Mastering The Whole Hog (Part 3 of 9)

If you're made it to this point, you can start getting excited!

Photo by Paul Hermann on Unsplash

Step 5: Prep

This section covers the preparatory stages of the readying the barbecue pit, the cooking fires and the hog. Remember this section covers the general overview and the individual alternatives will be further refined once you have selected the actual whole hog cooking approach that you will want to use.

Prep the Pit

This section looks at the DIY approach of building a cement block barbecue pit. If you have a budget which might allow you to transcend the cement block barbecue pit approach, then you may want to consider the purchase of a commercial barbecue cooking unit. There are back yard designs which have limited mobility and there are mobile units which are road-worthy from a legal perspective.

If we step back, for a moment, and look at all seven cooking alternatives, my research indicates that the Hawaiian imu cooking approach looks to be the cheapest alternative followed by the cement block DIY approach. Next, comes the whole hog cooking box approach. If the size of your yard does not allow you to erect a block pit, nor dig an in-ground pit, then the cooking box might be the solution.