Cooking Pink Plump Pigs

History

Every country has their own delicacy that every family expects for big occasions. For example, the U.S has turkey for thanksgiving, Hispanics make tamales for Christmas, but in the Philippines we have a little something called lechon (leh – chohn).

The Philippines has been making lechon for centuries. Dated back to the 16^th century it was brought by the Spaniards when colonizing the great archipelago. Since then, lechon has been titled as a delicacy and even named the Philippines national dish for its savory taste, crunchy skin, and its longevity. The dish has been then made its way to other parts of the world more specifically island states or countries. In Hawaii it is called suckling pig, in Indonesia they call it peurco. It is not as popular in these countries but today we will talk about the best place and best ways to make the savory dish.

How to make it

In the Philippines making lechon is a big deal. Personally, I have only made it twice with my dad and his brothers. I have got to say it is my favorite dish to eat and normally the first dish to finish. The dish is normally made fresh from farm to table and although it may take a while, every second is definitely worth it when you take that first bite.

To make this dish you:

1. Grab your pig and clean it by taking out the insides and save it all
2. Stuff your pig with seasoning and dry leaves to taste
3. Season the outside with salt for that extra crispy skin
   1. Optional: the Philippines national flavors are spicy and vinegar so normally we would drench the pig in vinegar and peppers but you can skip this step if your not a big fan of the taste
4. Start a pit roast with dry wood of your choice and let it burn to increase the heat
5. Set 2 posts one on each side of the fire to set the pig
6. Stick a metal rod through the ends of the pig and get help to place the rod onto the posts
7. Slowly but constantly rotate the pig to cook
8. As you cook the pig pour boiling hot water to make the skin more crispy
9. Keep rotating the pig until cully cooked. It may take around 4-5 and a half hours
   

   This is how lechon is made over a pit. By rotating the pig you create crispy skin along with a smoke flavor.

Sustainability

Being a pig farmer and a producer of lechon is a big deal in the Philippines. Filipinos use every part of the pig in order to save as much money and resources as possible. For example, the bones are used to make soup and broth. The blood and intestines can be cleaned and used to make tripas (deep fried intestine) or even pig blood soup. Using every part of the pig is extremely sustainable because for every one pig that is consumed you get a plentiful amount of food that can last you weeks.

When growing pigs, the farmers make sure that their product is healthy because they not only feed it to their customers but also to their family and friends.  They don’t inject or buy supplements for the pigs in order to make them bigger, instead they decide to breed by size by gathering all the larger pigs in one area so they can breed naturally and not forcefully. By doing so they don’t stress the animal which can spoil food quickly, or make them sick but they also save plenty of money by not buying machines nor supplements to use on them. Everything is done by hand and not by large factories or machines. Sadly, the Philippines is a third world country, so by doing everything naturally they save their environment as much as possible and they don’t produce a large carbon footprint. The whole country of the Philippines produces about .35% of the worlds carbon emission and in farming alone it produces less than half of that.

        A close up picture of pigs in a farm

Since the farmers and employees are essentially the family selling and growing the pigs all proceeds go to them. This way they can make a living based on the farm and not have to resort to finding other jobs outside of the farm to sustain their family and barn. Most farms and barns are usually passed down to the oldest son or child depending on the family.

In order to feed the pigs and create a strong farm for animals as well as plants and crops, farmers usually rotate the animals feeding areas. Pigs eat grass, barely, corn, and wheat. By putting the pigs in an area where they had just gathered the fresh crops, the animals can eat left over corn that wasn’t big enough to sell, wheat that had been forgotten, grass that isn’t sold and more. By keeping the pigs in these areas there poop then turns into natural fertilizer and the cycle continues, from one harvested area to the next.

Blog written by: John M. Legaspi

Bibliography

Mahinay , J. (n.d.). Lechon – filipino fare at its finest. Lechon – Filipino Fare at its Finest. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from http://www.ohmag.la/en/oh-mag/features/item/240-lechon-filipino-fare-at-its-finest.html