Home › Sausages › Roast Sucking Pig
Roast Sucking Pig
Wipe the pig thoroughly, stuff it, and sew up the slit securely with soft cotton. Truss it like a hare, with the fore-legs skewered back and the hind-legs drawn forward. Rub it over with clarified butter, or fresh salad-oil, and put it into a moderately hot oven. Baste constantly, or the crackling will be blistered and burnt, instead of crisp and brown. The middle part requires less roasting than the ends. It is usual to keep turning the roast, being quick so as not to cool the oven. Baste thoroughly whilst it is roasting. When it is cooked, remove to a platter and keep hot. Remove the fat from the gravy which has dropped from the pig, and, when it can be obtained, add a cupful of good veal or beef gravy, together with a little cayenne, lemon juice, and grated nutmeg. To thicken sift in a little flour, making a rich brown sauce. Tomato, poivrade, piquant, provencale, bread, apple, and the old-fashioned currant sauce are all served with sucking-pig. Time to roast, according to size: a three-weeks-old pig, two hours. Sufficient, a three-weeks-old pig for eight or nine persons.
A late-Victorian formula that assumes you know how to butcher, stuff and truss a whole young pig, and that your oven can be opened and turned without losing all its heat. The essentials still hold; the numbers need stating.
- The hinge: constant bastingCrackling crisps only if the skin stays coated in fat as it dries. Left dry it blisters and splits, and the blisters burn before the meat is done. Baste every 15 minutes, and dry the skin thoroughly before oiling it in the first place.
- "Moderately hot oven"Around 375-400F. Some cooks start at 425F for 20 minutes to set the skin, then drop to 350F for the remainder; the original's single moderate heat works if the basting is genuinely constant.
- Size, weight and timingA three-week-old pig runs roughly 12-15 lb dressed. Two hours is about right at this heat, but go by an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the shoulder and ham, not the clock: 160-170F gives the soft, fully rendered texture this cut wants.
- The uneven endsThe loin and belly cook well before the shoulders and hams, which is why the book says to keep turning. Shielding the middle with foil part-way through does the same job without repeatedly opening the door and dropping the oven temperature.
- No stuffing is given hereThe recipe calls for the pig to be stuffed but specifies nothing. A sage-and-onion or breadcrumb-and-herb stuffing is traditional; pack it loosely, since it must reach a safe temperature along with the meat.
- Trussing and skewers"Trussed like a hare" means the forelegs pinned back along the ribs and the hind legs pulled forward under the body, so the animal crouches, which is what the recipe itself spells out. Skewers and butcher's twine do the job. Ears and tail can be wrapped in foil early on or they char.
- SourcingA suckling pig is a special order from a butcher, usually with a week's notice, and it needs to fit your oven diagonally. Measure the cavity before you order.
- The saucesPoivrade is a peppery brown sauce built on a mirepoix and vinegar; piquante is a brown sauce with shallots, vinegar and chopped gherkins. Both are made to order. Apple sauce and the currant sauce named here are far simpler and do the same job of cutting the fat.
- YieldEight or nine as stated is honest for a three-week pig, given how much of the carcass is bone and skin.