Man has eaten pork since man and pig existed together. How long ago man started roasting pig we
can only guess.

Picture this:
Man, hunter-gatherer, trekking through a fresh burnt out forest comes across a pig caught up and
cooked in the fire. Food, always uppermost in his mind, he pulls apart the cooked meat. His senses
reeling as he inhales and his lips and tongue touches and tastes the first Roast Pork. The crisp skin,
the heady aroma, the taste. This was truly a whole new experience.

Never again would he choose raw meat unless out of necessity.

From then on he roasted his meat either by just putting the whole animal on top of a fire or roughly
cutting it up with his Flint Tool. As he or probably she advanced in technique, the raw meat would
have been cut up and skewered on green stakes and placed above the fire.

As the world progressed and man spread out from Africa so the methods of cooking pig became
as diversified as man himself.

The Far East and the Pacific Islands as well as the Americas tended to cook pigs using the Pit
method, initially utilizing a natural depression in the ground, filled with fire and added stones.
When the stones were really hot and the fire had died down, the pig wrapped in banana leaves etc
was lowered in and covered over with earth. Left for the necessary time the pig would be cooked
and due to the leaf wrapping the pork would still be moist.

Everyone else tended to Spit Roast using green twig spits over open fires although in Great Britain,
there is evidence of stone troughs into which hot stones were placed to boil water and thereby
boiling the meat.

As civilization spread and eating became a ceremony so the roasting of a whole pig became
necessary to give a display of abundance, affluence and generosity.

Cooking methods ranged from Spit Roasting to Oven Roasting and continued up to early 20^th century.

As the large banquets became fewer, Whole Hog Roasting remained a showpiece of the village
party or a money making event at a Young Farmers/ Agricultural Show, usually carried out by
roasting the pig over an open pit fire. Sometimes a purpose built roasting tray was made - again
for use over an open fire - or the bread oven of a local baker could be put to extra use.