Interesting pig roaster

"Pete C." fired this volley in news:4c56b94b$0 $22759$ snipped-for-privacy@unlimited.usenetmonster.com:

Yep. One thing about the chewy brisket -- just getting it up to 197-198F isn't the goal. That's the temperature at which the collagen starts breaking down, but it takes at least a 1/2hour at that temperature.

The foil habit comes of taking a cut that's already hotter than 198 at the surface, but has just reached it at the center, and attempting to hold that extra heat in for the requisite time.

If you foil (a lot of guys do), never foil on the cooker. Take the meat _immediately_ from the cooker to foil to an insulated cooler to let the stored heat do its work.

If you do it that way, you won't "steam" the cut, and it will still retain its open-cooked character.

I just don't find that necessary. I taper the heat down during the last hour so that by the time the center has reached 198, the cooker is a scant 210. That keeps the center and outsides close in temperature, is below the boiling point so the meat doesn't tend to dry out any more, and allows finishing the cooking open and dry, which is my preference.

A packer's cut of brisket has enough fat on it so that it's never really "dry", anyway. If you don't like fat, take the last 1/4" off AFTER cooking, never before. More than 1/4" to 3/8" of fat will slow the cooking, because the fat is a good insulator.

LLoyd

Mi Casa es Su Casa

Give me a heads up when you will be coming through. And a list of Stuff you need beforehand and Ill see what I can do.

Gunner

"A conservative who doesn't believe? in God simply doesn't pray; a godless liberal wants no one to pray. A conservative who doesn't like guns doesn't buy one; a liberal gun-hater wants to disarm us all. A gay conservative has sex his own way; a gay liberal requires us all to watch and accept his perversion and have it taught to children. A conservative who is offended by a radio show changes the station; an offended liberal wants it banned, prosecuted and persecuted." Bobby XD9

This looks like an added top mechanism that sets on a conventional rental grille for cooking burgers and the like, which sounds like a good simple way to use equipment the rental place already has on hand. If you're trying to set up a dedicated unit, you have considerably more flexibility.

I've seen a couple of pigs roasted, and there were a couple of differences in the cooking units.

First, the height. These had the charcoal fire much closer to the ground, which also meant the spit was lower. For the young pig you show, that might not be a big issue, but the ones I saw roasted were in the 120-150 lb. range, and the less distance you have to lift the spit the better. Also, it makes for a more stable unit, which when you're dealing with a large cookfire and simultaneously trying to keep a lot of food off the ground can be a big asset.

Secondly, these were chain drive, which meant that the motor could be mounted further from the heat, which helped the motors and gearcases last longer.

Also, an operational note. The fat tends to drip off the parts that stick out--the legs, even when they're cut short. It's best if there is not fire directly under the dripline at those spots, leaving a pile of coals in the middle and one at each end. One of the roaster operators told me that lesson was learned from hard experience: when flareups ignite the pig, it quickly gets so involved that nothing can be salvaged, and it happens both easier and faster than one might expect.

--Glenn Lyford

I don't think you really want to turn a pig on a spit more than 1 RPM. The latest Surpluscenter catalog just arrived in the mail and I see a motor that looks promising, item 5-1741 12VDC, 1.6 RPM, 78 in-lb torque, $18.99. Couple to the spit with 1.6:1 drive ratio or so. It would seem to have enough torque to handle 10# of imbalance 12" out from the spit, which is more than you're likely to see on one of those small pigs.

Ooop, and on the next page they have 5 different 120VAC gearmotors with outputs from 1.8 to 4.6 RPM, and torques from 80-121 in-lb all for less than $20. If you really want 6 RPM and gear down to the spit, they have item 5-1712 6 RPM, 120VAC 120 in-lb for $8.99

Get rotiserizing...

Now you just need a 120 in-lb pig

I think that I rather like the motor that I got from ebay. If I am right, it is a sealed 1/10 HP motor, at reduced to 2 RPM it should work pretty good.

I will not build a pig cooker, but instead I will make an addition to my propane grill that would go on top of the grill. It is not ideal, but it will save on space. I can always set a pan with coals on top of the grill.

can put my box

I have two candidates, I just need to move up, cough, to win7 and what ever is current on the hardware side. I'm thinking Win7 32 bit with XP in vm as a fall back. I'm not willing to give up some legacy software.

I'm still running W2k on my two desk top systems. Cygwin gives me that connection to the

I hate spending money on PC's. I still sting at paying 3800 bucks for a 386-20 a long, long time ago when that was real money. It was my ticket to 11 years of decent work so it was a good investment but I've taken the position of buying low on the price curve ever since. More value there. I don't do bleeding edge.

If your firm is is big enough, that is a waste stream that can cost you real money to get rid of depending on what enviromental regs apply. Maybe you should try to get some of those boxes, forget the crts, and ebay them. As I said, it might be costing your employer to get rid of the things. Could be win win. Wipe, load with linux, sell. I bet you could create a custom distribution that would be a pop in a cd, wipe disk, set up with emc2, test latency, and email you a test report. ;)

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

I would make sure that the motor et al are rainproof, as grills are sure to get rained upon.

Joe Gwinn

Why would you roast an interesting pig?

Surplus 3 and 16 RPM AC gearhead motors on this page in the $20 range.

Surplus DC gearhead motors on this page

All roasted pigs are interesting to me.

How about removing the stop from an old TV antenna rotor? Most were

I've pulled several gearhead motors from large photocopiers, along with the gears and chains.

I have a couple motors from the jack screws in an electric bed. With the limit switches removed ant the threaded shaft cut off, they are, IIRC, 1/8 HP, 120 V., reversible and worm driven ~10 RPM. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

You learn that in recycling 101? ;-)