A couple of weeks ago, Kacie Hollenbeck, a good friend and owner of Wine and Cheese Company and Krema Coffee, reached out to me to ask if I would be interested in doing a pig roast for an upcoming fundraiser for The H Foundation at her Wine and Cheese location in Downtown Plainfield, IL.
The H Foundation’s goal is to make a difference in the fight against cancer by raising funds for cancer research. The Goombay Bash at Wine and Cheese was put together quickly by Kacie Hollenbeck, Jose Torres, and Joseph LaGiglia. All three of these individuals are pillars of the Plainfield community when it comes to community outreach.
So you can imagine the pressure of committing to something I have never before, but that didn’t stop me from giving Kacie and Jose my personal guarantee that I would be there and do the pig roast to be a part of this amazing event. After that conversation I went into research mode aka YouTube.
The first part of my research was to find out how big of a pig would fit on one of my smokers that would feed the amount of people they had coming. The answer…a 40 pounder. Then I found out what was the best way to smoke a whole hog. I was looking for a simple and straightforward way to do it. I found that setting up the pig in what is termed, “the racing style,” was the most effective way.
Next step was figuring out how to source a whole pig. I’ve not ever done it before. I reached out to Ron Snell, my sales rep with Performance Foods, to ask how to do this, and also if it was possible to have it donated for the event. I was already committed to donating my time, cooking fuel, and other side dish items to ensure that the money raised went straight back to the organization.
Ron came through in a big way, he donated the pig and drove all the way up to Alsip, IL to pick it up personally and deliver it to me at the restaurant. Amazing testimony of the community of business owners and operators coming together.
Then the night of Saturday July 13, 2024 came. The night before the event. I was nervous. Lots of pressure on myself because I wanted this to turn out great. It was something I have never done before. I fired up the smoker to preheat at 200 degrees. I wrestled a bit to get the pig out of the packaging and placed it on the smoker, but I did it. I set it up in the racing style and shut the lid.
I checked on it every couple of hours to make sure things were progressing well. At 7:00 am I turned up the smoker to 250 degrees to finish the cook. I removed the cooked pig at 10:30 am and placed it in a cooler to transport to the event where I would shred it and have it ready for the 12:00 pm start time.
The pig turned out great. The meat was tender and perfectly cooked. I took a big sigh of relief and it felt good to have had a new challenge and accomplished it.
But most importantly, the event was a huge success. It was incredible how a group of business owners and the community came together for a common cause to help fight against cancer, the thing that has affected all of us in some capacity in our lives.
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