Cajun Microwaving for Whole Pigs

[Mayhaw Man]

NOTE TO ALL OF YOU BARBEQUE NUTS. THIS IS NOT, IN ANY WAY, WHOLE HOG BBQ IN THE ED MITCHELL STYLE, OR EVEN THE VARMINT STYLE-THIS IS YET ANOTHER WAY TO COOK OUR FRIEND PORKY. NO HATE MAIL PLEASE. AT LEAST UNTIL YOU FALL FOR MY EVIL PLAN AND TRY THIS YOURSELF. THEN YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO HATE (BUT OF COURSE, YOU WILL BE IN LOVE WITH THIS AND WILL HAVE FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT BROOKS, THE BBQ HERETIC).

Anyway, enough of that.

There was a gathering of my wife's family this weekend. It is a very large and close group of brothers sisters and first cousins who were all raised as brothers and sisters. Lots of people and lots of kids. Lots of work. Lots of fun!

A quick run through of the menu and on to the pig

THursday Night-

Smoked Brisket (perfect, thank you very much)

Cheese Grits

Lady Peas

Butter Lettuce, Grapefruit and Avacodo Salad w/ poppyseed vingarrette

Friday Lunch

Lexington Chicken Spaghetti (look in the Cotton Country-great for large #'s and made with Schmaltz!)

French Bread

Green Salad

Friday Night

Shrimp and Crawfish Stew

Spinach Salad (with lots of bits including Wasabi Peas!)

Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Saturday Lunch

Taco (made with beef tenderoin grilled to medium rare/rare perfection)

Every Taco addition we could think up and have on hand

Peach Cobbler for Dessert

Saturday Night

Whole Hog (microwave style)

Dirty Rice (more of the same pig, nothing left but the oink!)

More Spinach Salad (big spinach sale at Sam's! )

Sunday Morning

Grits and Grillades

Pancakes

Bisquits

Sunday Lunch

What? Are you kidding me? Let em eat McDonalds!

Now for the pig thing

A Cajun Microwave is basically a big wooden box that is lined with sheet metal and has a grating setup in the bottom of it. A fire of charcoal is started on top and once the coals are just turning white, they are spread to a layer of one deep on the top and the pig is put inside. The top is put on and after 2 hours coals are added and the pig is turned. Two more hours the top is removed and a screen is put on to as the pig needs to rest after that time in the hot box, before the orthopedic surgeons come to do a little autopsy. Basically. That's it. Now for the details with photos and some links:

Now for the details.

The pig was about 55 pounds. It was brined and then the skin was lifted and it was crammed full of herbs of various sorts that had been made into a paste with butter and olive oil-rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano being the base of the dry herbs. The thing was crammed full of the stuff as you can kind of see from this photo (I did no closeups-next time-I was too busy pulling around fearless adolescents on various water towing devices -one amn, two man, and four man tubes, hydroslides, skis, wakeboards, etc.)

That's my father in law and my wifes cousin (I do not have a good enough version of photo shop to dampen the glare from that tacky LSU shirt. What can I say? You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family ) as the move the pig towards the box.

Ready to go. The top with the hot coals will go on momentarily. The beer drinking and lying will commence shortly afterwards.

About 4 and a half hours later, it is cooked and cooling!

Ready to eat! Bullet (the best dog in the world) is hoping that the table breaks

Cousin/Dr. Sid goes to work

(note about those implements-they are REALLY cool. Sid raises Arabians and his farrier made the knives. They are hammered from the remains of a couple of old rasps (for those of you from the big city, that is a large file that is used to trim and file horses hooves). They are attached to deer horn handles and are remarkably well suited for this process-one should always have a surgeon or two to cut up hogs. They are very good at it!)

Still Life with Porky's Head (#1 of a Series)

We ate every bite. The skin was cubed and fried into delicious (and probably heartstoppingly dangerous) cracklings, and the ears and a few big bones went to a couple of lucky labs and a goofy bull terrier. They were very happy dogs.

The device that we were using is a custom made hybrid of the one that you see on this website. He builds them out of cypress and now that we have done it a few times (actually, some of my wife's family does this all the time-horse shows, weekend get togethers, etc.). They are also great for roasting ducks or stuffed chickens, whole geese, misbehaving children, etc.

The meat comes out tender and unbelievably juicy. Really delicious.

Anyway, besides that, the rest of my worldview this weekend looked something like this:

[snowangel]

Me thinks the Cabin might just need one of these roasting boxes.

But, me also thinks that we will forego the tubing. Too noisy. We're more into the 25 horse johnson on the back of a tin boat or a canoe. But that's up here.

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a beautiful weekend.

[Varmint]

And this is a quiet weekend for the Hamakers!

Strong, strong work, Brooks. Please tell us more about how the meat from the pig turned out, particularly the effect of the herbs in the brining process. We need to get Monsieur LSU some welders' gloves to pick at that pig.

Damn, that looked like a mighty fine weekend.

[Mayhaw Man]

First of all, about the boats. We have lots of them and this is a very big empty lake (except on major holidays). It is a great place for trying to permanently damage your offspring by throwing them off of whatever they choose to ride at 40 mph. Nothing like seeing the ones that you love roll across the water like rag dolls. THere is nothing like momentarily worrying about a possible trip to the hospital only to pull up to the kid and have him BEG for another turn.

Now to the pigs

These guys (my fil and his buddies the doctors) have a butcher in Calhoun, LA who provides them with fresh pork to order. The guy also makes a whole range of sausages that fall into the artisinal category (including, FIFI, REAL HOT LINKS-FAT RED FIERY BOMBS OF PORK AND PEPPER_They are delicious) and some of them are way out there but really good (example-chicken, pork, and cheddar sausage-really strange and really good).

He brines the pig the night before pickup and then it is taken home. The paste is made up and both shoved under the skin and injected with a giant syringe (once again-good to have doctors-they actually understand the injection thing-I learned alot this weekend). The pig is then put into a large igloo and held until basically room temp. Apparently putting one on when it is very cold makes the whole process go awry.

About one large bag of charcoal is lit on top and when it JUST turns to grey, the coals are spread out evenly over the top and that's it. 2 hours of leisurely waiting.

(I should add that chips or whole chunks can be put into a box inside that allows the chips to smoke (heavily) but not burn, although that was not the focus of this particular project. Herbs and strong flavors from the herbs were the focus here.

The design of the box allows for very little ventilation. There is some, so the meat does not steam, but not much more ventilation than that. THe nice thing about this is that IF you are going for a smoke type cook, the smoke flavor is very concentrated.

THe meat is turned after two hours and more charcoal is laid on top, about half of the amount that was originally used.

At 4 hours, the pig is opened up and the top is screened so that the pig and the oven can cool down a bit.

The skin is removed and cubed for cracklins, or it can be rendered for some tasty smoky lard. The rest of the meat is cut off of the bone and panned. Bones can be saved for stock or given to dogs as delicious meaty treats. Ears and tails always go to the animals (the ones with four legs, the other two legged kind just stand around and pick while the meat cutters perform their tasks-the tenderloins never make it into the house for some reason ).

The meat is incredibly moist, but not the least bit greasy, and picks up the flavors really well. I cannot reccomend this method highly enough for those of you that don't have access to rental companies that rent giant pits or who don't have the space or wherewithall to build a pit or cooking device.

Those guys that build these things are glad to ship them wherever you want them. Some of their models have legs, but we prefer the ones that don't have them because they are much easier to transport and carry by hand. Clean up is easy, just scrub the wood or pressure wash (the best method) and you are done.

[NulloModo]

Wow, that sounds really good. I think I know what I am going to be cooking for the big superbowl bash this year...

Actually, you know what, that doesn't look like it would be too hard to build... That might be a fun project for when I finally get a place with a ground floor patio.

Edited August 9, 2004 by NulloModo (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

No. You could build one very easily if you are reasonably handy and have a set of tin snips. Cypress works well, as would any hardwood that resists rot. I would be glad to send you measurements and photos if you decide that you want to do it.

[Jensen]

No. You could build one very easily if you are reasonably handy and have a set of tin snips. Cypress works well, as would any hardwood that resists rot. I would be glad to send you measurements and photos if you decide that you want to do it.

<ARNOLD HORSCHACK>Oooooooh! Ooooooh! Mr. Hamaker! Mr. Hamaker!</ARNOLD>

Can I get a copy of those? I was just talking to friends last night about having a pig roast and then came home to find this thread. I emailed them a link immediately, suggesting that we could build one of these microwaves.

And now your offer of dimensions! It's kismet!!!!

[chezcherie]

good god--that's just soooo beautiful.

[achevres]

Your family is so lucky! TAll the food sounds sooo good!

The Cajun Microwave looks a lot like a "Caja China," which I first read about in a Jeffrey Steingarten article in Vogue. Here is their website--it looks more economical than the Cajun Micro.

La Caja China

[Mayhaw Man]

I suppose that the primary difference is that The Cajachina is made with plywood, as were the ones that we were originally using. They did not hold up very well, as plywood is glued together and the combination of the heat and the moisture tended to make them fall apart after a few uses.

You could build one out of good hardwood for cheaper than either of these places, if you were handy and had the tools (of course, using that premise, I suppose that you could build your own rocketship, so what do I know? )

[achevres]

Thanks for the comparison!

[phaelon56]

You could build one out of good hardwood for cheaper than either of these places, if you were handy and had the tools (of course, using that premise, I suppose that you could build your own rocketship, so what do I know?   )

Yes I could but I'm a city boy

his farrier made the knives. They are hammered from the remains of a couple of old rasps (for those of you from the big city, that is a large file that is used to trim and file horses hooves)

I have these things in my shop called rasps - I was gonna use them to build my wooden rocket ship but it turns out that they're just for horses hooves and all that. Damn - hate when that happens

There is actually a Wallace and Gromit episode called "A Grand Day Out", in which they use a manual called Electronics For Dogs and build a wooden rocket ship that flies them to the moon. You might ask.... how is this food related... just how far off topic can you go?

Say no more.... this UK based DVD supplier offers a synopsis of "A Grand Day Out"

In their debut adventure, Wallace and his furry pal Gromit find themselves desperate for "a nice bit of Gorgonzola", but their refrigerator's empty and the local cheese shop is closed for a holiday! Undeterred, Wallace comes up with an extreme solution to the cheese shortage: since the moon is made of cheese (we all know that's true, right?), he decides to build a rocket ship and blast off for a cheesy lunar picnic! Gromit's only too happy to help, and before long the inventive duo is on the moon, where they encounter a clever appliance that's part oven, part robot, part lunar skiing enthusiast ... well, you just have to see the movie to understand how any of this whimsical lunar-cy can make any sense! It's a grand tale of wonderful discoveries, fantastic inventions--and really great cheese!

I love anything that's all about the great cheese.

[Malawry]

Thanks for the post and photos! I can almost taste the pig. I'm interested in how the butter affected the flavor of the meat--does it make a big difference? Pig is so fatty when cooked whole that I was surprised that an additional fat was deemed useful--or was it only a conveyance method for the fresh herbs?

[NulloModo]

Hmmm, I have no metalworking tools... I wonder how something like this would work lined with firebrick instead

[FistFullaRoux]

The basic method of building one is the same no matter the materials used. But the materials do affect the final product. I've seen them made from old boards taken from a barn (but in south Louisiana you have to be careful, as the Formosa termites have usually either eaten up large chunks of the wood, or the wood has been sprayed repeatedly with insecticides and other gunk)

For a good source of used hardwood, find a trucking company. The larger flatbed trailers are covered with big oak (usually) planks, and are replaced from time to time. Very economical, and can be cut to whatever length is needed. I've heard of this same wood being used for butcher blocks.

Don't go wasting money on the nice stuff at Home Depot. Find an old building and use pieces of that instead. Works just as well.

Stone or brick/concrete will work, but it does affect the heat transfer. Once you got that sucker going though, you could probably cook for a couple of days with one bag of charcoal.

All in all a fine way to spend the day, and a great way to have a big old hunk of meat. They do 4 or 5 turkeys at a time in them as well.

[halland]

Mayhaw Man,

In my enthusiasm I emailed you directly, but I'm definately interested in whatever other information you can provide on how to build one of these.

Thanks!

[davebr]

A friend of mine told me he saw someone make a cajun Microwave for turkeys out of an tomato vine growing cone?? and an upsidedown 55 gal drum with the coals on top.

[Rachel Perlow]

I just read through my Cook's Illustrated email newsletter and there was a whole section on this, although they didn't call it a Cajun Microwave, it sounds very similar.

from: Cook's Illustrated "E-Notes Newsletter," September 10, 2004 (click link to their website, above, to subscribe)

We just hosted our end-of-summer pig roast at the farm. We bought an 80-pound pig that had been butterflied and cooked it in a roasting box made by La Caja China (800-338-1323, http://www.lacajachina.com). It is made of plywood and lined with sheet metal. The pig is placed in the box, and a metal grate and pan are placed over the top. Charcoal briquettes are burned on top of the grate/cover, and the fire heats up the contents of the box below. I injected the pig (the box comes with a large hypodermic) with a flavored brine the night before, and cooking time was about five hours. The result? The best (and easiest to handle) roast pig I have ever tasted: moist, fall-apart soft, and no leftovers. La Caja China sells roasting boxes in three different sizes. The smallest accommodates a turkey or a pork leg, and the largest, the model I purchased, can handle a pig weighing up to 100 pounds.

[Toliver]

I just read through my Cook's Illustrated email newsletter and there was a whole section on this, although they didn't call it a Cajun Microwave, it sounds very similar.

←

Yes, it's the same thing...different name.

[ned]

I recieved one of these ovens for my birthday. The giver and I cooked a 15lb pig in it. The result was marvelous although we had some concerns about the freshness of the animal. Also we didn't read any directions and ended up burning a big pile of 2 x 4 chunks at about 12:30am when we realized things weren't quite hot enough. All this tomfoolery and the result was beyond reproach. Well beyond.

The tricky and oddball thing about the caja china is that the coals (from which heat typically rises) are located above the cooking chamber. As a result, the transfer of heat is very inefficient. Despite that, the chamber which is lined with sheet metal becomes very hot. How hot? Not sure. Also, the cooking chamber is sealed up pretty tight. Every time we opened the box steam came billowing out. Steam rises. Most of the time it rises and escapes. In the case of the caja, steam rises and alights (in an upside down sort of way) on the underside of the pan which holds the coals. How hot does a bed of kingsford charcoal get? I'm guessing about 600 to 800 degrees or maybe a little more. What happens when steam rises and then hits a metal ceiling that is 600 to 800 degrees or maybe a little more? Dunno. But I can tell you what happens to the pig in there. He stays remarkably moist while his skin becomes crispy and brittle like a thin sheet of caramel. Why does the skin crisp in a wet environment? Isn't steam is supposed to be the enemy of caramelization?

This doesn't represent all of my ponderings on the caja china but it's a good start. I'll follow with some pics.

Edited July 19, 2005 by ned (log)

[ned]

Stoking up the fire:

l

done:

[ned]

Fast forward a year less five days and there I was rocking the box again. This time it was in honor of the wedding of a close friend. The pre-wedding barbecue for 80 people called for an eighty pound pig and caja china model #2. I'm going to get to the meat of the matter right away. The pig was finished cooking in less than two hours and had bubbly cracklin. Guess that box got HOT. In all it was a rousing success but the cooking time did take me quite by surprise. Might have been better if it had taken longer. Also all that talk about steam in the post above was obsolete this year. There was a nice puddle of jus in the pan below the pig but no steam at all when we opened the box. Curious. I wish I had an excuse to Caja-Chinafy fifteen pigs a year.

Pics to follow.

[highchef]

NOTE TO ALL OF YOU BARBEQUE NUTS. THIS IS NOT, IN ANY WAY, WHOLE HOG BBQ IN THE ED MITCHELL STYLE, OR EVEN THE VARMINT STYLE-THIS IS YET ANOTHER WAY TO COOK OUR FRIEND PORKY. NO HATE MAIL PLEASE. AT LEAST UNTIL YOU FALL FOR MY EVIL PLAN AND TRY THIS YOURSELF. THEN YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO HATE (BUT OF COURSE, YOU WILL BE IN LOVE WITH THIS AND WILL HAVE FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT BROOKS, THE BBQ HERETIC).

Anyway, enough of that.

There was a gathering of my wife's family this weekend. It is a very large and close group of brothers sisters and first cousins who were all raised as brothers and sisters. Lots of people and lots of kids. Lots of work. Lots of fun!

A quick run through of the menu and on to the pig

THursday Night-

Smoked Brisket (perfect, thank you very much)

Cheese Grits

Lady Peas

Butter Lettuce, Grapefruit and Avacodo Salad w/ poppyseed vingarrette

Friday Lunch

Lexington Chicken Spaghetti (look in the Cotton Country-great for large #'s and made with Schmaltz!)

French Bread

Green Salad

Friday Night

Shrimp and Crawfish Stew

Spinach Salad (with lots of bits including Wasabi Peas!)

Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Saturday Lunch

Taco (made with beef tenderoin grilled to medium rare/rare perfection)

Every Taco addition we could think up and have on hand

Peach Cobbler for Dessert

Saturday Night

Whole Hog (microwave style)

Dirty Rice (more of the same pig, nothing left but the oink!)

More Spinach Salad (big spinach sale at Sam's! )

Sunday Morning

Grits and Grillades

Pancakes

Bisquits

Sunday Lunch

What? Are you kidding me? Let em eat McDonalds!

Now for the pig thing

A Cajun Microwave is basically a big wooden box that is lined with sheet metal and has a grating setup in the bottom of it. A fire of charcoal is started on top and once the coals are just turning white, they are spread to a layer of one deep on the top and the pig is put inside. The top is put on and after 2 hours coals are added and the pig is turned. Two more hours the top is removed and a screen is put on to as the pig needs to rest after that time in the hot box, before the orthopedic surgeons come to do a little autopsy. Basically. That's it. Now for the details with photos and some links:

Now for the details.

The pig was about 55 pounds. It was brined and then the skin was lifted and it was crammed full of herbs of various sorts that had been made into a paste with butter and olive oil-rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano being the base of the dry herbs. The thing was crammed full of the stuff as you can kind of see from this photo (I did no closeups-next time-I was too busy pulling around fearless adolescents on various water towing devices -one amn, two man, and four man tubes, hydroslides, skis, wakeboards, etc.)

That's my father in law and my wifes cousin (I do not have a good enough version of photo shop to dampen the glare from that tacky LSU shirt. What can I say? You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family ) as the move the pig towards the box.

Ready to go. The top with the hot coals will go on momentarily. The beer drinking and lying will commence shortly afterwards.

About 4 and a half hours later, it is cooked and cooling!

Ready to eat! Bullet (the best dog in the world) is hoping that the table breaks

     

 

Cousin/Dr. Sid goes to work

(note about those implements-they are REALLY cool. Sid raises Arabians and his farrier made the knives. They are hammered from the remains of a couple of old rasps (for those of you from the big city, that is a large file that is used to trim and file horses hooves). They are attached to deer horn handles and are remarkably well suited for this process-one should always have a surgeon or two to cut up hogs. They are very good at it!)

Still Life with Porky's Head (#1 of a Series)

We ate every bite. The skin was cubed and fried into delicious (and probably heartstoppingly dangerous) cracklings, and the ears and a few big bones went to a couple of lucky labs and a goofy bull terrier. They were very happy dogs.

The device that we were using is a custom made hybrid of the one that you see on this website. He builds them out of cypress and now that we have done it a few times (actually, some of my wife's family does this all the time-horse shows, weekend get togethers, etc.). They are also great for roasting ducks or stuffed chickens, whole geese, misbehaving children, etc.

The meat comes out tender and unbelievably juicy. Really delicious.

Anyway, besides that, the rest of my worldview this weekend looked something like this:

←

'tacky' LSU shirt????

Brooks, darling, you know there is no such thing.

around here, you even landscape in purple and gold.

[Toliver]

Also all that talk about steam in the post above was obsolete this year.  There was a nice puddle of jus in the pan below the pig but no steam at all when we opened the box.  Curious.

←

Perhaps the first pig had been frozen for a while and gained some water weight (ice crystals) which could explain the steam.

Were the two pigs purchased from the same place?

[ned]

Perhaps the first pig had been frozen for a while and gained some water weight (ice crystals) which could explain the steam.

Were the two pigs purchased from the same place?

←