The New Year brings hopes, dreams, and resolutions for a brighter future. One of
Parties That Cook’s resolutions for 2011: We will aim to give more insight into our team. We want to give you an opportunity to get to know PTC!

Since our last guest post was a hit, we thought it would be great to try again! Today’s guest blogger, Chef Jill Klein, is a wonderful lead chef for some of our San Francisco/Bay Area events! This past weekend, Jill and Susanne C. took on the task of hosting a pig roast. With a little help from their friends, they pulled off a complete success!

Susanne ordered a suckling pig from Golden Gate Meat Co. a day before they closed for the holidays. We took what they had: a 33lb teenager. The pig was brought in, being held over the shoulder like you hold a toddler, and we quickly named her “Piglet”. Neither Susanne nor I have a dirt backyard, so we decided it would have to be spit roasted –not buried. I called (PTC Chef) John Silva for a hand holding session on how to build a pit. He drew a picture, scanned it and emailed it to me. Off I went to Home Depot with a giddy, can-do feeling!

We Googled the trussing and roasting details. Susanne planned a menu of truffled mac n cheese with rendered duck fat brioche croutons, Asian slaw, cheddar cheese biscuits and maple bacon donuts. Brilliant! I still wanted banana cream pie. And there would be pig product in everything. We sure would be packing in one final feast before going back to “normal” on Monday.

Our slaw dressing was made with coriander, ginger, jalapenos and bacon drippings.

The banana cream pie custard was finished with bacon drippings.

Donuts in the making.

Susanne’s Maple Bacon Donuts!

We brined Piglet for two days and then began the truss on Sunday at 9:00am. We sewed the rebar (reinforcing bar) to the spine with bailing twine to prevent the spit from spinning without Piglet.
Side Note: I was talking pig with “a guy” at Four Barrel about the next day’s culinary adventure. He volunteered to make a couple of prongs to keep piglet from spinning on the spit. He said he would drop them off the next morning, and when I saw him my jaw dropped! He told me he got a little bit carried away… He fabricated an entire stainless steel rotisserie! I didn’t even know his name (Dennis); only his dog’s name (Mikey). The rotisserie is a beautiful piece of art. Though he delivered his gift a bit too late to implement, we will use it for the next pig roast!

At about 9:30am we built the fire

Then we stuffed Piglet and resumed trussing while the coals burned.
She went on at around 10:30am and cooked until 4:00pm.

Piglet was very good to us. We felt like pioneer women!
Learning Point: We ran between the pit and kitchen trying to get everything ready.
Next time someone just sits at the fire-pit, drinking wine and watching the burn.

Susanne named the party Piggin’ Out in 2011 to be hosted by “the fooduchie and thetalldrink”. We invited 40 people four days before the event, using John’s drawing as our invite.
Almost everyone showed up and pigged out!