Recipe, photo, how to cook

In Russian folk cuisine, there are three main varieties of meat second courses:

• boiled meat in a large piece, cooked in soups and gruels, and then used as a second course or as a cold snack;
• offal dishes (liver, omentum, abomasum), baked together with cereals in pots;
• dishes from a whole animal (poultry) or from a part of it (legs), or from a large piece of meat (rump, rump), roasted in an oven on a baking sheet - the so-called roast.

As side dishes for meat dishes of the Russian table, porridges and gruels were usually used, in which meat was boiled, then either boiled, or rather steamed and baked, root crops (turnips, carrots), as well as mushrooms; to the roast, regardless of the meat used, in addition, pickles were also served - sauerkraut, pickled and sour apples, pickled lingonberries and broths. In modern conditions, it is convenient to cook baked vegetables for Russian meat dishes in aluminum food foil. The role of gravy is usually performed by the juice formed during frying, as well as melted sour cream and melted butter, which are poured over boiled vegetables or flavored with cereals.

Milk pig in the oven: calories and useful properties

Widely known among meat dishes roasted suckling pig. This is a piglet, which at the time of slaughter fed on mother's milk and did not eat any other food. In Russia in the pre-Petrine era there was a ban on eating dairy animals. When eviscerated (the heart and liver remain), the suckling pig weighs from 1 to 5 kg. Most importantly, suckling pig is almost dietary. Its meat does not yet contain fatty layers.

The calorie content of a suckling pig is 109 kcal per 100 grams of product. The chemical composition includes: choline, vitamins A, B1, B2, B5, B6, B9, B12, C, D, E, H and PP, as well as minerals necessary for the human body: potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper and manganese, iron, chlorine and sulfur, iodine, chromium, fluorine, molybdenum, boron and vanadium, tin and titanium, silicon, cobalt, nickel and aluminum, phosphorus and sodium. Also, the meat of young piglets contains a large amount of protein.

How to cook suckling pig

There are many ways to cook pork. One of them - roast meat on a spit. It can also be baked in the oven or boiled. A common dish is suckling pig stuffed with various ingredients: buckwheat, rice, millet, corn and others.

Ingredients:

• 1 suckling pig (1.5 kg)
• 500 g buckwheat
• 50 g butter
• 2 tbsp. tablespoons of sunflower or olive oil.

Milk pig. Recipe

Wash the well-fed piglet with cold water, hold it in it for 3-4 minutes, then dip it in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, carefully pluck the bristles without damaging the skin, rub with flour, singe, then rip, gut, wash inside and out, after which it is desirable from the inside, cut out all the bones (ribs, spine), with the exception of the head and legs, in no case cutting through the meat and skin through.

Prepare cool buckwheat porridge, but do not flavor with anything other than butter. Before cooking, fry the grits with butter, scald with boiling water, separate the floating grains.

Season the cooked porridge with salt. Add fried and chopped pig liver to it, mix.

Lay the porridge along the piglet evenly throughout, so as not to distort its shape, avoiding thickening in some places, at the same time it is quite tight. Then sew the pig with a harsh thread, straighten the shape, bend the legs, put it on the baking sheet sideways on birch sticks arranged crosswise so that the skin of the pig does not touch the baking sheet. You can not salt or flavor with spices.

Coat the piglet with vegetable oil, pour melted butter on top and put in a preheated oven until browned. Then turn over and brown the other side. After that, reduce the heat and continue to fry, pouring the suckling juice over the pig every 10 minutes for 1 hour and turning it over alternately: fry with the back up for 15–20 minutes.

When the piglet is ready, make a deep incision along its back so that steam comes out of the piglet. In this case, the crust will remain dry and crispy. Let stand for 15 minutes, cut into pieces (or leave whole), pour over the juice remaining after frying and serve with cranberry broth.

Dinner Angel!

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The suckling pig in the oven is an original, spectacular, tasty and hearty festive dish that is served for a birthday, wedding, anniversary, new year. The delicacy can be prepared according to the classic recipe - without filling, or stuffed with vegetables, cereals with cheese or pieces of meat with sour apples, cranberries, prunes, nuts. The dish is baked in the oven or on a spit, whole or cut up.

Video recipe "How to cook a suckling pig"

Cooking process

A suckling pig is called a young three-month-old pig, still sucking the uterus. Due to this, the meat is tender, fragrant, soft, with a creamy taste.

Consider how to cook a dish yourself at home.

Ingredients

• piglet - 2.5 kilograms;
• butter - 80 grams;
• celery - 1 bunch;
• grain mustard - 40 grams;
• vegetable oil - 150 grams;
• semi-sweet red wine - 150 milliliters;
• balsamic vinegar - 30 grams;
• dried paprika - 5 grams;
• dry basil - 3 grams;
• soy sauce - 30 grams;
• cinnamon - 3 grams;
• black pepper (peas) - 5 grams;
• nutmeg - 3 grams;
• salt.

The recipe for cooking a pig in the oven

1. Process the carcass. Despite the fact that the piglet is usually sold gutted, sometimes it is necessary to clean it of roasting products and remove the remaining hairs. To do this, wipe the carcass with paper towels inside and rinse the outside.

   To make the meat evenly baked, make 4 - 6 shallow cuts from the inside.

2. Marinate the piglet. Recipe for meat soaking sauce: grind cinnamon, basil, nutmeg, peppercorns in a mortar, add semi-sweet red wine, paprika, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Lubricate the carcass with the resulting marinade inside and out, leave to soak for 40 minutes at room temperature.
3. Bake the meat. To evenly bake the pig on all sides, make sure that it does not fall on the barrel. To keep the carcass fixed, place a bottle wrapped in foil in the belly of the pig.

   Preheat the oven to a temperature of 190 degrees, grease the ears, tail, snout of the piglet with butter and wrap them in foil so that they do not burn. Prepare a baking dish: put vegetable (olive or sunflower) oil on the bottom of the baking sheet, lay out the celery stalks in the form of a grid. Lay on top of the abdominal part of the suckling pig.

   Cooking takes up to 2.5 hours. During the roasting process, pour the pork with the fried meat juice.

   To form a crisp, 20 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the foil from the muzzle, increase the temperature in the oven to 200 degrees.

Remember, the readiness of the pig is checked with a wooden toothpick: if, after a puncture, thick transparent juice oozes out of the hole, this indicates that the dish is ready.

The secret to the amazing taste of suckling pig

Apple mustard sauce will complement the taste of young pork. Its fruity notes successfully emphasize all the advantages of suckling pig.

How to prepare sauce?

1. Grind and fry in butter (50 grams) with the addition of mustard (up to 20 grams) two sweet apples and one onion.
2. Pour 100 milliliters of broth and dry white wine into the pan. Add 5 grams of honey, a pinch of salt. Boil the resulting mass until the liquid has evaporated by half.
3. Add cream to the mixture, bring to a boil, cook for 3 minutes until thickened.
4. Pour the finished apple-mustard sauce immediately into a gravy boat. Serve warm.

To give an aesthetic appearance, apply a mayonnaise net on the back of the pig, insert olives or olives into the eyes, ears, place a baked lemon in the mouth. Complete the dish with herbs and apple-mustard sauce.

People many centuries ago understood a lot about food. On the occasion of a big celebration, they tried to cook the most delicious and perhaps that is why a roasted pig often stood on the festive table of the kings. To appreciate this dish, you need to know how to cook it correctly.

The most natural option

At the time when cookbooks were just beginning to be published, there were no ovens or microwaves. Then the roasted pig could be prepared only in the most ancient way.

For this, a skewer and an open fire were used. Nowadays, this option is used during a picnic. From the products you will need the carcass of the animal itself, salt with spices or a pre-prepared marinade. All actions must be done clearly and in a timely manner:

1. First you need to make a fire and let the firewood burn out.
2. Before baking, the carcass must be prepared. This is easy to do in two ways. First, marinate. Secondly, rub with salt and seasonings.
3. Then take the prepared carcass and put it on a skewer. You should start with the tail. The rod must pass near the spine so that the piglet does not turn.
4. Set the skewer with the pig on the stand and do not forget to turn it periodically. Otherwise, a bubble may form on the skin, which, bursting, will spoil the appearance of the dish.

A roasted pig is considered ready when the knife will easily pass through the meat to the very bones, and blood will not ooze from the hole formed.

Meat without frills

The meat dishes prepared in the villages are very tasty. In the villages, the hostesses acted in this way only:

1. Before starting work, the carcass had to be sprinkled with flour and singeed so that no bristles remained on it.
2. After this, the piglet needs to be cleaned, freed from the insides and marinated for 5-6 hours. As a brine, a solution is suitable, which includes salt, vinegar, pepper, bay leaf, spices, as well as garlic or onions.
3. Then the carcass must be laid on a metal sheet. Today there is a pan for this. From above, it is better to coat the skin with vegetable oil, and wrap the ears and patch with foil.
4. The cooking process takes at least 3 hours. During this time, it is necessary to constantly monitor the condition of the upper layer, watering it with the secreted juice.

The baked pig is very tender and fragrant. Before serving, it can be decorated with fresh herbs, vegetables or fruits. Any of these options will be successful.

Cuisines of different countries

Interestingly, a whole roasted piglet is considered a signature and almost national dish. It is served in all cafes and restaurants. There is even a separate quarter in the city where such meat is prepared in large quantities. It can be ordered through the store, which is located on the back side of the establishment. Roasting is done on a spit.

Mostly carcasses of animals weighing from 5 to 10 kilograms are used. First, they are cleaned and washed thoroughly. The meat must be clean. After that, generously rub with a mixture of ground pepper, sea salt and garlic. quite successful. Then the carcass is put on a spit and roasted for several hours right over hot coals. The process is monitored by a special worker who periodically rotates the skewers. The meat is very soft, and the crust is brightly colored and crispy. In Manila, such a dish is called "lechon". Every tourist considers it his duty to try it.

How to deal with milk pigs?

As a rule, a piglet is considered dairy, which is no more than two months old. At this time, he still drinks his mother's milk, so his meat is juicy and very tender. It usually has a specific smell that not everyone likes. The piglet smells of milk, which is why it is called so. Baked suckling pig is a real delicacy.

However, it is not at all difficult to prepare it. True, you will need many different ingredients. For one carcass weighing 2.5 kilograms: 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, grain mustard and balsamic vinegar, ½ cup of red wine, a bunch of celery, 140 g of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of peppercorns and paprika, a little salt and butter , as well as a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg and dry basil.

After all the products are assembled, the main process begins:

1. First, the carcass must be washed, dried with a towel, and then pricked from the inside with a sharp knife in several places.
2. Prepare the marinade from the rest of the ingredients. You need to start with solid components (walnut, pepper, cinnamon and paprika), rubbing them with a pestle in a mortar.
3. Coat the pig on all sides with the prepared mixture.
4. To keep the carcass in shape, you can insert a regular bottle wrapped in foil inside. Now it can be put in a baking sheet and left for 40 minutes to marinate.
5. After this, the piglet must be sent to the oven or oven.

In an hour and a half it will be completely ready.

Piglet in Georgian

In the East, meat is treated with great respect. The preparation of such a dish is a real ritual. For example, experienced Georgian chefs know many interesting recipes.

They can tell you how to bake a pig in the oven. To do this, you only need a carcass weighing up to five kilograms, 60 grams of butter and 5 tablespoons of adjika.

There is nothing unusual about this recipe:

1. First of all, you need to grind the oil with adjika until a thick, maximally homogeneous mass is formed.
2. Spread the washed and dried carcass with the prepared mixture, and then put on a baking sheet and put in the oven, which has already been preheated to 190-200 degrees.
3. During baking, the product should be constantly poured with juice, which runs down to the tray. Readiness can be determined with a long needle. You just need to pierce the pig in the shoulder area, where the layer of meat is the thickest. Juice should come out of the hole, not blood.

Now the finished pig can be taken out and transferred to a dish. To make it more convenient for guests, the meat can be cut into portions.

Recipe for every day

For home use, you can offer a recipe for baked piglet with minced meat. This method is very practical, since there is little meat in the pig itself.

For cooking, you need a carcass weighing a little more than one and a half kilograms, 35 g of sunflower and 50 g of animal oil, ½ kilogram of buckwheat, a tablespoon of flour, 100 g of honey and a little cranberry.

Cooking method:

1. Rinse the pig under water, and then lower it into boiling water to easily remove the hairs.
2. After that, singe, sprinkle with flour, and then wash clean.
3. Remove all bones (except legs and head).
4. Prepare minced meat. To do this, add salt and the insides of a pig fried with onions to the porridge cooked from buckwheat.
5. Fill the inside of the carcass with the prepared mixture and then sew up the incision with a dense thread.
6. Coat the workpiece with vegetable oil, and then with butter.
7. After that, carefully lay it on a baking sheet and put it in the oven for 1.5 hours.
8. Turn the pig on the other side and leave for another hour. Piglet and ears must be covered with foil.
9. Make a small incision on the back of the finished product to let the steam out.
10. As a sauce, prepare a mixture of cranberries, honey and flour. To do this, it must be boiled over low heat until thickened.

On the table, this dish will look very beautiful.

Photos to help

The first time cooking is always difficult. What should the hostess do if she does not know how a roasted pig is made? The photo in this case will help to control the work at each stage.

First you need to stock up on products. You will need a pig weighing 5 kg, pepper, garlic, salt and sour cream (or cream).

Now you can start work:

1. From grated garlic, salt and pepper, prepare a mixture with which to rub the washed carcass of the piglet on all sides.
2. After that, the outside is well coated with sour cream.
3. Transfer the product to a greased baking sheet or into a mold.
4. Send to the oven for a couple of hours. More time may be needed. Readiness is best determined by making a small puncture. Be sure to remember to close your ears and nose.

For a side dish, boiled rice or vegetables in any form are suitable for such a dish. If desired, the pig itself can be decorated using mayonnaise, herbs and fresh vegetables for this.

Milk pig in ancient Russian literature is mentioned with enviable regularity, and today there are not so many people who have tried this dish at least once. However, in recent years there has been a certain trend towards the return of such a dish to the menu, at least restaurants. However, in fact, ordinary housewives used to cook this before, and therefore this recipe can be restored today.

Peculiarities

Many ignorant contemporaries mistakenly believe that a suckling pig is a young animal that is cooked with milk, but in fact it means something else. This is the name of a small baby pig, whose age is no more than a few months, it is assumed that he has not yet eaten anything but milk. Such an animal usually weighs 1-5 kg, a smaller weight is usually not considered due to the fact that there is simply nothing to eat there.

Such meat is highly valued for the fact that it does not yet have fatty layers, and the muscle tissues themselves are still very tender. Crispy fried crust combined with the most tender meat - what could be tastier? Not without reason, in ancient times, such a dish was usually served only on serious occasions or simply at the table of people who never lacked funds. Even today, suckling pig is considered a solemn delicacy and is served in all countries where it is customary to eat pork.

Today, it is not difficult to purchase a carcass of a young pig, these animals are very prolific, and many farmers prefer to sell small pigs rather than grow them on their own. The best option in this case is to find a store where the carcasses are sold already butchered, because then you don’t have to deal with butchering yourself.

How to cut?

In most cases, the carcass is already thoroughly cleaned of offal, although there are rare exceptions. In any case, remember that some offal, such as heart and liver, may not be removed. This is not only not bad, but it is literally necessary for some recipes.

The main problem usually lies in the fact that on the skin, which no one will specially remove, individual hairs remain in places. They can be singed on fire, but many experts advise to shave them off with a sharp carving knife. If this is fraught with certain difficulties, then the skin can be scalded with boiling water, due to which the intensity of resistance will decrease. A special density of fragments to be removed (including protruding pieces of skin) is noted between the legs and in the ears.

In some cases, the carcass can be completely skinned, that is, skinned from it. This procedure is not the easiest, but it allows you to completely solve the problem with protruding hairs. To do this, make incisions on the belly and, as it were, pick the skin away from themselves in different directions. At the same time, it is desirable to protect the fat layer, so remove the skin carefully. If you have never done this before, be prepared that the procedure can take up to an hour or even longer.

However, for a whole pig baked in the oven, the skin is usually needed, because it is simply carefully singeed over a fire, and then wiped with a stiff brush or washcloth to remove all traces of soot and soot, as well as the small remaining bristles.

The final touch for cutting can be a small incision of the spine on the inside, so the carcass becomes more elastic and it will be easier to work with it.

How to cook at home?

Recipes for cooking suckling pig are quite numerous, but we will step by step consider only the most common ways to cook such meat. Today you can buy a whole carcass even in smoked form, which is also not bad for a festive table, but still does not reveal ancient traditions.

Stuffed

Such a recipe is considered one of the most traditional, it is called an indispensable attribute of the pre-revolutionary celebration of St. Basil's Day. For such a dish, a carcass weighing about two kilograms is needed. It is cleaned and gutted in the manner described above, after which it is carefully blotted with paper towels inside and out, and then rubbed with salt from the inside.

For the filling, a glass of buckwheat is boiled in the usual way, a medium onion is finely chopped separately and fried in a pan until golden brown. Five hard-boiled chicken eggs are crumbled and mixed first with fried onions, and then all this mass is added to buckwheat and mixed again. In this form, the filling is placed inside the carcass, after which the open belly is sutured.

After that, the piglet is also treated with salt on the outside, and also rubbed with half a glass of vodka until the skin becomes stiff. A pig is baked in the oven on a baking sheet, but ideally, the old rule should be observed, according to which birch (or from any fruit tree) chips are first laid out on a baking sheet, and a pig is placed on top of them. Ordinary foil can also be an alternative: it is worth wrapping protruding thin parts like a ponytail or ears separately with it, otherwise they will burn. From above, the future dish is poured with melted lard and sent to the oven, which by this moment should already be heated to 180-200 degrees.

The exact cooking time is usually not indicated, readiness is determined by eye. As soon as the pig is browned, the temperature is reduced to 150 degrees. Now every 10 minutes you need to water the piglet with melted fat.

The finished dish is divided with one long cut along the spine, the previously sewn belly is also opened and the filling is removed. When the carcass is divided into portions, they are carefully folded again as if the piglet is still whole. It is usually served accompanied by the porridge that was inside it.

Marinated

This recipe is similar to the previous one, only the roasted pig is not stuffed with anything and is not even salted either inside or outside. Instead, it is proposed to marinate it by rubbing it with a special marinade from the outside and from the inside. Pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon and basil are considered seasonings for making marinade. Various ingredients are used as a liquid base - wine, mayonnaise or sour cream, or even just vegetable oil. In order for the marinade and seasonings to penetrate deeper into the meat, the carcass is cut from the inside in many places without piercing through.

In such a solution, the pig should lie down for at least half an hour before going into the oven. In all other respects, the preparation procedure is very similar to that already described above. The fundamental difference is that in this case the carcass is empty inside, so it may lose its shape during baking. To prevent this from happening, experienced chefs advise putting an ordinary thick glass wine bottle inside.

Roasted on a spit

Pork fried over an open fire is especially tender, and it will be very easy to chew. A thin crispy crust with a characteristic smell of smoke will complement the richness of taste.

The process of preparing a piglet resembles the above procedures. Culinary experts have not reached a consensus on whether to marinate the carcass before putting it on a skewer, you can determine this at your own will. If the marinade still seems necessary, it is worth rubbing the pig inside and out with a mixture of salt, pepper and other seasonings, nuts, garlic and cilantro are also used from several unusual ingredients. As you can see, our marinade is dry, so the meat will be infused all night, it is advisable to pack it in a plastic bag.

Separately, one should take into account the technology of cooking meat in this way. For example, the best smoke for these purposes will be provided by coals from birch firewood, the latter should be twice as much in weight as meat. Ordinary skewers are not suitable for such experiments, they simply cannot withstand the weight of a pig, so their expected thickness should be at least a centimeter, and only steel is suitable as a material.

Putting the carcass on a skewer, try to make it so that the spine lies on a skewer, but if a stable position cannot be achieved, tie the legs with wire. Keep a bottle of water handy, otherwise the fat dripping onto the coals will start the fire and the meat will simply burn.

The cooking time in each case is different, they depend on the size of the carcass, and on the degree of heat given by the coals, and on the height of the pig above them. In any case, the process will take no less than three or even four hours, and if the meat has not yet been marinated in the manner described above, then half an hour more. In the first hour, you can not lower the piglet too low, otherwise it will burn on the outside, and it will not even warm up inside. At the end, the carcass, on the contrary, must be lowered, however, additional pouring of fat at this moment is welcome. At the last stage, you need to rotate the meat almost continuously.

An indicator of the readiness of the dish is the ability to pierce it without much effort, as well as the complete absence of blood, even if the knife went in completely and reached the middle of the piglet. It is at this moment that the carcass should be removed from the fire, and it is now that another half an hour is added if the meat has not been rubbed with seasonings.

How to decorate a dish?

For a real meat lover, a whole cooked piglet is beautiful in itself, but the festive atmosphere suggests that every dish served must be beautiful from a purely aesthetic point of view. There are many ways to do this.

The most famous method is to insert a piece of fruit into the pig's mouth: in the classic version it was an apple, but today slices of lemon can also be used. In some cases, spicy meat is also decorated with a bunch of parsley inserted there. For a long time, the aesthetic highlighting of the eyes was a problem, but with the massive appearance of olives and olives on our market, they are usually inserted into the eye sockets.

The rest of the pig, cooked whole, is usually decorated with various greens, which well set off the ruddy brownish crust. Greens can be both relatively small and quite a lot: the carcass can rest entirely on lettuce leaves and be parsley sprinkled on top. As a bright accent, you can chop or cut carrots into rings. Very often, cooks also decorate the dish with mayonnaise or ketchup, deriving various curious patterns from these sauces.

Even a side dish can act as a kind of decoration, especially if it is an integral part of the dish, like porridge in the case of a stuffed carcass. The side dishes accompanying the suckling pig being served are always laid out around it from all sides, while the whole carcass itself in this case acts as the main decoration.

For information on how to cook a pig stuffed with buckwheat, see the video below.

The meat of suckling pig is a serious competitor to chicken meat, since it has the same minimum fat composition. This is a rather spectacular, but at the same time labor-intensive dish, so suckling pigs are prepared, as a rule, for big holidays and celebrations.

If you have a desire to cook a suckling pig in the oven in your own kitchen and you have all the necessary ingredients for this, then why not treat your family and surprise your guests with something unusual and surprisingly tasty? So, let's learn more about how to cook a whole suckling pig in the oven.

Preliminary processing

It is important to understand that the meat of suckling pig is significantly different from the meat of adult pigs, so it needs a special careful approach. Of course, you can always buy (in a store or from a farmer) an already butchered pig carcass, but at home you will have to “conjure” it a little more. At home, you should remove the remnants of fat from the skin, thoroughly clean it of existing drags (bristles).

It is also recommended to thoroughly rinse the carcass, paying particular attention to the head and crotch area. With the help of a knife, the remaining blood is removed. Experienced housewives even advise resorting to the firing process over the fire, even if at first glance this moment is not necessary.

Preparatory process

The suckling pig in the oven is a dish that is valued for its incredibly delicate taste, pleasant meaty aroma and appetizing crispy crust. But to achieve such a result, you should make every effort in the cooking process.

As a rule, in the conditions of urban cuisine, you can master the recipe for a suckling pig in the oven, whose weight is from two to seven kilograms. Of course, if you live in a private house and always have a large Russian stove at hand, then a piglet can weigh ten kilograms or more. But we take as a basis a small pig, whose weight does not exceed 3-4 kg. It will be more convenient to work with such a carcass, and it will definitely fit in a standard oven.

After the carcass has been processed and washed, the meat should be marinated. Marinating time is from 24 to 36 hours. As the saying goes, the longer the better.

marinade ingredients

To prepare the marinade you will need:

• Two oranges (juice and zest)
• One lemon (zest and juice)
• China. a spoonful of ground coriander.
• Ground cloves - half a tea. spoons.
• Fragrant black pepper, of course, ground - 2 tsp.
• A couple of spoons of liquid honey.
• Glass of water.
• Bay leaf - 2-3 pcs.
• Olive oil.
• 4-5 teeth garlic.
• Salt - 2-2.5 table. spoons.

Pickling

From all the listed ingredients we create a fragrant pickling mixture. After you grate the zest from citrus fruits and squeeze out the juice, do not throw away the leftovers, they will come in handy a little later.

Take a large enough plastic bag and put the pig in it. Rub the top and inside of the meat with the marinating mixture. The package should be tied as tightly as possible. The tighter the bag is tied, the less air will get into it and the better the pig will marinate. In addition, when the bag is tied tightly, the piglet is almost completely in the liquid marinade.

The minimum marinating time is 24 hours. Maximum - 48 hours. In the process, you can turn the pig over without opening the package. Do this more often, then the marinade will penetrate into the most inaccessible places and completely soak the meat.

Cooking

After the time specified in the recipe has passed, we take the pig out of the package. We wash it thoroughly under the tap and dry it with a paper or cloth towel. While the oven is heating up, the pig should “rest” at room temperature for about 30-40 minutes.

How to cook a suckling pig in the oven? First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. It is important that the oven heats up for about half an hour after the required temperature level has been reached. This is necessary so that the initial heat treatment of the meat begins in the right way.

To bake a suckling pig in the oven, you will need the largest baking sheet that is in the kitchen and fits in the oven. We rub the belly of the pig with spices (listed above) and lay the remains of citrus fruits inside. Now we lay the carcass so that the abdomen is evenly distributed in the center of the baking sheet.

In order to protect the hooves, patch and ears from burning, we wrap these parts of the carcass with foil. Coat the carcass on top with a mixture of olive oil, honey and spices. We send it to the oven for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature in the oven to 160 degrees. And leave until final readiness. The cooking time at the second stage of baking will directly depend on the initial weight of the piglet. The calculation is as follows: 40 minutes per kilogram of meat. Therefore, a suckling pig weighing 3 kg in the oven will bake for about two hours. Add another 20 minutes. primary heat treatment, we get 2.5 hours.

In the process of baking, charred spots, sometimes even black, may appear on the carcass. Do not worry: it burned the honey that is in the composition for smearing. These places will not be bitter or have an unpleasant odor. We take the pig out of the oven.

Now we need a fairly large piece of foil. They need to completely cover the carcass of the piglet and leave it in this form to “rest” for 30-40 minutes.

Potato

As a rule, a suckling pig cooked in the oven (a photo of the finished dish is presented above) is served with baked potatoes. For cooking, you need 10-15 medium-sized potatoes. First, they should be boiled in lightly salted water until half cooked. Then place the potatoes in a large container, add a pinch of salt, ground pepper, a couple of tablespoons of oil, vegetable seasoning, dried parsley or dill. Toss the potatoes so that each vegetable is coated with the spice mix. Arrange the potatoes on a foil spread on a baking sheet. Bake potatoes for about 20 minutes.

Innings

The suckling pig in the oven is a universal dish. It can be prepared in advance, and when guests arrive, just heat it in the oven at a temperature of 160 degrees. For this, 20 minutes is enough. By the way, during heating, the carcass will become even more golden, and the meat will become even more tender.

Piglet is served with baked potatoes or vegetable salad. As for sauces, the choice is huge: garlic, mayonnaise, creamy, mustard-apple and others.