Sorry, I'm no help. My oldest daughter had a pig roast at her reception and people loved it, but we hired someone to do it, they brought the pig and the roaster and the meat just came inside in big metal tubs.

Have fun and congratulations to the bride!

Annie

I've only been the guest, so also no help. A dear friend had a pig roast every year for about 20years. It was never much food for a hundred but always more celebratory than glutinous feast.

I have stumbled across lots of pigs roasting on ytube.

Our country club did a pig roast every 4th of July for many years.....and for a few my son worked there and helped set it up....he hated sawing the hoofs off!

As I live in Iowa, we know hogs!...so one question is how big a pig? How many people?

The trick is to figure out how you will turn it...but I trust the set up peoplew ill do that. Will they stuff it with anything? Apples celery and onions are pretty good to stuff it with.

Then it's just a matter of cooking until done.....and remember it will stay hot for a long time after it's cooked.

Then the matter of serving it.....all i have seen and I have probably been to more than 10 pig roasts, the whole pig is placed on some sort of serving "thing", belly up and then you consider it parts at a time.....verticle cuts around the ribs, and verticle slices on the loin and slice some of the ham. But have lots of tongs and forks because it will be falling off the bone tender and people will pick at it....that's why they sometimes call it a pig pickin'.

It's best served buffet with everyone picking some of their own meat.

And allow a pound to a pound and a half of dressed hog per person. We often supplemented the hog with a couple of whole bone in loins.

And I hope the food bringers are smart enough to bring the requisite slaw, beans, potato salad and corn.

Will this be a true pot luck where everyone brings some random thing? If it's random....I pity you! i have seen 7 plates of devilled eggs and nothing green, and 6 Jello salads and no bread etc

I used to go to a big summer party every year where they would roast a couple whole hogs. It involved building a pit out of cinder blocks, preparing the hardwood charcoal, placing the pig in the pit, covering with sheet metal, and then sitting around drinking beer all night while the pig Roasted for 10-12 hours. About half way through, the pig would be flipped. The party would start around noon and the pit masters would already be smashed.

Sorry, no help to your endeavor. Good luck!

I have worked with several cook teams that smoked a whole hog for a contest. Probably done this a dozen times. While I'm still not an expert, I've picked up a bunch of tips that will save your pig roast from disaster.

1. Prep the pig at least 12 hours in advance. Make sure your dry rub gets into all the tiny crevices and under the skin.

2. Make sure your pit is at temperature - 225 degrees - before you start cooking. Temperature control is key.

3. Cook the pig on its back the entire time. Never turn it over! You'll lose all that good juice that's forming in the belly cavity.

4. Different parts of the pig will finish cooking before others. You can control this with foil, but don't go crazy. The temperature differences will be less than 20 degrees.

5. Your cooking time will depend on the size of the pig. Don't rush it by raising the cooking temps. You can hold the finished meat in a hot box for hours.

While it may seem daunting at first, remember that this is barbecue. Ain't nothin' simpler to cook.

The photo below is a half-hog. Notice how it's been shored up with cabbage to keep the juice in the body cavity.

Thanks for the responses so far folks :)

I don't know how big the pig will be, but she said they are inviting 75ish guests. I do know from attending many pig roasts in the past in that part of Wi that it's usually a whole pig on a spit or sometimes shelf in an enclosed rig/trailer kind of thing, and the only stuffing Ive seen of those is an apple in the mouth. And the pig is usually around me size or a bit smaller, so they have been 100-150 pound pigs maybe? I've never been to a half pig roast, but sometimes if it's a smaller pig there's also been chickens in the roaster rig.

I don't know how true of a potluck it will be, but she said by name several of our mutual friends she would be having bring something- I don't know if she will be asking everyone to bring a dish or how she's handling that. There will for sure be deviled eggs, one of our friends has famously good ones, lol.

Me, I'm making a big container of pickled Italian antipasto veggies and yesterday I grilled off 4 dozen cobs of corn and stripped them- the resulting 5 quarts of corn is going to get frozen today and then I'll do them up in a batch of buttered, and a batch of Mexican street corn style on the day. The corn is really good and sweet right now, and I know it won't be by September, so I wanted to take advantage of the fresh farmers market stuff now. She might hit me up to make other stuff to bring over to her state too, lol. Will probably depend on how much space I got in the car for the trip there.

I don't know when the pig and roaster is supposed to be brought out to her house, or when it's supposed to be set up to start roasting, or how it will be dressed, or even how it's going to be set up. She said on Saturday she is planning on ordering it this week, so hopefully I'll find out the company or what they do sometime soon.

I will have someone else helping with the pig- or rather one of the friends husbands is a keen griller/BBQ guy. He's never done a whole pig before either, but is happy and confidant he can tackle this with me.

Your weight range sounds about right. Hogs are typically slaughtered in the 110 lb.(called a poker) to 145 lb. (called a cutter) range...at least the ones I have purchased anyway. Pigs 145 lbs. and up are usually used for bacon, ham, and sausage.

I always feel that the most difficult challenge about roasting a pig is how to make the skin perfectly crispy.

dcarch

Basting with the rendered fat is the secret to crispy skin.

Lone Jack.....a Market hog weighs on average 250 pounds,,,, yielding about 160 to 180 pounds dressed. But the most popular size for a pig roast is 120 pounds or smaller and will feed about 50 to 60 people.