British BBQ Society Forums

My wife has kindly brought me a 50kg spit, i am sure there is an ulterior motive for this and am sure this will cost me dearly in the near future........


Anyway i am now looking for a couple of whole pigs. I live in south wales so local would be good, how ever i will be cooking one in suffolk for a hangover bbq after my brothers wedding day.

if anyone knows of any suppliers in these areas please let me know and also if anyone knows of the approx price of a 35 to 40 kg pig (should be enough for 50 to 60 people i hope)


Cheers Mike

Hi

Its all about portion control to size of pig. I know some have worked on a pound of meat (500grams being PC LOL!) per person for party do's, but that's is a canny bit of food! If you work on that theory Its about 4 good sandwiches PP (125gm's each), too much IMO. On that calculation a 35KG pig looks to be enough for 50 people but you will have to factor in and consider the waste in the whole pig's dead weight, bones etc. One of our regular hog roasters will know a size that has enough meat that can accommodate you and will no doubt give you a shout out.

I have had prices for full pigs at £2.50 per kilo but that's for everything except the squeal but free range will be at least twice that price! You can pay anywhere from £150 to £350 but on average most on line are for a 45KG (100lb) pig at £250, less if its not cut up. Smaller pigs can be more expensive.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the info, I've sorce a free range pig a local small holder £120 for a45kg,

quite happy with the price

you did well!!!!!

local is always better

I too am curious about the dead-weight to edible meat ratio for a hog-roast. I'm going to guess that it changes greatly with the size of the pig - smaller the pig, the smaller the ratio.

My instinct says that with a whole pig (including head), after taking into account bones, rendered fat, and shrinkage due to cooking, you would get half back as edible meat. So 45kg pig = 20.25kg of cooked meat. Also not sure how the crackling fits or other non-traditional parts of the pig (like the head) fit into this ratio.

My cousin does commercial hog roasts around Carleon, Newport, Ponthir, Cardiff etc, some of the big 5* places. He keeps telling me that the local suppliers try to send him 70 to 90kg beasts. If you are getting small hogs of less than 50kg you are doing well!