It is that time of the year again, Oktoberfest! The biggest beer festival ever and an excuse to drink beer, have a party and go on a funfair, what more could you want?! Interesting fact about Octoberfest, it tends to attract over 6 million spectators every year! Thankfully for Hog Roast Islington organiser Kirk had only booked for 200 people. Oktoberfest of course involves serving a wide variety of beers, but it also includes a range of traditional German foods as well. Even though England has adopted their own version of this festival, traditional and hearty German foods remain at its centre. Hog Roast Islington had the joyful and exciting experience of making their own version of the German favourites for this local Oktoberfest event.
Spanferkel is in fact a German Hog Roast. Rather than using big hogs, Germany uses young, suckling pigs. In order to feed the 200 people, Hog Roast Islington did use a hog bigger than the traditional suckling pig. Additionally, in Germany these suckling pigs are slowly roasted for about five and a half hours over hot coals. Unfortunately, Hog Roast Islington did not have access to coal fire pits (the venue also did not have the insurance for such a show!) however, he does have access to a Titan machine which cooks the pig perfectly using two burners and for similar time.
The entire pig gets devoured in Germany, yes even the heads! The pig heads are that popular that they are smoked and sold separately to the rest of the pig. People like to pick off the meat and it is said that the pig’s cheek is the best part which could explain why. Kirk’s guests did not adhere to the tradition of eating the pig’s head, the only part of the pig’s head that got eaten was the ears and that was by Kirk’s two German Shepards!
Kirk’s guests certainly enjoyed the Hog Roast. A soft roll filled to the brim with moist pulled pork, tasty stuffing and topped with the heavenly golden, crispiness – crackling, definitely helped to soak up the beer.