ottawa foodies

My father's 60th birthday is coming up towards the end of September, and since I'm the one who...cooks in the family, I've been assigned the task of preparing a spread for the twenty-odd guests. This is not a problem - except that he's requested a whole suckling pig as part of the dinner. The gas barbeque at my folk's place isn't large enough for a whole animal and between the pool / gardens / etc there's not enough room on their property to put a large smoker or other industrial sized cook-out equipment. Does anyone know if there's a place where I can source a whole prepared suckling pig? Thanks!

A store near Bronson and Sommerset. I think it's called Meng Fung? Sorry, I don't have the exact address. Also another place on Preston, but don't know exactly where. Best bet is the Sommerset one. They bbq'd pigs for parties I've been to, but give them at least one or two days notice.

Not to sound contrarian, but I have bought a suckling pig that just fit across the top rack of a standard gas barbecue. I'm not sure exactly how much it weighed, but I think it was around 20lbs and it fed about 15 people. I got it at Saslove's with about a 10 day heads up.

Put it this way: my friends were referring to it as "the fetal pig" rather than "the suckling pig". Regardless, it was really tasty. I simply put the outside burners on med-low and put a dish of parboiled potatoes underneath. After about 2.5-3 hours everything was perfect.

Trachino - So you just laid the "wee piggy" out on the upper rack and didn't use the rotisserie? And it still cooked thru... or did you have to turn it a couple of times?

MSD - Somewheres in the past (sure it was here on OF) we heard about a guy over in Hull (or thereabouts on the Quebec side) who did suckling pigs... believe he came to your house with his gear... but I'm also guessing that he would do one up for you as well. Believe this was discussed in a Forum Topic... Unfortunately, my "search" skills (which are usually excellent) haven't been able to find the info on OF (but will continue to hunt).

We did a big one (search BSNBB on this site) that was done without rotisserie - was fantastic!

Use one of these, a La Caja roasting box: www.lacajachina.com/

F&T: Yeah, I didn't move it once, just low and slow over VERY indirect heat on a gas grill for almost three hours. Skin was crispy all over and the meat was falling off the bone tender. Basically the BBQ was an oven, as the metal dish full of potatoes kept all direct heat away from the pig.

I am more of charcoal aficionado myself but it did work really well.

Tracinho - Thanks for the info... have made a mental note... might come in handy if we have a big shin-dig.

A friend did a pig on a grill just last weekend. He got it through Jason at Essence Catering.

If you don't want to do it yourself, you can ask Jason to cook it for you.

Here is the Essence website.

www.essencecatering.ca

if you tie the legs properly you can easily do a 25lb suckling on most bbqs....

Good god, the essence summer bbq menu looks amazing!!!!! Wow. Wish I had an excuse to order.

Ended up sourcing a suckling pig through Saslove's - unfortunately, the fellow was larger than expected and a bit too large for the grill, so I had to perform some post-butcher butchery; I did the head through end of the ribcage on the grill and the haunches in the convection oven, which turn out nicely.

It turned out very nicely, though! Meat was amazingly tender and just fatty enough, a massive change from conventional lean pork.

Well done MSD, how big was the pig?

Somewhere around five feet from snout to tail; in the 25lb - 30lb range, I believe.

Bump!

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