Editor's note: The following is one in a series of tailgating articles that will be posted weekly throughout the football season.SALT LAKE CITY — This article is going to chronicle in graphic detail how the Utah Pig Bus crew goes about putting on one of our cherished traditions, The Utah Pig Bus Pig Roast, so if you’re squeamish, hate bacon, think using centuries-old techniques to roast a whole animal is in anyway terrible, you should stop reading now.

And away we go! It’s pig roasting time! Call it what you will — a sacrifice to the football gods, a small token of our appreciation, or pure bribery to the forces of the universe to guide the tips, trips and flags in favor of our Utes, against one of the most important opponent we’ll face at home all season.

In our Mountain West Conference days, we used to reserve the pig roast for the home rivalry game against BYU, or in away-game years, the most high profile home opponent we faced. That was, at times, difficult given the roster of Cinderella’s stepsister teams that the Mountain West brought to Rice-Eccles Stadium. But since Utah entered the Pac-12, the reverse is true and we have half-dozen nationally ranked opponents to choose from for our porcine sacrifice.

It goes without saying that USC is consistently the 800-pound gorilla at the top of the Pac-12 South, and for that reason we’ve chosen to roast a pig during every home Utah/USC football game. It also helped that our first ever Pac-12 game was at USC and the crew from the Utah Pig Bus was treated with such epic kindness, class and warmth at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, that we strive to return the favor to our visiting USC faithful. Because of this budding tradition, we’ve also made some really cool USC friends (like USC Psycho) who hang out with us every year.

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In a previous article we talked about the many ways to cook a pig and about our very favorite pieces of equipment — the La Caja China roasting box. We’ve lost count of how many pigs we’ve cooked this way, and as we write this article we’re in the middle of unwrapping our third pig box. Needless to say, we’ve done enough of these to have a pretty good idea of what we’re doing, so without further ado and cuing up Montell Jordan, this is how we do it.

Step 1: Ordering the Pig

Salt Lake City has several places to order a whole hog, simply Google “Salt Lake City meat market”, and you’ll come up with a number of butchers who will be happy to order you a whole pig. Some are commercial butchers, so you may want to ask if they sell to the public. The other option is call the pig farm directly and ask if you can have one slaughtered for you to pick up. It usually takes a week to get a pig ordered, so plan ahead. Unlike the open-air market of Southeast Asia, you just can’t waltz in your local grocery store and ask for a whole hog. Speaking of Southeast Asia, some oriental grocery stores can also order you whole hogs and will even roast them for you. It’s a little different process and imparts different flavor, but variety is the spice of life.

Step 2: What to order?

We will usually order a 120-pound pig, butterflied, the legs chopped at the knees, and with the head cut off. Yes, it’s very mobster. In order for the pig to fit in the box, it has to be splayed out this way, so it fits between the racks that allow you to flip the pig during the cooking process. Roasting a pig in a La Caja China has been called the lazy man’s way of cooking a pig. You don’t have to continually spin or baste it, or worry about the meat evenly cooking. For the novice, they print the cooking instructions right on the side of the box, which can be extremely helpful after a long day in the tailgate lot.

Step 3: Picking up the pig

Plan ahead and use what some call a houseboat cooler, or as we affectionately call it a “coffin cooler.” You’ll be surprised at how large and bulky your fresh pig will be and keeping it on ice until your ready for prep is key. We usually pick up the pig the day before the game and allow for at least eight hours of brining. The brining element is really up to the roaster since there are plenty of opinions about whether to brine or not-brine, we’ve done both, and have found the brining process imparts a level of moisture and flavor you don’t get otherwise. Once you have your pig, make sure that you pack it in enough ice to keep under 40 degrees, but not so much as to freeze the pig. Resist the urgings of your friends and relatives to constantly uncover the pig. Everybody loves the spectacle of a whole hog.

NOTE: Trichinosis is not our 12th Man! We really can’t stress food safety enough when it comes to handling raw pork. Not only can you make yourself sick, but if you don’t carefully handle your meat, you can get a whole tailgate lot full of people as well. As current and former restaurateurs, we are well-versed on food-handling safety, but you don’t have to own a restaurant to know how to handle pork. Go to the USDA’s website and read up on food safety before you go wrassle with the raw pig.

Step 4: Brining prep

When we talk about brining a pig, we’re not talking about submerging it in a salt water mixture like you would your Thanksgiving turkey. A whole hog is just too large to attempt something like that. No, to brine a whole pig you’ve got to go with a commercial grade food injector. Basically a big old syringe, but with a needle large enough to allow the herbs in your brine to pass through. Again, this is up to the roaster. There are plenty of roasters who simply salt and pepper the meat and keep the pork flavor pure. Roasting a whole hog in the roasting box almost assures that the meat will come out moist because it utilizes a convection cooking process where the meat is braised in its own steamy juices, so if injecting the hog isn’t your thing, you don’t have to worry about it getting too dry.

Our Utah Pig Bus brine recipe is a closely held secret, but the standard brine (mojo) recipe recommended by La Caja China for a whole pig is:

• 3 cups orange juice
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons oregano
• 4 tablespoons bay leaves
• 4 garlic bulbs
• 4 teaspoon cumin
• 16 teaspoons salt
• 16 ounces of water
• 16 ounces of pineapple juice (optional)

Mix all the ingredients and let it sit for a minimum of one hour. Strain the brine and inject the liquid in to the meat using the syringe. This is best if done the night before.

And with that, you’re ready to roast. In next week’s exciting episode we’ll show you pics from this weekend’s pig roast and the Utah vs USC blackout game!

We’ll keep writing about tailgating as the season rolls on, and we’d love to answer any questions you might have. Visit www.utahpigbus.com for more info or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!

Welby Evangelista (@utahpigbus) and Ryan Lufkin (@ryanLufkin)

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