A Filipino party isn’t a party without Lechon. There’s always that audible gasp of excitement the moment guests spot the bronze, glistening pig on the table. Without a doubt, it’s the star of the show. Lechon has a distinct light and crispy skin, and the meat itself is full of flavor that comes from the lemongrass and other seasonings. And most importantly, the crackling of that crisp skin is just music to my ears.
You can always order out, or you can go the extra mile– even if that means roasting it yourself.
Before anything else, remember these safety rules when roasting pig: Pig Roasting and Food Safety
ALSO READ: Lechon Pork Belly Recipe
Building A Water-Powered Lechon Spit Roast
Roasting a whole pig is not easy. It might take a little blood, definitely a lot of sweat, and maybe some tears.
Looking through the internet, the lowest price for a pork spit roaster comes at PHP30,000 (<>$590). It will take around 3-4 hours of constantly rotating the pig for a nice, even browning. Who was the time (and money) for that?
There are a few articles of people making their own automatic spit roasts from scratch. What’s even more amazing is how they were able to make it using natural resources– saving electricity.
I found one that seemed the easiest to recreate: a water-powered spit roast using a wheel with beer cans.
It should look like this:
Video: ForkNFarm Artisan Homestead
Seems doable. All you need is a few scrap materials and some space in your backyard for the roasting. I started with a small pig for this experiment, just to see if the rig would work. Here’s the list of materials I used:
Materials:
- 1 whole pig for roasting
- 9 empty beer cans
- drum for collecting water
- bicycle wheel
- stainless steel rod
- iron stand
- charcoal with base
- steel wire
- water hose
Preparing the Pig
- soy sauce
- fish sauce
- pepper
- 1 onion
- 15 cloves garlic
- lemongrass – crushed
- pandan
See how it turned out!
Watch the video below to see how it turned out!
Other ways to build your own spit roast
Pig Roasting, Spit Style – This article shows you how to roast a pig using concrete blocks as your spit.
The Windscreen Wiper Hog Roaster – This one needs a bit more effort and some welding experience, but works great too!
Solar Powered Pig Roaster – This one even uses solar power to make their automatic pig roaster!
Would you try this at home? Share it in the comments!
