To Roast a Sucking Pig
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Clean the pig thoroughly and season it inside and out with salt, pepper, and herbs if desired.
Place the pig on a spit or in a roasting pan.
Roast and rest
Roast in the oven, basting occasionally, until the skin is crispy and the meat is cooked through, about 2-3 hours.
Let it rest for 15 minutes before carving.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sucking pig
- Provides the main meat; its fat and skin render and crisp during long roasting.
- Salt
- Seasons the meat and helps draw moisture to the surface so the skin can crisp.
The step that matters
Roasting until the skin is crispy and the meat is cooked through. The skin needs dry, sustained oven heat to crisp, while the thick meat must reach a safe internal temperature. Basting keeps the surface moist and can soften the skin, so the cook has to balance both.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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