig that we ate with my Italian cousins in the tiny and only trattoria in Castel D’Ieri, Abruzzo, Italy. The home village of my mother, uncle and their parents, my maternal grandparents. It was a meal to remember! 

In Italy and, in fact, in many of the Mediterranean countries, the roasted suckling pig is meant for a "feste" or festival or simply a festa della famiglia, an occasion when family and friends gather for a mangiata!

The role of the domesticated pig in the food culture of Europe, Italy and later America is remarkable. Archaeologists suggest that the pig in this “domestic” form dates to somewhere around 13,000 BCE in the Near East. There is also a close relative of the pig that has a similar lineage and domestication to that period in China.

In ancient Greece and Rome the pig was used both as a food source and as an animal sacrifice to the gods. In ancient Rome, the pig, ram and bull were used in many of the most solemn sacrificial religious rites.

It is widely understood that the early Catholic Church especially in Italy and other European nations simply re-named many ancient Roman feast days and utilized them to promote Christian observances. One of those observances is the feast of Saint Anthony the Abbott which is celebrated on January 17 in Italy.  This is the celebration of the feast of the epiphany. Undoubtedly another example of the Christian church’s replacement of a pagan feast. The ancient Romans would sacrifice a pregnant sow to the god Ceres to guarantee the fertility of the earth for the new planting cycle.

Again, referring to our ancient Roman gastronome, Apicius , Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome (see Ancient Eats blog) there are sixteen roasted or otherwise cooked pig recipes. Apicius refers to pig as porcellum.

Here is one of the Ancient Roman recipes:

Porcellum assum tractomelinum Roast Suckling Pig with Honey

Empty the pig by the neck, clean and dry, crush one ounce pepper, honey and wine, place (this in a sauce pan) heat; next break dry toast and mix with the things in the sauce pan; stir with a whip of fresh laurel twigs so that the paste is nice and smooth until sufficiently cooked. This dressing fill into the pig, wrap in parchment, place in oven (roast slowly, when done glaze with honey) garnish nicely and serve.

CAROL FIELD

Famous food writer Carol Field in her classic book “Celebrating Italy” describes the use of the pig for feast days.

“All country people used to keep pigs at home and fatten them on tasty scraps from the table, herbs that grew wild on hillsides, acorns that ripened on oaks, herbs that grew wild on the hillsides, and grains and corn sprouting in nearby fields. Sometime after the first frost of winter, they called for the norcino, the special pig butcher, who arrived with his knives. In many parts of Italy, the moment between the end of the old year and the sowing of the seeds for the new coincides with January 17, the Feast of Sant’ Antonio Abbate, white bearded Saint Anthony the Abbot, who is always pictured with a rosy pink pig by his side.”        

Carol tells us, “In many towns in southern Italy, citizens buy a pig that belongs to the community and let it run around the countryside and wander freely in and out of houses. A notch cut in its ear or a bell tied around its neck identifies it as the pig of Sant’ Antonio. Which means that everyone must give it food and drink and allow it to sleep wherever it wants. This luxurious life goes on for entire year as the pig grows ever fatter and sleeker, although fate finally catches up in a catastrophic form with a lottery in early January. Whoever wins the pig takes it home and turns it into sausages and other tender cuts that are served up on Sant’ Antonio Day.”      

Here is Carol Field’s Italian Roast Suckling Pig recipe for the home cook.

One 8 to 14 servings one suckling pig (15 to 22 pounds) ready to cook

4 to 6 tablespoons of salt

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon of pepper

5 cloves of garlic finely minced

1 cup fresh rosemary finally chopped

2 to 3 tablespoons fennel seeds

1 cup + 2 tablespoons of olive oil

white wine for basting

Check the pig to be sure that no hair bristles remain if they do singe them over an open flame and then pluck them out.

Mix together the salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary, fennel, and 2 tablespoons oil. Be sure that the cavity of the pig as well clean, it’s kidneys and other organs removed. (When you order the pig, it will be delivered cleaned with all organs removed, my note) Spread the herb mixture over the cavity, she also recommends putting some whole onions inside the pig. Truss the opening with skewers about 2 inches apart and secure all with string. To keep the legs close to the body you can thread a butcher’s needle and push it through the body and hind thighs in back, then through the legs and the pig’s throat in the front. Or you can simply set the pig on its haunches and tie the legs together with string. Set a block of wood in the mouth so it will be open enough for a lemon when it’s time to serve the pig.  Slash the skin of the pig directly down the backbone and in parallel diagonal cuts about 2 inches apart to let the fat out. Rub olive oil over every bit of the pig’s body, head, legs, ears and tail. Put aluminum foil over the ears and the tail so they do not burn.

Set the pig in a large roasting pan in the center of the oven. Heat the oven to 450° and sear the pig for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350° and rub the entire pig again with oil. Pour 1 cup wine into the pan to create some steam and put the pig back in the oven. Baste it well with oil every 20 minutes and turn the pig at least three times during the cooking so that it browns evenly. Remember to handle it gently. 20 minutes before the pig is cooked, remove the foil from the ears and tail to allow them to brown.

The pig is ready when the internal temperature reaches 165 to 170°F and the skin is crispy and brown. The standard calculation for cooking a suckling pig is 15 minutes per pound although Carol tells us that a 20-pound pig was cooked in 3 1/2 hours

Serving.

When the pig is done slide it very carefully out of the oven onto a platter, put a lemon in his mouth, and let it rest 15 to 20 minutes. You can make a gravy by skimming the fat from the pan juices adding some wine and cooking it over medium heat. You can crisp the skin by returning the pig to the oven for 15 minutes.

OUR ROASTED SUCKLING PIG

As mentioned earlier the use of the whole pig as the centerpiece of special family gatherings, feasts and holidays was extensive in European countries. Spain is yet another example! For us in Florida the Cuban tradition of the roasted suckling pig is best exemplified by the famous Cuban cooking methods of the "Three Guys From Miami".

Our neighbors and friends held an annual pig roast for several years. We used the cinder block roasting box as well as the other cooking methods described by “Three Guys From Miami” It is an American Cuban-style pig roast, the "caja china". We used the traditional form, a roasting box  fashioned above ground out of concrete blocks and steel mesh.  There are commercially available pig roasting boxes, the oldest and best known brand of which is "La Caja China."

We marinated our pigs overnight in mojo while preparing our cooking pit. It usually takes four to eight hours to cook the pig completely; as described by "the guys" we started "meat-side" down, and then flipped the pig one time once the hog stopped dripping rendered fat. When the cooking is complete, the meat should ideally be tender to the point of falling off of the bone. The meat is then either chopped or pulled or is picked off the roasted pig by the guests.

The Cooking Box

Let the feast begin!