Pork features prominently in the devout, devotional Balinese diet: a large proportion of ceremonial dishes are based on pork meat. A spectacular, popular Balinese delicacy, babi guling (literally “turned meat”) is whole, spit-roasted suckling pig--although the pigs used are technically too old to be considered suckling (from three to six months in age). More than mere, holy haute cuisine, babi guling (be guling celeng in Balinese) is an important window into Balinese history, religion, tradition, and culture. Prepared more to honor the gods than for personal eating relishment, classic babi guling is the island’s favorite, unofficial “national dish.” An ever-observant traveller and resident of Bali in the 1930s, Mexican artist and de-facto anthropologist Miguel Covarrubias, discovered the startling, pig-centric pinnacle of Balinese ceremonial cuisine ahead of the rest of the western world. Covarrubias stood in awe of the complex, brilliant, ritualistic babi guling cooking process: “Balinese cooking attains its apotheosis in the preparation of the famous be guling, stuffed suckling pig roasted on a spit, the recipe for which was given to (his wife) Rose by the Belaluan (village) cooks. After the pig has been killed, pour boiling water over it and scrape the skin thoroughly with a sharp piece of coconut shell. Open the mouth and scrape the tongue also. Cut a four-inch incision to insert the hand and remove the viscera. Wash the inside of the pig carefully with cold water. Run a pointed stick through the mouth and tail and stuff the pig with a finely chopped mixture of red chili-pepper (lombok), bogaron tinke (nuts resembling ginger), garlic, tjekoh (an aromatic root of the ginger family), red onions, black pepper (meritja), tumeric (kunyit), sra (concentrated fish paste), ginger (djahe), aromatic leaves (saladam or Ulam), salt, and ketumbah (a variety of peppercorn) mixed with coconut oil. Place a piece of coconut bark inside, and then sew up the cut. To give the skin the proper rich brown color, bathe the pig--before roasting--in tumeric crushed in water, rinsing off the excess root. Make a big wood fire and place the pig not directly over it, but towards one side. Forked branches should support the ends of the stick that serves as a spit, one end of which is crooked to be used as a crank by a man who turns the pig constantly (guling means to turn). Two people are required to cook the pig: a second man simultaneously fans the fire with a long, paddle-like object to direct the flame and smoke away from the pig. The heat should be concentrated on the head and tail and not in the middle so as not to crack the skin of the stomach. After a few hours of slow-roasting, the juiciest and most tender pork is obtained--flavored by the fragrant, interior, trap door spices—and complemented by deliciously brittle skin covered with a golden-brown glaze. Few dishes in the world can be compared with a well-made be guling.” Covarrubias comments further on the food-related, Balinese tax system: “The most hated of taxes is that paid every time a Balinese kills a pig, no matter how small, for which he needs a certificate. This has led to clandestine slaughter and with it the reduction of the pig supply; the reward promised to denouncers has introduced the element of discord into otherwise unified communities. The population would prefer an export tax on cattle to the troublesome slaughter tax.”
According to today’s Balinese, the ideal, normal-sized, live piglet selected for babi guling is four months old and 35-50 kilograms in weight, bearing a cost of Rp.500,000. The pig must first be either caught in the wild, purchased from a piggery, or procured at the market. All-purpose pigs are on sale (in the livestock section) at the larger village markets held every three days. Small, squealing, pink-nosed pigs are usually carried home alive (or straight to the next ceremony) by sepeda motor (or rickety public bemo) in large bags or woven bamboo baskets. A tolerant camaraderie is achieved between Balinese passengers crammed into the back of worn, market-route-bound bemos: they smile and socialize despite being tightly packed in among noisy, squirming swine-filled sacks. After the homeward-bound pig is killed, its hair is shaved off and removed from the skin with a homemade Gillette razor device (the blade is placed inside a long, two-handled, rolling pin-like bamboo stick with a square, middle slot section to secure the sharp edges). The shorn pig is subsequently boiled in hot water for final hair removal and then completely disembowelled—all of the stomach innards and viscera are removed and the empty cavity is washed clean. The Balinese then insert a thick bamboo pole through the entire pig from its mouth to its rectum (same process with a goat) so that it can be carried to the cooking site. A (male) chef fills the possibility-laden cavity with Bali’s renowned, magical bumbu spice paste mixture (bumbu rajang and sere) specially hand-chopped, crushed, and selected for babi guling. The lengthy, admirable, Sultan’s list of spices for babi guling typically includes shallots, garlic cloves, ginger, fresh turmeric, galangal, pepper corns, coriander seeds, candlenuts, bird’s eye chillies, sliced lemon grass stalks, whole cassava leaves, salt, dried shrimp paste, lime leaves, salam leaves, and oil. The stomach is sewn (jarit) closed to seal the flavorful spice mixture inside. The Balinese make a hole in the ground and build a coconut husk fire to roast the pig. The pig is suspended on the pole over the fire on two Y-shaped, wooden stick supports at either end; a man continually turns the pig around and around by hand for two to three hours. Whole suckling pig typically feeds eight to fifteen people: when fully cooked and ready to eat, the Balinese will serve and share the whole animal, or will first slice the roast pork into small squares. Because of the high fat content of the notorious, pot-bellied Balinese pig, babi guling is also extremely fatty. The Balinese love their guling fatty, and the golden brown, crispy skin is considered to be the best part.
