Christmas Eve Pig Leg Smoke

[Kathy's Smokin']

Hello!

Smoked a pig leg overnight for Christmas eve, here's a photo of the spices I used to make my rub.





I don't know where I put the paper I wrote on so I have to guess on a couple of amounts that aren't clear in the photo. I tend to eyeball measurements most of the time, I'll be accurate with those that matter and less so with those that don't.

Pig Leg Rub
½ tbsp fennel (that was all I had, if there was more I would have used 1 tbsp)
1 tbsp white peppercorns
1 tbsp coriander seed
1 tbsp dill seeds
- put the above in a coffee or spice grinder and process, empty into a rub shaker
-add the below to the shaker
1 tbsp ground mustard
2 tbsp granulated onion powder
½ tbsp granulated garlic powder
2 tbsp granulated ginger powder
- salt to taste or try 1, 2 tbsp or more, depending on preference -- I cook for someone with edema so I don't add salt to my rubs, I just add salt to my plate
- mix together in the shaker and apply to the pig leg



A nice traditionally-raised pig leg. In Canada traditionally-raised means no antibiotics or meat-byproducts are present in the feed and the standards of raising these animals are higher and kinder. The meat in turn tastes better, shrinks less from cooking and is healthier to consume.



I love watching my charcoal chimney at night.



Lump charcoal piled to the top of the side holes in my Vision Kamado Pro. It's enough for an overnight smoke but I usually stir some new lump into the live coals in the morning. I gave myself the gift of a shortcut this time and finished the cook in the oven the next morning while I drove into town to run Christmas Eve errands.







The amount of rub I made was good for one pig leg, I turned out the remnants in the shaker over the top layer of fat.





I rendered the removed fat into lard in the oven at 225°F/107°C, took about 6 hours.



I forgot to use a sieve on the mouth of the bottle but it came through clear enough despite that. I was able to fill this jar to the top and another jar just a little smaller.



This is what I woke up to Christmas Eve morning.







The inside meat temperature ranged around 164°F/73°C, gave it another 3 hours in the oven at 250°F/121°C while I was running around and working elsewhere. One side took it's time probing like buttah. I'm at the stage where sometimes I get the cooking time/doneness right and sometimes I overshoot by 40 minutes or so. It becomes pulled pork so at least anything a little overdone gets moistened back with applesauce and barbeque sauce. I use a 50/50 blend of unsweetened applesauce and barbeque sauce, I like that the flavour of the meat isn't overpowered and the apples give it a nice background flavour. I packed this pulled pork to give to the staff at our favourite sushi place. Along with this was some crispy leg meat still on the bone I thought someone might enjoy, some single serving tubs of applesauce and a bottle of better barbeque sauce made with maple syrop. I haven't gone back yet to see how they liked it, but how could they not? I put the nicest, moistest section of the leg in their container so I expect they enjoyed it.







Thanks for looking!!

[CHokKA]

Holy cow (or should I say pig!) that looks immense! How many were you cooking for?

[Kathy's Smokin']

Just the two of us for our own Christmas Eve dinner. I pulled the whole leg, portioned it in 300 g pouches and froze. My family celebrates on Christmas Day an hour away from where we live so it wasn't cooked for a big family holiday meal. I make about three whole legs/whole shoulders every year -- smoke, pull then portion and freeze. PP frozen portions make it easy to get a meal on the table -- either reheated with apple sauce & BBQ sauce as traditional pulled pork, in nachos, stir fry, cold spring rolls, meat pies, added to baked beans, sandwich melts, jambalaya, gumbo, etc..

[BraaiMeesterWannabe]

Just the two of us for our own Christmas Eve dinner. I pulled the whole leg, portioned it in 300 g pouches and froze. My family celebrates on Christmas Day an hour away from where we live so it wasn't cooked for a big family holiday meal. I make about three whole legs/whole shoulders every year -- smoke, pull then portion and freeze. PP frozen portions make it easy to get a meal on the table -- either reheated with apple sauce & BBQ sauce as traditional pulled pork, in nachos, stir fry, cold spring rolls, meat pies, added to baked beans, sandwich melts, jambalaya, gumbo, etc..

Now if I were not the other side of the Atlantic I'd be raiding your freezer!

[Kathy's Smokin']

I made something different with pulled pork from the freezer yesterday. I wanted to make chili but the ground beef from my half steer (pastured, traditionally-raised) is in my mother's freezer in town. I soaked four cups of navy beans overnight and cooked them tender the next day. Thawed 6 pouches @300g each of PP and decided to make chili with that, but the ingredients were too light coloured to be called chili so I call it Pulled Pork and Beans. I made bacon last year from a pastured Tamworth freezer order, the belly had a lot of fat on it so most gets minced and rendered frying potatoes, onions and eggs in the morning. I fried 2 medium grated carrots with 3 cloves garlic, 6 medium onions, 3 celery ribs, 1 red pepper, all chopped small, in batches with the minced bacon. All in the cast iron casserole with corriander, celery seed, oregano, granulated onion and fresh ground pepper. Then a large can of whole tomatoes crushed between my fingers and a carton of salt-free vegetable stock for cooking liquid with a cup of the beans, mashed, to thicken. The volume came up to a centimetre from the top of the casserole. In the oven at 135°C for three hours. The last two hours I was out on errands, came back to a burning smell, the liquid bubbled up and out onto the oven floor. The PP and Beans was delicious!! I put salt and Scotch Bonnet hot sauce on mine, there was enough flavour in it that Carol, my partner who struggles with edema, said it was good without salt. I put the oven through a self-clean cycle to take care of the burned puddle in the bottom and smoked the house out on a really cold night (somewhere around -20°C). The smell lingers this morning but not badly. The end result was a new dish that tastes good enough to feed to company and a cleaner oven.