Baltimore Pig Roast
Photos by Laura Rice, text by Jeremy Rice
My friend Bob hatched this idea for a Cajun Pig Roast a couple of years ago. We had a mutual friend named Jonathan Babineaux from Lawtell, LA who was also into the idea and offered help. With a little extra guidance gleaned from some websites, we set to pull off this stunt. Here are a few photos to document our pig roast.
Here the pig cooker that Bob masterminded. A wood frame supports the pig. A wood fire is contained in the barrel. We started the fire about 4 am. An aside, the cooker contraption got dubbed the Pigmaster 2000. There are no current plans to actually mass produce these handy devices yet.
The pig is butterflyed by splitting along the back, and then placed between two fence gates. The stuff on the ground is marinade. The two fence gates are wired together (see B&W photo below), and then the pig is them mounted over the flame.
Here the pig is them mounted over the flame. This also gives a good idea of how the pig is turned every couple hours. Here are the famous Baltimore Broussard Bros. - Johnny, Bobby, and Tommy (l to r). Besides cooking pigs, they are well-known for dancing and various escapades too numerous to mention here. It was miracle that Johnny Broussard was not booted from his apartment complex for cooking a pig in public area sans permission from the management. About 6 am, the grease on pig caught fire and flames shot about 20 feet in the air. I'm sorry that we didn't get a photo, but frankly we were more worried about a citation from the fire department than anything else at that point.
About 8 hours and as many pig rotations passed here.......
The pig cooked until about noon or so, then Jonathan Babineaux carves the pig. Although Jonathan pulled his weight in helping to prepare the pig, he seemed to weasel out of actually staying up all night to cook it. Oh well - to quote Homer Simpson, "Weaseling out of things is what separates man from the animals, except for the weasel, that is."
Here a view of the guests and party on a beautiful sunny afternoon in Baltimore. The guests come from Baltimore and Washington to join the fun and eat some Cochon de Lait. The pavillion is located behind Johnny Broussard's apartment. The pig was cooked to the left of the view in this photo.
The Creole Zydeco Farmer were some the guest for our pig roast. Here is Joseph from the Farmers pitching shoes with Winston, a dancer from the Baltimore area. Later we all went to Harry's Bar in Baltimore to dance to the Creole Zydeco Farmers.
After the first pig party above, we got a number of invitations to repeat the stunt. Here's Bobby Broussard checking the pig at a pig roast to celebrate July 4, 2000 at Bonnie's house. Luckily an old swingset was utilized, so the there was no need to assemble the Pigmaster 2000 (a great savings in time). The barrel half above the pig was used to concentrate the heat. Roy Carrier and the Zydeco Night Rockers were the special guests for this party. They played that evening to a crowd of about a hundred or so.
Bonnie's son took this very artistic photo of the pig between the fence gates. We put an apple in the mouth as a finishing touch.