How to Build a Hog Roaster
This portable barbecue pit is made almost entirely from recycled parts, including diagrams, salvage savvy and building instructions.
May/June 1981
by Carole Watkins
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The barbecue "pit" is portable.
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When the summertime rolls around in Groveport, Ohio, folks start to think about holding pig roasts. At the same time, my father, Earl Watkins, takes his recycled, homemade hog cooker out of storage. That device, along with Dad's culinary talents, is much in demand, at picnics for his own family and friends, as well as at reunions, bachelor parties, church socials and more.
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SALVAGE SAVVY
A few years ago, my father used the more customary "pit" method for cooking barbecue, but despite the fact that he placed pieces of scrap tin over the hole's top, Dad felt he was losing too much heat and using too much fuel when preparing his roasts in that manner.
To solve the problem, he found an old 300-gallon gas tank, cut the cylinder in half horizontally and fastened the two pieces together with pipe hinges. For a spit, Dad rescued the shaft from a retired combine and salvaged the machine's 12" pulley as well. This is hooked up with a drive belt to the gearbox and motor from an ancient Maytag wringer washer and automatically rotates the spit while the meat is roasting. A belt-tightener and a shaft for the gearbox were also scavenged, from a broken-down lawn mower.
GOING WHOLE HOG!
Obtaining a hog for my family's parties is never a problem, since my brothers, Doug and Dave, raise them, so the cooker has been tested on pigs of all sizes, from 50 to 300 pounds, live weight. And the portable "pit" has worked even better than its creator anticipated. A full-sized porker, he says, can be prepared in seven hours, using only 40 to 50 pounds of charcoal, which is placed on an expanded metal screen at the bottom of the cooker. (The "invention" also does a fine job of roasting venison, beef and chickens. A perforated metal grill, laid over the coals, holds the smaller cookables.)
For best results, Dad always skins his beasts before he barbecues them, and—about two hours prior to chowtime—uses a softbristled, wooden-handled car-washing brush (he says paintbrushes don't work as well) to begin basting the meat with my mom's special sauce.
