Setting up the spit under cover.
Every August, my cousin Leif and I roast a whole pig. We buy it from a local butcher and cook it for about nine hours over hickory that we've chopped and dried just for our annual roast. We get a keg of beer and invite everyone we know to join us. In years past we've had close to a hundred guests, and this year would have been no exception--but for a hurricane.
The impressive (and, as it turned out, justified) media buildup to last weekend's inclement weather convinced all but nine guests to stay home. I fielded a lot of phone calls from invitees wondering if the festivities were still on. Short answer: they were.
We named the pig Irene.
And the roast was as fun (and the food as delectable) as ever. Leif made German-style potato salad and a huge pot of baked beans. We ate hickory-roasted pig until our guts about burst. Then we ate some more. After a few hours, I carved the remaining meat off the animal--enough to fill a dozen large containers. The nine well-fed souls who braved the storm will be eating leftover pork for a long, long time.
But after tacos and sandwiches (and hash and chili), what does one do with another 50 pounds of leftover pig?
Irene, you did right by us.
Meatloaf recipes generally call for ground raw meat. But if you find yourself with plenty of cooked meat, it makes a great addition to the mixture. In fact, the textural counterpoint of the ground raw and the shredded cooked meats makes for an outstanding meatloaf that's reminiscent of the finest French country pâté. You can use any meat: chicken, turkey, braised beef, you name it. Just shred it and mix it with a pound of ground raw meat, some milk-soaked breadcrumbs, a couple of eggs, and some cooked vegetables. But be smart about it. Choose your accompanying ingredients based on the type of cooked meat you're using.
Let's say you're using cooked turkey; you might add ground pork to make up for the low-fat bird and dried seasoned stuffing instead of breadcrumbs--and you'd have a Thanksgivingloaf.
I wanted to make something extra special with our leftover roast pig. So instead of plain ground pork, I added bratwurst sausage meat that I'd slipped out of the casings, along with some caramelized onions and a little McCutcheon's BBQ sauce. The outcome was a cross between pulled pork BBQ and game-day smoked brats--the best of all possible pigs.
BBQ Pigloaf
6-8 servings
INGREDIENTS
1 cup freshly ground breadcrumbs
1/2 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. rendered bacon fat or extra-virgin olive oil
3 large onions, sliced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup BBQ sauce, plus more for serving
1 lb. bratwurst sausage, casings removed
3 cups shredded cooked pork
PREPARATION
Soak breadcrumbs in milk.
Melt rendered fat in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Add onions, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are deep golden-brown, 30-40 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Let onion mixture cool to warm.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Work onion mixture together with breadcrumb mixture, eggs, BBQ sauce, sausage, and shredded pork. Place mixture in a 1 1/2-qt. loaf pan and bake until cooked through, 45-60 minutes. Let pigloaf cool slightly, then remove from pan and serve with additional BBQ sauce.
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