Hi,

first of all I'd like to express my deepest sympathy for the people of
Louisiana and other states that were hit by this terrible disaster. I
hope things will work out better than they appear to now.

But to take your mind off these horrors for a bit, let me ask you for
some advice. I built a clay oven (from clay mixed with straw and sand)
not too long ago and it works wonderfully for baking pizzas, Flammkuchen
(or tarte flambee)or the Indian bread naan. The oven is fired with wood
and gets very hot after 2-3 hours (a pizza takes about 1 min with a very
crisp crust!). The other day I tried to bake bread with a store-bought
bread mix and it came out a lump of charcoal after one hour of baking
(the fire had been cleared out after I had baked a number of pizzas and
before I put the bread dough in). I guess I'll have to experiment a
little more. I must have put the bread in too early, should have let the
oven cool off a bit first.

Now I would like to roast a suckling pig in my oven. But naturally this
is too expensive to experiment with. Does anyone have any experience
with this sort of thing? At which temperature to put the thing in the
oven, for how long?

Thanks,

Werner from Saarbruecken, Germany

"Werner Saurer" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> first of all I'd like to express my deepest sympathy for the people of
> Louisiana and other states that were hit by this terrible disaster. I hope
> things will work out better than they appear to now.
>
> But to take your mind off these horrors for a bit, let me ask you for some
> advice. I built a clay oven (from clay mixed with straw and sand) not too
> long ago and it works wonderfully for baking pizzas, Flammkuchen (or tarte
> flambee)or the Indian bread naan. The oven is fired with wood and gets
> very hot after 2-3 hours (a pizza takes about 1 min with a very crisp
> crust!). The other day I tried to bake bread with a store-bought bread mix
> and it came out a lump of charcoal after one hour of baking (the fire had
> been cleared out after I had baked a number of pizzas and before I put the
> bread dough in). I guess I'll have to experiment a little more. I must
> have put the bread in too early, should have let the oven cool off a bit
> first.
>
> Now I would like to roast a suckling pig in my oven. But naturally this is
> too expensive to experiment with. Does anyone have any experience with
> this sort of thing? At which temperature to put the thing in the oven, for
> how long?
>
> Thanks,
>


I have no experience but my Spanish cookbook says 350f for 1 hour, skin side
down, then 400f for 45min, skin side up. That's for a 3 kg pig.


--
Peter Aitken

I have done this, but only in a conventional oven. I was living in the
Midwest, about 8 or 9 years ago, and a friend ran a hog farm, where they
raised breeding stock. One Thanksgiving I got it into my head to do a roast
suckling pig. I asked my friend if she could supply one; to my surprise, she
and her husband had never heard of such a thing! However, they agreed to
sell me a piglet; I think they charged about $25. To my surprise, they also
had it butchered for me at no additional cost; not knowing anything about
serving a suckling pig, they had the head, skin, and feet removed, along
with having the carcass drawn. I believe the final carcass weight was about
9 or 10 pounds.

The thing was quite long, and the only roasting pan I had was one of those
thin steel oval roasting pans, the ones that are enamelled blue with white
flecks all over them. The piglet didn't fit, so I sawed it in half. I rubbed
it inside and out with very good quality olive oil, then with freshly ground
pepper and dried rosemary leaves. I put it into the pan, the two halves
side-by-side, with the spine on top, and put the pan in the oven at 325 F,
uncovered. I then went turkey hunting for close to four hours. I did not get
a turkey, but when I got back the piglet was perfectly done. It was, without
a doubt, one of the best food experiences of my life.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

"Werner Saurer" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> first of all I'd like to express my deepest sympathy for the people of
> Louisiana and other states that were hit by this terrible disaster. I hope
> things will work out better than they appear to now.
>
> But to take your mind off these horrors for a bit, let me ask you for some
> advice. I built a clay oven (from clay mixed with straw and sand) not too
> long ago and it works wonderfully for baking pizzas, Flammkuchen (or tarte
> flambee)or the Indian bread naan. The oven is fired with wood and gets
> very hot after 2-3 hours (a pizza takes about 1 min with a very crisp
> crust!). The other day I tried to bake bread with a store-bought bread mix
> and it came out a lump of charcoal after one hour of baking (the fire had
> been cleared out after I had baked a number of pizzas and before I put the
> bread dough in). I guess I'll have to experiment a little more. I must
> have put the bread in too early, should have let the oven cool off a bit
> first.
>
> Now I would like to roast a suckling pig in my oven. But naturally this is
> too expensive to experiment with. Does anyone have any experience with
> this sort of thing? At which temperature to put the thing in the oven, for
> how long?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Werner from Saarbruecken, Germany

I made my adobe oven a couple years ago. AFter raking the coals out
it is about 900F. I bake off pizzas at that point in about a minute
maybe. It is right after raking out the coals I will toss in a coule
10lb bags of baker potato's and they take about 30-40 min. The are
wonderful. I am able to bake off 6-8 loaves of bread at a time but
must let the oven cool down before they go in. Often time I will roast
a beef roast right after raking and then put the bread in about 45 min
after raking. I have not done a whole piglet but I have used the
adopbe oven for lots of other things. Just remember that it is high
high heat to begine with. I have been thinking of doing a piglet in
the oven later this fall. My plan was to simply lay the piglet in a
pan skin side up. Rake out the oven, put in the well seasoned piggy,
let the high heat sear in the flavor and then let the oven do it's
thermal mass thing and let it go for 2-3 hours. I was thinking of
doing a dry run with a bunch of pork roasts pretending to be a piggy.
To keep some moisture in during the high heat time maybe have some
beers in the waer pan. I build my oven loosely form the sunset adobe
oven plans available online. Mud, straw and a bit of portland cement
to help it withstand Wisconsin weather. Good luck and let me know how
it comes out. Pam

| "Werner Saurer" > wrote in message
| ...
| > Hi,
| >
| > first of all I'd like to express my deepest sympathy for the people of
| > Louisiana and other states that were hit by this terrible disaster. I
hope
| > things will work out better than they appear to now.
| >
| > But to take your mind off these horrors for a bit, let me ask you for
some
| > advice. I built a clay oven (from clay mixed with straw and sand) not
too
| > long ago and it works wonderfully for baking pizzas, Flammkuchen (or
tarte
| > flambee)or the Indian bread naan. The oven is fired with wood and gets
| > very hot after 2-3 hours (a pizza takes about 1 min with a very crisp
| > crust!). The other day I tried to bake bread with a store-bought bread
mix
| > and it came out a lump of charcoal after one hour of baking (the fire
had
| > been cleared out after I had baked a number of pizzas and before I put
the
| > bread dough in). I guess I'll have to experiment a little more. I must
| > have put the bread in too early, should have let the oven cool off a bit
| > first.
| >
| > Now I would like to roast a suckling pig in my oven. But naturally this
is
| > too expensive to experiment with. Does anyone have any experience with
| > this sort of thing? At which temperature to put the thing in the oven,
for
| > how long?
| >
| > Thanks,
| >
| > Werner from Saarbruecken, Germany

"Nobody" > wrote in message
...
|I have done this, but only in a conventional oven. |
|
The one I did was in a covered pit in the ground. Turned out great.

Debbie

On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 14:42:51 +0200, Werner Saurer
> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>first of all I'd like to express my deepest sympathy for the people of
>Louisiana and other states that were hit by this terrible disaster. I
>hope things will work out better than they appear to now.
>
>But to take your mind off these horrors for a bit, let me ask you for
>some advice. I built a clay oven (from clay mixed with straw and sand)
>not too long ago and it works wonderfully for baking pizzas, Flammkuchen
>(or tarte flambee)or the Indian bread naan. The oven is fired with wood
>and gets very hot after 2-3 hours (a pizza takes about 1 min with a very
>crisp crust!). The other day I tried to bake bread with a store-bought
>bread mix and it came out a lump of charcoal after one hour of baking
>(the fire had been cleared out after I had baked a number of pizzas and
>before I put the bread dough in). I guess I'll have to experiment a
>little more. I must have put the bread in too early, should have let the
>oven cool off a bit first.
>
>Now I would like to roast a suckling pig in my oven. But naturally this
>is too expensive to experiment with. Does anyone have any experience
>with this sort of thing? At which temperature to put the thing in the
>oven, for how long?
>
>Thanks,
>
> Werner from Saarbruecken, Germany

Hello Werner!
Have you considered "rotisserie" cooking your pig? Also, you can cut
the carcass so that it "fans open" without cutting all the way through
the backbone and lay the whole carcass backside down on a grill over
"low heat" so that you can cook it for several hours. When you cut the
pig, tell the butcher that the backbone should function as a "hinge"
cut through the backbone but not all the way through the meat on the
back so you can spread open the carcass to lay it flat on a
grill...with the backside down on the grill...using low heat to cook
very slowly! Keep the lid down on your grill to hold the heat in most
of the time. Keep an eye on it to make sure it does not catch on fire.
It has alot of grease in it so you do not have to worry about the meat
drying out. That's the way alot of folks in the Carolinas cook a pig.

I cooked a pig that weighed about 100 pounds that way...it was
delicious!

Regards,
Bill

The adobe oven will be much different than other technique's. Using
the adobe is as much history and art as just getting things cooked. Pam