Cebu Lechon Image Used Under Creative Commons License From generals-lechon.com
My Citizens, I am very excited to share the first international recipe for the week of “Divine Swine”! Specifically, 7 whole hog dishes in honor of the upcoming Chinese New Year of the Earth Pig! Prepare to launch your tastebuds to DEFCON 1 with this unmatched delicacy straight from the Philippines!
Ok, with all that out of the way, let’s at last talk about the Filipino roast pig – one of the finest versions of whole hog cooking you’ll ever find and one that is optimized for small pigs (as opposed to the behemoth NC-style hogs used in competitive BBQ)!
In most regions of the Philippines, lechón (also spelled litson or lichon) is prepared throughout the year for special occasions, festivals, and the holidays. There are two major types of preparing lechon the Philippines, the “Manila lechon” (or “Luzon lechon”), and the “Cebu lechon” (or “Visayas lechon”).
Visayan lechon is prepared stuffed with herbs which usually include scallions, bay leaves, black peppercorn, garlic, salt, and distinctively tanglad (lemongrass), among other spices. A variant among Hiligaynon people also stuffs the pig with batuan or binukaw (Garcinia binucao). It is usually cooked over charcoal made from coconut husks. Since it is already flavored with spices, it is served with minimal dipping sauces, like salt and vinegar or silimansi (soy sauce, calamansi, and labuyo chili).
Luzon lechon on the other hand, is typically not stuffed with herbs. When it is, it is usually just salt and pepper. Instead, the distinctiveness of Manila lechon comes from the liver-based sauce, known as the “lechon sauce”. Lechon sauce is made from vinegar, brown sugar, salt, pepper, mashed liver (or liver spread), breadcrumbs, garlic and onion. Manila lechon is also typically cooked over woodfire.
Most lechon can either be cooked based on the two main versions, or mix techniques from both. Both variants also rub salt or spices unto the skin to make it crispier, as well as continually baste the lechon as it cooks. Sometimes carbonated drinks may also be used.
They are cooked on a bamboo spit over charcoal for a few hours with constant (traditionally manual) turning. The pig is roasted on all sides for several hours until done. The process of cooking and basting usually results in making the pork skin crisp and is a distinctive feature of the dish.
Leftover parts from the lechon, such as the head and feet, are usually cooked into another popular dish, lechon paksiw. Like lechon itself, lechon paksiw also differs based on whether it is prepared Luzon-style or Visayas-style, with the former using liver sauce as an essential ingredient, while the latter does not.
As noted on choosephilippines.com:
Cebu is one of the oldest towns in the Philippines. With a rich historical past, Cebu’s history goes way beyond 439 years ago when the island became a province at the start of the Spanish colonization.
If you’re a History junkie this claim is evident when you visit its heritage sights such as old churches and ancestral houses, tourist attractions like the Magellan’s cross and Lapu-lapu shrine, and the city proper itself.
Cebu celebrates its annual Sinulog Festival with colorful parades and street parties in honor of the miraculous image of the Santo Niño. A not to be missed event in the Philippines every month of January! Pit Senyor!
Cebu is the home of the best lechon makers and purveyors of the Philippines. In every grand occasion, the star and the center piece of Filipino buffets is lechon. The word “lechon” came from the Spanish term that refers to a roasted suckling pig. Lechon is a skewered whole pig roasted over charcoal, a popular dish in the Philippines. The production of lechon is a thriving business in Cebu.
Please do try and use genuine Filipino ingredients in this recipe, including their unique soy sauce! You will be assuredly rewarded with one of the finest whole hog recipes you’ve ever tried! 🙂 (and optional) ingredients if you’re so inclined to follow my lead – either way, my changes are noted in the recipe below.
1 whole young pig, about 27 lbs. cleaned (live weight about 44 pounds)
salt and black pepper to taste
Silver Swan soy sauce
***
For basting:
1liter 7 Up
1liter diluted evaporated milk made from 3 parts evaporated milk + 1 part coconut water (TFD change, original recipe used just regular water)
Oil
***
For the stuffing:
10 lemongrass stalks, each cut in 1/2 and tied together in a bundle
1/4cup whole star anise, then ground to a powder in a spice grinder
1/4cup bay leaf powder
5cups crushed garlic cloves
4 1/2pounds scallions, minced
1cup minced celery leaves (TFD addition)
1 1/2cups ginger paste (TFD addition)
10 peeled plantains (half-cooked through boiling)
1/8cup coarsely cracked white peppercorns (TFD addition)
1/8cup coarsely cracked black peppercorns (TFD addition)
1/8cup turmeric powder (TFD addition)
1 tbsp. MSG (Optional but recommended TFD addition)
Instructions
Cleaning: Rinse the pig and clean the inside, wash and scrub the lumps of blood inside the cavity until thoroughly clean.
Pat it dry and rub the pig with salt and pepper from inside and out. Brush the inside cavity with soy sauce.
First, wash all work surfaces with hot water and soap. If your surface is too difficult to wash, cover it with a tarp and wash the tarp.
Remove the pig from the body bag.
Take the pig and insert the spit rod into one end – it doesn’t matter which on most spits. Slide the rod through it’s open body cavity and out the hole on the other side.
If your spit is much larger than 1″ in diameter then you will understand why we asked the butcher to break the hip bones – in order to slide out the back of the pig.
Slide the pig into position along the spit until you’ve got it centered in place. Remember to leave room for the legs to get tied in front and in back of the pig.
With the pig in place and the chest cavity facing up, it’s time to stuff the pig. Remember that the more you put inside the pig, the more mass there is to cook, and that means the greater the chance that the meat will dry out or the skin will over-crackle while you’re waiting for the center to come to temperature.
Stuff the belly with a thoroughly-mixed stuffing (except the lemongrass). Put the bundle of lemongrass in the center of the pig on top of the other stuffing ingredients. Close the pig up by stitching the belly.
Start at one end and simply sew the pig shut all the way to the other. You can use a variety of stitches to close the pig, but what’s easiest to me is just to grab the two laters of skin, hold them together like a fabric seam, and stitch them together using big looping stitches.
Use a giant sewing needle for meat for this step – trust me. Stitch it well so that ingredients will not spill out when you start to roast it.
These lightly-edited directions from amazingribs.com are perfect as to how to set up the pit:
Before you start operating on the patient, fire up your pit and get it up to 225°F and stabilized. Start the fire by crumpling at least six sheets of newspaper and placing them in the bottom of the wheelbarrow or grill. Squirt some cooking oil on them, not charcoal fluid. Dump one 18 pound bag of charcoal on top and light the newspaper in several locations.
I recommend charcoal briquets because they ignite easily, burn steadily, and they are consistent batch to batch. Read more about your fuel options in my article on the Science of charcoal.
When they are covered in a thin layer of ash, shovel them off to the side of the pit, but never under the space where the hog will lie. You want to cook this baby with convection heat flowing up and around it rather than under it. Put a few extra coals in the four corners so the hams and shoulders get a bit more heat.
You can use hardwood, but you need to burn it down to glowing embers. Don’t put raw logs onto the fire. After about 10 minutes, use your shovel to shuffle the coals around so they all light evenly. When the coals are ready, shovel them into the four corners of the pit with a little extra at the end where the hams will go.
Getting the temp right, and keeping it there is tricky. If you can do a dry run the day before, without the hog, that would be ideal. Set a probe on the cooking grate in the center and walk away for at least 30 minutes. Shoot for 225° but you will not suffer if it runs up to about 250°F.
Constantly glaze pig while it slowly roasts – first with 7 Up in the first 2 hours, then with diluted milk for the remaining cook time, using a sponge for both. The 7 Up glaze will make the skin extra crispy and the diluted milk will give the skin a red color.
Occasionally brush the skin with oil to help it achieve its characteristic shine. Roast for about 3 to 4 hours until the meat is tender. Do not overcook! Watch the ears and snout closely towards the end – if they start to brown too fast, wrap them in foil.
Test the meat temp in several spots including the thickest part of the thigh, you want it about 185°F. No harm will be done if you go over or under 10°F but try to keep it in 180-185 range. The meat will continue to carryover cook when you remove it from the pit. Keep an eye on the skin. There’s a lot of fat under it and if it springs a leak you could have an inferno. Don’t let it burn. (TFD note – this paragraph was cribbed and slightly modified from the great site amazingribs.com).
After it is roasted, you can now chop it and serve to your guests or have it brought whole to the grand table
TFD also likes to eat the stuffing mixture (but discard the lemongrass).
Prep Time:0 hours
Cook Time:0 hours
How useful was this post, Citizen?
Click to rate My Recipe, Citizen - 5 hearts are ALWAYS appreciated!
Average rating / 5. Vote count:
No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.
As you found this post useful...
Follow us on social media, Citizen!
We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!
You have to give a lot of effort in the whole process of roasting a pig. From dissecting up to roasting is hard. We need at least 5 persons to make one. Kudos to those Lechon maker especially in Cebu where Lechon is popularized. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Be advised that as an enlightened Dictatorship here at TFD, we are indeed on the side of right when it comes to protecting the privacy of TFD Nation!
We do use technologies such as cookies to store and/or access device information, solely to improve your browsing experience and to show personalized ads.
Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions - trust us, we really ARE on your side!
YOUR LOYALTY IS NOTED!
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
You have to give a lot of effort in the whole process of roasting a pig. From dissecting up to roasting is hard. We need at least 5 persons to make one. Kudos to those Lechon maker especially in Cebu where Lechon is popularized. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
It’s my great pleasure – thank you for taking the time to comment, Citizen Megan! 😀