Pitmaster Tips on How to Go Whole Hog and Barbecue an Entire Pig at Home

— -- A backyard barbecue is one thing. Roasting an entire pig in your backyard is entirely another. It can seem intimidating, even impossible, but pitmaster Pat Martin swears it’s not.

Martin runs four eponymous barbecue joints in the Nashville area dedicated to whole hog cookery, and he’s been at it for 25 years. Safe to say he knows a thing or two about cooking some pig.

“Whole hog barbecue is dying because it’s so labor intensive,” Martin told ABC News. “I’m trying to keep that alive, but in Nashville, so I’ve got a whole hog pit in the middle of the dining room of my restaurants.”

Martin and his pitmasters spend 22 to 24 hours constantly watching and turning the 175-pound pigs, which end up feeding up to 250 people once pulled into sandwiches and plates.

“There are so many variables in barbecues; you have to be able to read your fire. There are so many things you only get by feel and just doing it,” he said. “It’s just repetition.”

Don’t let that turn you away from trying at home, though. Martin insists it can be done and shared his top tips to make it happen.

Think Small: “I’d buy a smaller 50-pound pig, which yields about 15 to 20 pounds of meat, so that’s about 70 or so sandwiches,” Martin advised. That should be plenty of food for you and all your friends!

Season Simply: “Season it with salt or a rub on it. Usually we’ll just use kosher salt and that’s it,” he said. The pork itself has so much flavor that he said it’s all you need.

Cook With Indirect Heat Only: “Build a little pit and set three to four reinforcing bars over it and lay the pig on top of that. Build about 30 inches of campfire flame off to the side -- that fire is how you're feeding your cooking process so that fire needs to never die -- and put the charcoals underneath. You don’t want flames; just radiant heat coming from coals,” he explained.

Flip Out, in a Good Way: “You’ll flip that guy every 45 minutes and it’ll be done in three or four hours. You know it’s done when the bones in the shoulders have no resistance whatsoever,” Martin said.

Make it Easier on Yourself: “My real recommendation though is to buy a caja china online. They’re very affordable and they are so easy to use for small pigs,” he said. “This would be the easiest way. You just stick them in the box, except the heat source is from the top not the bottom, and it takes about three and a half hours to cook and it’s awesome.”