This Little Piggy...

OK...I am sure some of you (the squeamish, faint hearted, or just lightweight foodies) are seeing this and asking yourself; "how cruel" or saying "this is just wrong", but freshly roasted suckling pigs are damn right tasty! We do not get in the baby piggy's that often and so when presented with an opportunity and the honor to cook them, we jumped at the chance! How cool is that for a chef. I am sure there are many chef's who cook them all the time. We do not. We cook other things~ baby goats over a roaring fire...whole lobes of foie gras...potato-truffle dinners...beautiful fish and basically whatever the hell we want. We had a guest ask us if we could prepare and present a special suckling pig with various accompaniments. Here is what we provided...silky wild mushroom "bisque"...creamy pumpkin risotto, tuscan evoo, shaved pecorino...artisan salumi(sweet coppa, spicy coppa, sopressata, tuscan wine salami, antelope andouille, prosciutto, spanish chorizo, spicy italian "chorizo", lomo, bresaola)...cougar gold cheese...cider cooked lentil salad...slow cooked piggy's...seasonal farmer's vegetables...bourbon-orleans mustard jus...dark chocolate molten cake with brown sugar brulee. The sucklings were the show stopper though~ all the cooks and staff alike stopped by the table when we were stuffing and trussing them to see what they were about and to snap a quickie on their i-phone to send to a friend or significant other whom they knew would be probably grossing out and retching at the site. Whatever. We started with a rubbing of evoo, kosher salt, cracked black pepper and thoroughly embraced the inner cavity. Then, stuffed with apples, onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary, oregano, trussed and tied...we were ready for the oven. We started them this morning at 8am by a quick "skinny dip" in the deep fryer, then slow cooked at 200-225 all day long in the oven. Around 430pm or so, we started to baste with melted fats and moved into a hotter oven at 325. At 5-530, we basted some more with fats and started a "lacquer" of cider and back into a 350 oven until very succulent, fragrant and luscious! Hella good. So, out it came at 6pm and into a holding box to finish the lacquering. Broken down, it was out on the platter for ravaging by 730pm. As we sliced the sexy tender and delicate meat from one of the carcasses for presentation, we could not help but to nibble on what had became sheer heaven.