Holy smokes! Episode 7. I can’t believe we’ve made it this far on Food Network’s competition series Pitmasters. The competition keeps getting more intense for Susie (Hey Grill Hey) and I. Check out this week’s challenges.
As always, we’re sharing our recipes, so you can make them at home.
The Big Burn: Whole Hog
It’s a new day. We’ve made it to the final three. The final three! Like wow! I am so proud of Susie and I.
At this point, we are both so tired (and in desperate need of a shower), but there is no stopping on Pitmasters. It’s time for the next Big Burn. This time, we have nine hours to cook a whole hog plus some sides that will complement the meat.
As soon as they said whole hog, I was like wait what? We already did that. But the rules this time are that the hog has to stay whole. Not like in Episode 4 where we had to break it down.
Man was I stoked. I’ve probably cooked a dozen whole hogs in my life, so I felt really good about this. We had a strategy right away. We ran to the pantry, grabbed our pig and carried it back to our station.
SIDE NOTE: Our pig wasn't technically a hog. It was just a suckling pig that weighed maybe 30 pounds. A hog usually weighs over 120 pounds.
There were basically two options for cooking this pig. We could either build a cinder block pit and create an oven environment, or we could cook it over live fire on an asado cross.
The asado cross was a no-brainer. That’s my favorite way to do this. Plus, it puts on a much better show.
We started breaking down the hog and tying it to the cross, following the technique I learned from world champion Marcio Borguezan of Hog Addiction. Then, we propped it by the fire and started making the basting sauce, which had flavors inspired by Filipino adobo.
The hardest part about this cook was going to be managing the fire and accounting for the elements (wind, cold, possibly rain). We were taking a huge risk cooking the pig in the open like this. And the judges saw that. We could hear their reaction from our cook station.
“I’m very very shocked that they’re doing that,” said Ernest. Jess and Andrew echoed his reluctance.
But Big Moe had our back. “As far as flavor, I love cooking over coals like that,” he said. “I would take that all day long. There is nothing that puts flavor like that.”
Flash Burn: Lunch for the Judges
We were just about to start on our sides, when a Flash Burn dropped. The judges didn’t want to wait for the hogs to finish. So they placed lunch orders. We ended up with Ernest’s request for chicken wings, but I gotta share how this really went down.
This wasn’t a normal Flash Burn where they announce one type of dish to make. Instead, they just shared that they wanted lunch and started rattling off their orders. We were focusing on the pig, so we did our best to try to catch all the details.
I quickly grabbed my notebook and started writing down the orders. Ernest’s order was first, so I didn’t quite get it all. I jotted down seasoned chicken wings, not too saucy. Andrew was simpler. He just said meatball sub. Moe wanted a pork burger with feta, onion and garlic.
When we were assigned the wings, Susie and I knew that her smoked fried wings would be fantastic. She sells a whole Hey Grill Hey Wing Kit for this process. She smoked the wings straight over the coals and then tossed them in her crispy chicken wing batter. Then, in a total clutch move, she fried them in beef tallow.
Another Flash Burn: Perfect Ribeye for Jess
I was watching the pig while Susie managed the wings. And then Jess reminded us that she hadn’t put in her order yet. She dropped a second Flash Burn, giving us 30 minutes to cook a perfect medium rare ribeye steak with a really nice hard-seared crust.
I took the lead on this one and kept it simple with kosher salt and black pepper. I knew Jess is a meat purist, so I didn’t want to go fancy. After a quick trim, I wrapped some twine around the steak to help keep it together, and then I set it over indirect heat to get some smoke until Susie was done with the wings.
As soon as the wings came off, I threw it straight over the coals to get that hard sear. Temp was perfect. I was feeling good, but I thought maybe I should add just a touch more to it, so I topped it with some butter and plated it up.
Judging
Jess said it was cooked really well, but added that she prefers her steaks butter-free because she prefers to taste the beef tallow. She also said that the water content in the butter impacted my sear.
They didn’t show this on camera, but Andrew absolutely loved my steak. He had glowing reviews and said it was the best steak.
I thought I maybe had it because the other steaks were undercooked and loaded with even more flavors like butter, garlic and herbs. But Jess said it wasn’t about taste. She said it was about sear and doneness, so we didn’t get the win.
Susie’s wings were a hit, but also a miss. Apparently, Ernest wanted grilled wings. We didn’t hear that part of the request at all, or we would have skipped the frying. But he did say they had a lot of flavor and were juicy.
He said we probably would have had it had we not fried them. Ugh!!! This competition is so hard. We wanted to win that Flash Burn money so bad, but it was time to get back to our pig.
Finishing the Whole Hog
We spent nearly 2 hours focusing on the Flash Burn, so our pig and fire got a little neglected. The clock was ticking and the pig looked fantastic, but the hams and shoulders were still far from hitting 180 and above.
We added more wood and dropped it closer to the fire to try to speed up the cooking while we made our sides.
The first side was a grilled pineapple Hawaiian coleslaw. The fresh acidic bite pairs really well with a fatty smoked hog. For the second side, we made Marcio’s garlic rice. He taught me how to make this recipe the same day he showed me how he breaks down a hog.
I haven’t added the recipe to the site yet, but to make it you heat mayonnaise in a Dutch oven. Then, you sauté a lot of garlic and some red peppers. Once those are tender, you add the rice and cook it for about 60 seconds. Then, you cover it all with water.
Don’t cover the pot. This is the secret. Instead, let the rice absorb the water and wait for it to bubble like porridge. He calls the bubbles worm holes. Once that happens, then you cover the pot to finish cooking. The film crew loved the rice and couldn’t stop eating it.
For our final side, we whipped up a vinegar-soy dipping sauce. It’s the same sauce I use for my chicken lumpia.
Time is almost up
The sides were ready, but the pig was not. I was starting to panic. We knew the hams had to be perfect to make it to the next round. So we did a quick pivot and took the pig off of the stand and moved it straight over the coals, resting on the cinder blocks.
We loaded coals under the pig to try to get as much heat on it as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t shown on camera, but this was the point where I cracked. I wanted to turn in a perfect whole hog so badly. I went out on BBQ Brawl during the whole hog challenge, and the same thing happened to Susie on her season of BBQ Brawl.
We wanted whole hog redemption. And I wanted to prove the asado doubters wrong, but without buttery hams and shoulders we wouldn’t be able to do that.
As the clock ticked, we had to take our hog off the fire. We transferred it to our platter, and as soon as we set it on the banana leaves, you could hear the skin crackle. That was a beautiful sound. We added our sides and some fresh flowers and walked the hog to the judges.
Judging
As the judges pulled out the tenderloin, they were really enjoying each bite. Andrew liked the Filipino adobo-inspired baste that we used. Jess complimented the composed bite with the rice and dipping sauce.
But then, Ernest broke into the shoulder. There was resistance. The hams were also tight. Jess said it just needed more time.
But Ernest said the crackling was about as perfect as it gets. “Oh baby, that’s good!” he said. Jess later told me that she had to pull the boys from our pig because they couldn’t stop eating the skin.
Well, this was the end for Susie and me. We had the lowest score. Andrew sent us off with some beautiful words: “Your shoulders and your hams were a little firm, but man those flavors were absolutely fantastic and you’ve given us superb work, it’s really been an honor,” he said.
In a way, Susie and I were relieved that we didn’t have to cook a 5-course meal right away. We were so exhausted. That was the most physically and mentally draining thing I have ever done.
But we left with our heads held so freakin high. Two backyard cooks stood up against some incredible pitmasters, including Michelin-recommended restaurant chefs. We cooked food that our families love, and we cooked with our heart and soul.
And most importantly, we cooked dishes that you can repeat and make in your backyards. For us, sharing food is about more than showing off fancy cooking techniques. It’s about explaining the process, so you can be part of it and make it your own.
We hope that we’ve done that through the show and through this series of recipe roundups. We appreciate your support so much, and we can’t wait to see you cook up some of these dishes.
FUNNY SIDE NOTE: A couple weeks after we finished filming Pitmasters, Susie and I were together again at Memphis in May, and cooked another whole hog with our girl Carla. There were no judges, no Flash Burns and the pig turned out perfect! We still got it 🙂
Watch the Finale
Catch the final episode of Pitmasters Monday at 9/8c on Food Network, or streaming the next day on HBO Max.
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