Roast Pig Filipino Style

March 29, 1937 - April 13, 2008

As many Filipino families do, my dad's goal was to get his family to Canada where he could provide a better life for us all. (everyone's perception could be different) but dad's was that for financial and education reasons it would be best.

So, in 1976 the family came to Canada.

My dad was a machinist and worked on the US Naval base in Subic Bay in the Philippines. This trade he used to find work in Canada. For him it was always about being a provider and he took great pride in doing this.

He was a very kind and giving man always making sure to give no matter what. He organized fundraisers for victims in a community near our hometown that was washed out by a mudslide and killed hundreds. Every penny went to the village to rebuild. He always put others, including family ahead of himself. One story that I was told is that in Vancouver, walking by a homeless guy begging for money, my dad had turned around, and gave the person his leftover food even though dad had no real money as he was jobless at the time, but he always said that we were more fortunate to be living here with nothing than what we might have had still back home in the Philippines.

Dad always smiled. He had a smile on for everything, and had funny quirky sayings that always made us laugh. And if you can imagine them said in a naive Filipino accent you might laugh even more:

"If you eat you eat, if you don't you don't"
and because he worked in a mill, and had to make stuff for the foremens, he would always say "ahh, good enough for a farmer" and not perfecting it, even though he really has. He is a machinist after all. Anything 1/16th of an inch off is still too much.

After retiring he had a difficult time coping with his boredom, but still made do volunteering and doing whatever he could around the house to keep occupied. But in the back of his mind, he had always had this plan to retire back home in the Philippines but only live there 6 months of the year, and the other 6 in Canada where all the grandchildren and children are.

It was time to take action. Mom and dad went to the Philippines at the end of 07 to start their house building project. In January 08, they completed their project and moved in. They had only been in the house a couple of days before dad became very sick and unresponsive.

Turns out, after a CT scan, dad had a brain tumour the same as Ted Kennedy had. From this point on, dad had started to lose alot of his basic functions.

More could be told, but the rest is history. I only wanted to give a small insight into what I knew as my dad.

"Laugh as much as you breath, Love as long as you live"

If you can, go a bit bigger. You don't want to leave your guests without roast pig!!!

Here's a bit of a guideline you can follow for choosing your pig.

40 lbs (18 kg) - 20 people
60 lbs (27 kg) - 30 people
80 lbs (36 kg) - 40 - 50 people
100 lbs (45.5 kg) - 70 people

Ok, if you're getting over that, you're starting to really get into commercial production. Let's not get TOO crazy here. My dad only did the 80-100 lb roasts.

Keep this important tip in mind. The older/larger they get, the fattier the pig will be. My understanding is that a young pig, somewhere in the 60-70 pound range is the ideal mix of fat and tenderness.

It may be hard in your location to get a whole pig. Go to your local butcher shop and ask there, and they'll be able to set you up or at least point you to the right place.

I would make sure that they do all the preparation for you that way it's all cleaned up and you don't have to prep from scratch. (ie. boiling water over the skin to loosen the hairs, and then shaving it and of course cleaning the innards.)

Dad was certainly not wasteful, and he always found a way to recycle stuff. In this case he used alot of that "stuff" to create his own pig roasting contraption. This thing was cool, it could roll everywhere party to party and have the wheels removed. As you can see it was a trailer and had the makings of good style from back in the Philippines where you could find all kinds of things made of whatever was available. You know, like scraps to patch a hole in the wall, things like that.

Now your typical lechon might be in a dugout pit with anything for your coal such as coconut husks or wood and charcoal if you can get it. The pig can be skewered with a bamboo pole sharpened like a dart at one end, and given a "steering wheel", which is like a small stick through the end of the bamboo pole allowing the lechoner to spin the roast manually.

This required way too much attention to the roast, so my dad took an old motor and a steel rod from his machine shop and various rods for support of the pig and concocted the roaster you see above. The height could also be adjusted in the event that the roast was too close, thus cooking too quickly.

Some brick or sand is used to reflect the heat from below and the sides to focus the heat towards the roast.

This may be a bit extreme, but like I said, my dad loved to roast and the amount of pig roasts we did, this was definitely warranted.

Ok, you're probably thinking, "ya, that's great and all, but what am I supposed to do?"

There are many commercial options for you, and if you're serious enough to be roasting pigs at home, then you're serious enough to need some contraption to do it.

Look at the list of stuff dad needed for his pig roaster.

Take a look at this older version my dad had for some more ideas...

Getting that secret guarded seasoning from that traditional seems impossible. Personally, I think that we just get so used to the notion that it's a guarded secret that we forget to even bother asking.

Every lecchoner has their own tricks of the trade for making the perfect roast and I've certainly seen it done different ways.

There's those that use coconut water, 7up, or even coca cola. As you could imagine the sugars would roast to make a delicious caramelized skin.

The seasoning and stuffing could contain many different things, including salt, sea salt, pepper, sampaloc leaves (that's just tamarind), lemongrass, onions, lemon, rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, chillies, peppers and really whatever you prefer, even some willing to use MSG. eww.

My dad was more traditional in the sense that lots of things were more difficult to get for him prior to moving to Canada so his "ways" were more or less set.

My brothers were off to get the pig and bring it home, while I observed what dad does with this last roast (I never really paid attention when I was younger), I see during the preparation he's chopping some onions, garlic, mixing in loads of salt, must have been 2 cups, cracked pepper and diced chillies.

The roast has arrived and it gets cracked open and the mix is rubbed into the inside, rubbed all over, ribs, everywhere, making sure that all parts of the meat got some seasoning. Before sewing it closed, he cuts 3 lemons in half and tosses them in but not squeezing out the juice. (I figure that's because lemon tends to naturally "cook" meat the longer it stays on it.) Then, the last bit is to add a bunch of lemongrass, which I do believe is also traditional Cebu Roast style, then this little piggy is sewed up tight.

That's it! That is all I witnessed for the seasoning.

I'd like to mention a story dad once told me about how they "did it back home"... They would get a live pig and raise it for a few weeks only feeding the animal food and flavours that they wanted in the pig for roasting time. I don't know how well that would work, but that is what I remember being told.

Time to turn on the contraption and get a nice slow spin going.

This truly did require the patience you would find in a machinist. With mop in hand, ready to brush the fat drippings back onto the roast, it helped to crisp up the skin. He had a bucket that definitely had a bit of soya sauce with water, which probably adds to the colour of the skin and a bit of saltyness to it. I don't know how much, but like I mentioned previously, this could contain anything like the sugars from pop or coconut water, or some just use plain water.

You might want to do a bit of research on this one because my tips might not be enough.

The rule of thumb I think is 1 hour per 10 pounds of roasting. This is why dad was always up bright and early preparing the coal bed, and the tarping system and the seasoning to ensure everything was ready to go on schedule.

Take it slow and remember to adjust the height and coal so it's not cooking too hot and monitor any overheating spots. The key is patience as you would expect with any type of roast.

Everyone will pass by, chat, check it out, have fun with it. Don't get too intoxicated though. hehe

If you're anything like my dad you enjoy company and socializing and just general B.S.

Besides, you're hosting a pig roast, you love being a host.