Marinated And Steam/smoked Whole Piglet Recipe

How to make it

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• 1. Put all the ingredients but the piglet and coarse salt in a suitable pot and simmer for about ten minutes, stirring now and then. Let cool a bit.
• 2. Rinse and clean the piglet thoroughly and place in a large, strong, food grade plastic bag. Do not use a garbage bag.
• 3. Pour the marinade into the bag, get out as much air as possible, seal and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Overnight is better. Turn now and then to marinate the whole piglet.
• STOP THE MUSIC: If the rest of this looks like more work than you want to put into it, pre-heat the oven to 350 F (175 C) and remove the piglet from the marinade to a baking rack over a pan with some of the marinade in it, tent it with foil, place it in the oven and roast until desired doneness is achieved; about 2 hours. Otherwise, carry on.
• 4. Put a good size bunch of hickory, or other hardwood, chips in a bucket of water to soak.
• 5. When ready to steam/smoke, get the BBQ/smoker fired up and ready. See Photo
• 6. Make sure you have a decent supply of chilled wine, sangria or beer on hand. This is thirsty work.
• 7. Remove the piglet from the marinade to a steamer rack that will fit in the BBQ/smoker. Reserve the marinade.
• 8. Put some of the soaked hickory chips on the fire.
• 9. Place a shallow pan of the reserved marinade over the fire and sit the steamer rack, with the piglet, on this.
• 10. Close the lid and adjust the vents to get a decent flow of smoke going. The fire should be hot enough to steam/smoke but not too hot or piglet will cook too fast and not get enough steam/smoke time. The steam/smoke process should take at least three or four hours.
• 11. Open the smoker, replenish the wet hickory chips and marinade and baste the piglet every half hour, or so.
• 12. When the internal temp of the piglet reaches 165 F (75 C) it’s done. Remove from the smoker, cover loosely and let rest about 15 minutes. The meat should just about fall off the bone.
• 13. Serve.
• **You should be able to do this with an electric or gas fired smoker, if it gets up to at least 200 F (95 C). You need at least 3 hours of steam/smoke time but more is okay, if you keep the steam coming.
• I decided to go sorta Hawaiian with this and served it with a watercress salad, Oka (Polynesian raw fish ceviche), Hawaiian poi, steamed green bananas in peepee (coconut cream), Luau (taro or spinach leaves in boiled peepee and Steamed breadfruit with miki (miki is thickened peepee with parsley, basil, salt and FG pepper added). You should be able to get poi at the local supermarket in plastic bags or jars. The taro leaves, green bananas and breadfruit may be found and a good Asian market.
• Another option is to do all the fixings you normally would for a baked ham.
• It’s pork so a full bodied, dry red plonk went well and fresh pink lemonade for the kids.

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