| Alastair Beresford |
|
Roasting Hog in a Filing Cabinet
By Dave Sinclair
 |
 |
 |
| The hog | The roasting | The eating |
This web page describes the construction and first use of 'The Filing Cabinet Hog Roaster'---the poor mans solution to the roasting of tasty whole animals. The design is based on the increasingly popular Chinese oven cookers but is entirely constructed from recycled materials. It took me about a day and a half to build and it cooked its first 70lb side of pork in a little over 4 hours. The basic design is just a steel lined box 5' long 14" deep and 2' wide. I tried to re-use the sheet steel from the filing cabinet in such a way that the folded edges were a help rather than a hindrance.
Materials
- one four-draw filing cabinet (my one was an older model made by NSE),
- one roll fronted filing cupboard,
- a pair of iron bed rails, one steel mesh single bed frame,
- one scientific packing crate (the one I chose had been used for shipping lasers!),
- a handful of pop rivets, some 6mm bolts and one tin of Nitromores paint stripper.
Construction
 |
 |
| Four draw cabinet | Drill out rivets |
 |
 |
| Front roll cabinet | Apply hammer! |
The first stage was to dismantle the filing cabinet. I did this quite carefully (so as not to bend the sheet steel) using a hammer. I also had to drill out a couple of rivets and cut a couple of welds.
The top of the filing cabinet made one end of the roaster, the two sides were pop riveted together to make the base. The cupboard was about 6' tall so it was an ideal source of material for making the sides of the roaster.
The easiest way to cut thin sheet steel (if you don't have access to a guillotine) is to put a 32-teeth per inch high-speed steel blade in your jigsaw and just go for it. The trick is not to overheat the blade by running the saw too fast or pressing forward too hard.
With the sides of the filing cupboard I was lucky that the fold down one edge neatly fitted over the plywood of the packing crate. This gave the hog roaster that professionally finished look.
Once I had cut the pieces out I stripped the paint off the side of the steel that would face into the roasting box. The box was then just pop-riveted together.
The Roasting Lid
 |
| Tray for coals |
 |
| Grate for meat |
I made the roasting lid from a sheet of steel from the back of the filing cupboard, a pair of iron bed rails and a couple of pieces of 1/2" angle iron. I cut the sheet so that it was about 1/4" narrower than the width of the opening of the top of the roasting box, and about 4 inches longer than it. I then bolted this sheet to the bed-irons with the `L' of the bed irons facing out towards the edge of the sheet. This made sure that the surface made a seal with the box and was not going to get warped by the fire! (Remember that the side of the bed irons have to stick out past the side of the sheet steel of the roasting lid so that you can lift the lid easily.) On the under side of the roasting lid I bolted a couple of pieces of 1/2" angle iron so that it would locate well on the roaster.
 |
| Wooden crate |
There was a test firing of the system the night before wood cladding was bolted on to ensure that any remaining paint was burnt off and to make sure that the box stayed together---there is no point in wasting a tasty hog if the it's going to taste of paint or fail to cook properly because the oven falls apart.
When bolting the pieces of packing crate to the roaster I left quite a long skirt. The real reason for this was that I couldn't be bothered making another cut, but also because the wood framing on the plywood of the packing crate give the roaster a little extra strength. It seems to work fine like this without lining the underside of the floor of the roasting box.
The hog grate
I made a grate for supporting the hog from the mesh frame for a single bed. I bought this from some students whose student house was about to be 'modernised'. I got a free chair with it, so thanks to Dan Lane of the vet school for that. I cut down the frame and bolted it back together in the obvious way. Remember to make sure any paint is well burnt off.
Preparing the hog
The best hog (in my opinion) comes from Andrew Northrope the butchers in Cambridge, England. I went for a 70lb side of pork with the head taken off. I rubbed salt into the skin and laid the meat on the roasting grid bone side up. This should feed about 30 proper people.
The fire was lit on top of the roasting lid and the hog was cooked for 2 1/2 hours. The roasting lid was then removed and the hog turned before the lid was replaced and the hog roasted for about another 2 hours. Cooking isn't an exact science so just keep cooking until it looks cooked through!
It is important to have a pretty decent fire going on the lid.
Potatoes bake well in this kind of oven and you could also roast some chickens or a fish for the vegetarians. Another great thing about this model of hog roaster is you can leave it to get on with the cooking while you sit back and have a beer or nice bottle of red wine and just take credit for things while the hog cooks. Finally the hog was served and people were pleased.
|
|
|
| The hog | The roasting | The eating |