We take a paring knife, punch holes in the thick parts of the pig, stuff the holes with the Cajun Trinity and garlic cloves. Then, if you are a real Hog Cooker, it is time to shoot-up your pork.
Seasoning the Pig:
This is the most important part. The pig needs to be injected with a marinade, stuffed with garlic, and coated on all sides with a seasoning mix.
Inject Marinade: About a quart of marinade is injected into all parts of the pig. Use an injector needle that has holes on the side. I have never made the same marinade twice, but it is always a mixture containing a Cajun seasoning mix, garlic powder or juice, onion powder or juice, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes butter. For starters, try the following turkey injecting recipe, without butter.
Injecting Marinade:
Liquid garlic, 6 oz.
Liquid onion, 6 oz.
Liquid crab boil, 3 oz.
Worcestershire sauce, 6 oz.
Your favorite hot red pepper sauce, 6 oz.
Cajun seasoning mix, 6 tbs.
Makes about 28 oz.
(Note: My friend insists on adding a bottle of Shiraz to the mix.)
It’s now time to get the Cajun Microwave fired up. This is Cajun invention is the ultimate device, used from Thibodeaux all the way out to Eunice and Abbeville, is the best device to cook a fine piece of pit! The preferred cooker is a 24 x 36’ cypress box lined with sheet metal, and a sheet metal lid, 5” high and with two handles.
You build your fire on top of the metal lid. The oak wood fills the box with heat and smoke. You cook your pig low and slow.
Cooking the Pig:
Place the pig in the box. We usually leave the head on. But, if you don’t want him looking at you, this is not necessary. Replace the lid back onto the box.
Start the fire in the back of the shed. Let it burn until you have a good bed of coals.
Keep enough wood on the fire so it’s hot enough so you can only stand or hold your hand a foot away for 5 to 10 seconds. I have no idea what temperature that would be, but I’m guessing about 180 to 200 F. It’s not a bad idea to start out with a pretty hot fire to get the outside of the pig up to temperature quickly, then let the fire die down a bit for the rest of the cooking period.
Now comes the easy part. Pull up a log or a plastic lawn chair. Sit back, drink a cold beverage, throw some wood on the fire every now and then, tell some bad jokes, and enjoy the company of your friends. Crank up some Jo-El Sonnier on the sound machine . . . do the Cajun two-step. “A good time was passed by all.”
Cook the pig until the skin is golden brown, starts cracking, and the meat starts drawing away from the bones. This can be anywhere from 10 to 12 hours, depending on how hot you kept the fire and the size of the pig.
If you like, you can insert a meat thermometer into the hind quarter to check the internal temperature. Cookbooks indicate a temperature of 170 F is desired for pork. However, the only time I ever measured the internal temperature, it never went above 155 F, yet the pig was cooked throughout and the meat was falling off the bones. Go figure.
When the last cold beer is pulled from the cooler the lid comes off the cooker, revealing a golden crusted pig. Bowls, platters of dirty rice and white beans appear: Candied yams, bread pudding, etouffee, pork boudin.
Carving and Serving:
Lay the cooked pig on a flat surface, skin side down. Filet the meat off the bone and away from the skin.
Enjoy the feast!
About The Authors
Kathleen Watson
Kathleen decided she wanted to be a writer when she was twelve years old, so took the most natural path towards that goal by studying chemistry. The people inside her head, however, were not to be silenced and after hiding her dream for years, she came out of the closet as a writer and has been pursuing the dream ever since. Along the way, Kathleen has won numerous writing awards, including the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart for Romantic Suspense, earned her Master’s in Technical Writing and is working on a Masters in Forensic Drug Chemistry. A mad scientist by day and fiction writer by night, Kathleen also juggles the life of mom to her daughter, Maggie, a 16-year-old heroine-in-the-making and aspiring writer in her own right. She currently lives in the suburbs of Cleveland, OH and can be contacted at [email protected].
Misty Barrere
When she was little, Misty Barrere’s parents gave her a bedroom with a walk-in closet so she could read during the night without keeping everyone awake. Now that she’s older (and still an insomniac), she writes stories and teaches creative writing at a women’s shelter. She lives north of Atlanta with her husband and three kids. She’d love to hear from you at [email protected] and please visit her blog at mistybbarrere.com
Valerie Keiser Norris
Valerie Keiser Norris moved south 25 years ago. She won first place in a South Carolina Writer’s Workshop fiction contest, and Honorable Mention twice in Writer’s Digest Fiction Competitions. A novel excerpt (“Satan’s Lingerie”) won a scholarship to the Lost State Writer’s Conference and was published in The Petigru Review. She’s had short fiction published in Golf Digest, Southern Golfer and Mother’s Manual, and articles and short humor in small magazines. She works with a critique group through the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop, and hates beer. You can find more of her brand of humor at valerienorris.blogspot.com.
Darcy Crowder
Darcy Crowder is the author of Chasing Sunset, a short story in the anthology, Sweeter Than Tea, from BelleBooks. Other publications include a short story in Homecoming in Mossy Creek, also from BelleBooks, and a short essay published in A Cup of Comfort for Weddings, from Adams Media. Darcy is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Women’s Fiction chapter of RWA, LRWA, and has served on the board of Georgia Romance Writers, where she continues to be an active member. She is also the proud recipient of The Laurie Award from The Rocky Mountain Romance Writers. She lives in a log cabin in the woods, surrounded by family, nature, and endless inspiration for her novels. Darcy and her daughter, author and screenplay writer, Brenna Lauren, co-host the blog It’s Only a Novel.com
Kimberly Brock
Kimberly Brock is the acclaimed author of THE RIVER WITCH, a 2012 novel that has been praised by Terry Kay, Sharyn McCrumb and Joshilyn Jackson. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and magazines. After studying literature and theater, she earned a degree in education. She lives north of Atlanta where she is a wife and mother of three. Visit her at kimberlybrockbooks.com for more information and to find her blog, Tales of a Storyteller. You can also find her author page on Facebook at Kimberly Brock, or tweet her: @kimberlydbrock. She is currently at work on her next novel.
Clara Wimberly
Clara Wimberly always wanted to be a writer. When she took early retirement from the U.S. Forest Service she began writing full time to pursue the dream of becoming a published writer. The influence of Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney, as well as southern writers fueled her interest in atmospheric historical writing. The South is a favorite setting for Clara’s novels. Her first book, The Emerald Tears of Foxfire Manor, a Gothic Romance, was set during the Civil War in North Carolina. That first book won an honorable mention in Georgia Romance Writers’ Maggie Awards. Since then she has published more than 20 books in a variety of work, from gothic to historical, mainstream, suspense and southern nostalgia. She has written for publishers Kensington, Zebra, Pinnacle, HarperCollins, Silhouette and BelleBooks. Several of her books appeared on National Best Seller lists and two placed in Georgia Romance Writers’ Maggie Awards. Wimberly’s books have been published in Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and German and have appeared in over a dozen different countries. She is the mother of three adult children and the grandmother of 7–3 boys and 4 girls. Her interests include American history, herb gardening, counted cross stitch, genealogy, traveling, col
lecting vintage teapots and of course reading.
Jane Forest
Jane has been working as a Youth Services Librarian for the last fifteen years. She likes finding just the right book for a person, as well as helping adults on the computer, planning programs, running the summer reading club, and playing with puppets at story time. Her previous careers have included teaching K-8 and directing resident camps. She currently enjoys vegetable gardening and being a copyeditor for BelleBooks. This is her first published story. She lives in Memphis with two spoiled Siamese cats and stacks and piles of quilts in various stages of completion. Friend her on Facebook: Forest Jane Jacobson, or visit her blog: forestjane.blogspot.com
Deborah Grace Staley
Deborah is a life-long resident of East Tennessee. Married to her college sweetheart, she lives in the Foothills of the Smoky Mountains in a circa 1867 farmhouse that has Angel’s Wings in the gingerbread trim.
In addition to being an award-winning author, in her spare time, Deborah enjoys watching her son play college baseball and recently received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Port Townsend, Washington. She now writes full-time and teaches. Deborah loves to hear from readers. Please contact her at: P.O. Box 672, Vonore, TN 37885 or via her website at deborahgracestaley.com.
Willis Baker
Willis Baker’s literary essays have appeared in newspapers and the World Wide Web, his short stories in anthologies, and his poetry in distinguished journals such as the Appalachian Journal and Poem. He recently released Mourning Tide, his first book of poetry. Being a true ‘Son of the South’, his book of inspirational essays, “Songs of the South; Musings on Faith, Family, and Growing Up in the South” is to be released in July, 2012. Dr. Baker is a member of the National Association of Scholars (NAS) and Knoxville Writers Group. He is a retired corporate executive, theologian, chaplain, and maintains an inspirational website jesusisstilltheanswer.com.
Deedra Climer
Deedra Climer is a transplanted Southerner living outside Ann Arbor, Michigan with her German Shepherd, Ezra. Deedra’s stories are inspired by things every girl learns growing up in the South—race, food, death, poverty and gender roles—and how to make peace with your past.
Tom Honea
Tom Honea is a true son of the deep south. He grew up in the 1950’s on a working dairy farm in rural south Mississippi, Magnolia. There were no paved roads or telephones for much of that time, and certainly no television! There were, however, story tellers a-plenty, on front porches in the summer and around the fireplace in winter. Athletic ability got him off the farm and into college. After college came a stint in the US Marine Corps. Then some number of years as a successful football coach and teacher in Florida, North Carolina, and Memphis. Tom’s second vocation was a dozen years in construction management. For the past twenty years he has been owner and manager of a marble/granite fabrication company in the western North Carolina mountains. He plans to spend his ‘fishing year’ writing.
This is his first published work. He has a completed novel, southern literary fiction, and is deep into a second work: set in the Hampton Roads (Virginia) region during the WWII years. Tom is an ongoing member of the Great Smokies Senior Writers group, a part of the University of North Carolina Creative Writing Program, a by-invitation-only group.
Martina Boone
Martina Boone writes fantasy and magical realism for adults and young adults when she isn’t writing web site copy, and resides in Virginia with her family, a therapy dog, two black cats, and as much wildlife as she can coax into taking up residence in the yard.
Susan Sipal
Published in fiction and non-fiction through essays, short stories and a novel, Susan Sipal lives in rural North Carolina with her husband, two children, one dog, three cats, and too many squirrels for the dog to keep up with. She has presented multiple workshops, both at home and abroad, to help writers develop their craft as well as analyze the mysteries of Harry Potter. You can follow her on Twitter @HP4Writers, or on her blog at HarryPotterforWriters.blogspot.com.
Sweeter Than Tea Page 25