Homemade Caja China

[halland]

It was my wife's birthday weekend and she wanted a party. For some reason, which I will never fully appreciate, she suggested that I roast a pig. I did this once before, for my bachelor party, on a spit, and she wanted nothing to do with the pig or the process at all (and not just because it was a bachelor party). She can't even stand to look at the photos. Not wanting to question her wisdom I agreed that this was a fine idea and began researching how best to cook a small porker.

I was seriously considering a full on Hawaiian style Imu but I really wasn't relishing the prospect of digging a large hole in my very, very hard backyard. Not to mention the fact that I had no rocks, and I live in a residential Seattle neighborhood that might not appreciate a very large fire. I also considered making a cinderblock pit and roasting it over apple wood coals like this EGCI class. About this time the Washington Post article on the Caja China came out and EG's very own Mayhaw Man wrote this article on his family's homemade Caja China. I chatted with him briefly about his cooker and decided that this was certainly something I could do. My only caveat was that I wanted to spend less money than what I would have spent for the firewood and supplies to cook the pig in an Imu or over coals -- about $100.

The Caja China:

I managed to do this with not too much running around and a bit of wheeling and dealing. I'll detail this briefly:

Lid/Coal Tray, $7.50 from Boeing Surplus. Measured 30" x 48".

Plywood for sides and bottom, $Free from construction scrap piles and friends.

2x4 for lid frame and box bracing, $15 at home depot.

2 rolls of 15" x 10' Aluminum Roof Flashing, $40 at home depot.

Metal Grill, from two scraps at Ballard Sheet Metal, traded for 12 pack of Bud Light (show up 1 hour before closing on a hot Friday and see if this doesn't work!).

Total including the beer about $65.

The Pig:

I ordered the pig (64 pounds) from my friendly local butcher at a price of $2.59/pound. I could have gotten it cheaper elsewhere but I really try to support them for these sorts of projects; they find them as fun and interesting as I do and I get to participate a little more in the process than I would if I ordered the pig from the grocery.

This is the butterflied pig. Unfortunately the butcher ended up splitting the skull instead of leaving it whole like I wanted. I think the next time I'll have them carve around the collar and try to leave it whole -- the tongue and brain dried out a bit too much for my tastes.

The night before the cooking I invited some friends over, drank a nice rose, and we injected the pig with 1 1/2 cups of a brine/marinade solution based on a mojo criollo cut to 50% strength with a seawater-salty brine. In some places the flavor was very prominent and in other places there was no flavor at all. We also rubbed about 1 cup of coarse salt into the belly of the pig.

Here you can see the pig in the cooker. We layered some banana leaves around the pig for extra aroma and moisture and also loosely covered the pig with more banana leaves before cooking. Before cooking the pig I left it out to come up to room temperature for about 4 hours.

Here is the Caja China about half-way through the cooking process (2 hours in). I was worried that the wood frame around the lid might catch fire, but by keeping the coals away from the edges we didn't have any problems at all. Following the cooking instructions on the Caja China website I started with about 15 pounds of charcoals, and then added another 8-10 pounds for the next 2 hours, and then a larger batch just prior to flipping the pig at the 3 hour mark.

Flipping the pig was a bit of a hassle, and in this department the manufactured Caja wins hands down. We carefully lifted one side of the pig, got a piece of plywood under him, and managed to slide him the rest of the way over onto the plywood board. After some debate we finally decided to just count to 3 and quickly flip the pig over onto the grill -- a risky but successful venture. Once flipped we sliced the skin, sprinkled it with a little salt, and returned it to the cooker. I should mention that while the pig was out of the box, I returned the lid onto the cooker to maintain the temperature inside the box. The oven thermometer you see in the previous photo ready 280 deg. farenheit. At this point meat temps ranged from about 140 to 170 depending on the thickness.

After about another hour of frequent peeking under the lid we finally decided to call it good. Temps were a consistend 170 degrees and the pig was nicely browned. We dumped the coals out, hosed out the lid to cool it down, lined it with foil and then slid the pig off onto the lid for cutting.

Here it is just before the ravenous hordes tore it apart. Every bit of this pig was deliciously moist and tender. Friends, some restaurant professionals even, were all suitably impressed. My brother in-law and his friend, both Hawaii natives, felt this method was good enough to forgo the extra work that Imu cooking requires. Most of the pork that was eaten was simply shredded off with a fork and mixed with a little kosher salt.

Luckily our party turnout was a little low so I've got about 20 pounds of leftover pork for leftovers. Yesterday I made a big batch of pulled pork in an Eastern NC style BBQ sauce. I'll probably also make a 100 tamales or so. Any other ideas?

[Carolyn Tillie]

Absolutely fascinating -- great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

[Mayhaw Man]

What a great job! That unit looks as good, or better, than a commercial unit and the pig looks wonderful (butcher left in the eyeballs, very nice ). Turning the thing is always a problem. I have one friend that has these stainless skewers (stainless 1/2" cold roll) that he uses and they work nicely, but don't solve the problem completely.

I usually take the leftovers (there rarely are any) and make pulled pork like you did, or take a little Dreamland Sauce (red sauce, vinegary, a little spicy) and cook for long while and serve on buns and freeze the rest in small ziplocks suitable for microwaving for quick lunches.

Great report!

[Mabelline]

The power of the internet and good ideas!! That looks just gorgeous!! Your cooker is great lookin', and you'll have it now for beef, fish, lamb, whatever.

For turning you might try getting two nice new hayhooks. They will give you purchase, along with your flip board.

[Mayhaw Man]

Another great thing to do in that unit will be to cook a bunch of chickens. You can spice/stuff them all differently. We have done ducks that way and they turn out great (I have never had one, but by all accounts turkeys in those things turn out great as well-THe turkey guys said that they don't ever open the thing. They use a remote sensing thermometer in the breast and pull when it gets up to temp-they come out perfect everytime).

[Mabelline]

And you can double deck things that'll drip down on what's under! How dumb can I get! Fowl of any kind would be super! Did your lady enjoy the effort you put into this just for her?? Well, maybe you too...