Pigs 'Ere Blog Part 14: Pig in a bap anyone?

Cometh the hour, cometh the pig. Actually cometh Esmeralda as she seemed to have acquired a name by the time it came to start cooking her.  So how did it all go? All of us concerned were extremely pleased to have got this far and very satisfied that we had managed to feed so many people with our own produce. It's a good feeling. A few more photographs than usual to show how it went.


At the end of my lost post, we'd left Esmeralda all cwytched up ready for the big day. And the day came sunny and bright - and early as we had to start firing up at 8.30 am for a 4 pm feast.

The cavity was stuffed with local apples, of which there is an abundance at this time of year. Appropriately enough, one of these varieties would have been a local one called 'Pigs Snout' because, guess what?, it's shaped like a pig's snout.

Then the skin was lightly oiled and rubbed with rock salt.

About three hours in and the skin is just starting to go brown.

No, this isn't our roaster-meister, Adrian, praying that we get it right: he's decanting the collected pork fat into smaller vessels. Ready to be taken away by home bakers who swear by its efficacy in making good pastry. Not healthy but good.

Done to a turn. At around 3.30 pm, after some 7 hours cooking, she was ready. Now that's what I call a hog roast - which is a good thing because that's what we had set out to do.

Let the carving begin! OK, not silver service but the boys did good. And only three digits were lost in the process. Bring on the finger rolls.

Lots of lovely meat and crackling for a seemingly endless supply of baps -and apple sauce - and stuffing.

And did it taste good? Oh yes. A unanimous verdict from all who had one or two or three helpings. Or, in Ali's case, fifteen.

At the end of it all, the carcass was picked clean. About 90 satisfied customers left replete and may of us went off with plates of cooked pork for recycling into sandwiches, curries etc.

Another satisfied customer for the trimmings I put out on our bird table. It's not often we get a visit from a buzzard and the sight of this one was a nice ending to a perfect day.