What is an interesting meat to roast?

I am planning a little inaugural cook out for early April, for a few friends and family members. I had been thinking suckling pig, but then I saw what they cost. Then I was thinking a big pig's head, but I think my wife has vetoed it. Can anybody think of a really interesting piece of meat to roast, that won't cost a fortune, or be considered "too weird?"

 

Is interesting just unusual? You could do a whole fish, obviously not meat. If you want to keep to the piglisiousness why not a whole belly? Lots of different ways to do it from the same slab could be fun.

 

Interesting might be unusual, I'm not totally sure what I mean. Whole fish is something I haven't done in a while! Pork belly might be a winner, though. Man, that sounds like delicious fun!

 

My Dads girlfriend to be different then thebother family dinners everyone would have around christmas would do game hens one each for everyone at the table, like little personal chickens... lots of ways to do them up as well

 

Bison steaks? Rattle snake? Etc etc. There is a high end market near me that has a lot of random meats for sale. Maybe you have one near you?

 

That's a good idea, but I've done that for this group. Along with ducks in many ways, and geese. A whole herds of chickens. Anybody know where I can get peacock?

 

Bison is something I thought of too, but for some reason I thought the prices were stupid high. I think the wife would veto rattlesnake, unfortunately. I've had rattler, and I really liked it. I also thought about alligator tail, it's reasonably available. Anybody have a recipe?

 

Tastes like chicken!

 

It's the presentation that counts.

 

Perhaps do the tail in some type of stuffed Veg? Meh, outdoor BBQ should have something that sizzles and smells good.

 

I think the pork belly idea is really sitting well with me.

 

Whew that was close...

 

The zoo... just dont get your cages mixed up or you may become dinner

 

Go full belly and do a big porchetta. Or keep looking for a suckling, they aren't too expensive wholesale, I can't imagine makeup is that high for retail

 

$150 is what I've seen for a small suckling pig, locally. I can't justify that.

 

When I last looked whole sucklings here were just over $2/lb. for 16 - 20 lb pig. A larger one you can have split into two sides and buy one or both. This was from local Latino market, RD price should be comparable.

Alligator is usually served in nugget form, the meat is removed from cartilage in the tail. Makes for better app than meal. I can come up with recipe if you like.

Your gathering sounds good for leg of lamb. Its spring after-all, you can roast it or grill it. Boned and butterflied there should be little waste.

 

That is a little high, 120 for a 40ish pounder is what I would expect to pay, plus some pork butt to fill in the area that gets boned out. At Cochon we would get something like 25 portions @8oz each, plus picked meat from the head and legs. That is a hell of a lot of meat. If you can find a smaller pig it will be harder to bone out, but not significantly so, and may drop the extravagance factor some. Ask the meat counter at your local store, they can special order sucklings, they buy from the same meat distributors as restaurants, often at better prices. If you have any problems with setting a pig up let me know, I've done this a bunch and know some tricks to make it easier.

 

Too bad you weren't closer, I could swing some moose or elk...

 

Goat.