This little piggy

Warning: This post contains pictures and video that may be offensive to people that are lame and/or animal lovers like my sister. (Sorry Jamie)

So my husband decided it would be fun to get a suckling pig for this party we are going to.

So, feeling especially lucky that we live in a place where we can do this sort of thing relatively easily, I order one, from my butcher. (I have a butcher. See what I mean?)

Okay, we thought, little piggy, this is going to be great, we'll try and do it in the turkey fryer.

Well. Not so little, it turns out.

Kind of actually a big piggy.

No, not a 150 pound hog by any means, but certainly, as it turns out, too big to fit in our turkey fryer. Or our oven. Or anywhere really.

So, my husband has the brilliant idea of taking it to the butcher, and having him cut the thing in half. We have no idea if this is a good idea or not, but, well..

We brine the bifurcated pig overnight in a brine of water, cider vinegar, apples onions, kosher salt and brown sugar, and let it sit in ice in this giant plastic tub that I bought.

We decide to do the front half one day for the party, and the back half the day after for ourselves.

The next morning, as we turn the oven on and prep the thing for cooking, we notice the eyeballs are still in. Apparently, this is something the butcher was supposed to remove.

Whoops.

Also, there is NO WHERE ON THE ENTIRE INTERNETS that tell you how to remove eyeballs from a socket, which at any time before this I would have said was a good thing, but now is rather annoying.

Naturally, I made him do it. And videotaped. While I looked away and made squeamish noises.

This video is extremely gross - don't watch unless you are interested in the process or like that kind of thing. People have told me its actually not as bad as they thought. It helps that my husband is an extremely pragmatic sort of guy.

After the pig is prepped, you're supposed to make some very shallow cuts in the skin so it doesn't explode (good times!).

Prop it up in a roasting pan and protect the delicate, delicious ears with tinfoil.

We put some onions and apples in the pan for aromatics.

We covered it in a mixture of vegetable oil, soy sauce, cayenne, salt, pepper and calamansi (sour orage) juice, saving the extra for basting.

30 minutes at 400 degrees, then lower the heat to 350. Baste every half hour or so, until the meat reads at least 165 in every part of the pig.

We are roasting it now; the apartment is filled with a delicious savory, porky smell. I really hope things turn out okay.