Last week served up some exciting opportunities for Spitting Pig Northeast, we took them with both hands and served the cream of the crop roast hog experience to customers new and old.
Thursday gone was the job that really jumps off the pages. A hog roast was called and booked for a motorcycle group that were touring pub to pub across most of the country to raise money and awareness for lung cancer. For their Newcastle leg of the drive they stopped in at a pub beer garden and, having big appetites from being on the road for so long, arrangements were made so that I’d be there waiting with the Spitting Pig equipment and a first class pig to make as many spit pig roast rolls as they could eat.
We were told that there would be just under 30 bikers but to bring enough food for about 300 because the locals might want some and many of the local media were due to arrive to cover the story. So from the fridge I took out the biggest pig I could find, weighing in at 91kg, loaded it in the van and started my drive to the job venue. It took more than enough hours to spit roast the pig which meant I was at the pub in the morning, cooking until mid afternoon. With big pigs its always crucial to get the temperature and cooking length right, it’s trickier to cook perfectly the meat inside and the crackling on the outside.
The result was never in doubt though, and as the bikers made their dramatic entrance with camera crews and locals waiting in kind, I began to prepare the hog roast rolls, carving up the roast pig so that I could start serving a short while afterwards. The quiet before the storm didn’t last long and before I knew it there was an orderly queue building, they could smell and see the hog roast and they’d all waited long enough and were ready to see if it lived up to the hype. It certainly did and in 2 hours the 91kg pig couldn’t have weight more than 5 kg as the guests had easily ate their lavish portions, come back for more and shortly afterwards accepted defeat!
The scraps of the pig were left to the client and having made a donation to many of the local cancer charities in attendance I packed back into the van the serving table, hog roast machine and all other Spitting Pig goods, leaving for the office and a good nights sleep after a very long but rewarding days work.