Martin's Roast A Pig

We Have Changed

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 13:28:54 GMT

What!!

Yes, we have modified our pig roasting or rather added a “Mouth Watering Twist” in Roasting Whole Hogs for a better product on the table. Plus, last year we introduced our Puerto Rican Style Roast as well, which I feel is the best we can offer.

There are many ways to roast a whole hog and for us we have 4 different approaches when it comes to roasting a whole hog. Which I’ll explain below.

#1 – Our Puerto Rican Style Roast. The hogs are butterflied which means they will lay flat when roasting. We split the chest cavity and the pelvic bone and backbone from front to back, which allows us to completely flatten the hog and remove the spinal cord. Then we take a knife and cut the inside rib cage film and other muscles and then we apply a vegetable oil and Johnny’s Famous Adobo Rub, after that we flip the pig and apply cuts at various places in the skin and do the same, apply oil and the Johnny’s Famous Adobo Rub.

The hogs are placed in a bag and then we apply a vacuum to help push the rub flavors deeper into the skin and meat. A big plus with this style roast is that we can roast our large hogs on our rotisserie, which allows us to retain moisture plus focus on a perfect skin at the end of the roast by stopping the rotisserie and making the fire hotter right at the end.

#2 – Our main change that we made starting mid 2023 was to wrap the hogs in aluminum foil about halfway through the roast process. We like to wait till the skin has split long enough for the meat and fat on the underside of the skin to turn to a golden brown or caramel color. When wrapping we start at the center of the hog and wrap a few turns of the rotisserie and then continue to wrap the hams and then back across the center and then head and shoulders are wrapped at least two revolutions and then we stop at the center. Then we push the foil tight to the rotisserie rods and hog so there are no large air gaps behind the foil. The final process is to wrap a thin craft wire in a helix around the foil, (you can do this while the rotisserie is running), this allows a structure to hold the foil in place. Then we take the charcoal tray and place it directly under the hog. We keep the charcoal trays full and hot, which helps to cook the hog like an oven or crock pot etc. After the hog’s shoulder reaches 175 F at the thickest part of the shoulder, we stop adding any charcoal and let the fire coast and let it go till we need to remove it from the rotisserie. Remove the pig at around 180 to 185 F

Roasting this way allows us to put the best Moist Whole Hog Meat on the table, but the skin is steamed and soft. The skin can be placed in an oven at 350F for 45 minutes, however it’s not the same as the Puerto Rican Style Roast.

#3 – Is the same as number #2 except no foil wrap, however you can stop the rotisserie to make the skin nice and crispy at the end, the only difference between the two is the quality of the meat on the table, option #3 will be a little drier, only because there is no barrier to keep the juices from dripping off.

#4 – Grated grill is more of a set and let style of roasting, however the meat is sure to be drier and the skin is bitter with the smoke, and you lose meat that is against the grate, because of it drying out or burning, the roasting is simple but not our choice.

Our Hogs are better when you allow us to add our optional Johnny’s Famous Dry Rubs that are designed to push out the awesome Pork Flavor, try them all. More on the Rubs later!

"The Musing of Pig Roasting at Martin's Roast A Pig"

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:26:46 GMT

The average weekend can turn into an extraordinary collaboration of events here at Martins Roast A Pig, at the end of the day all the hard work is worth it.

Looking back to May of 2020 which seems like just a few days ago, a lot has happened in making 2020 one of the most memorable years in modern history, due to Covid 19. Our first order was May 20th, 2021, and those orders consisted of 2 grill rentals and 1 gallon of sauce and then it slowly got off the ground and we ended up with an extremely busy October, by the same date in 2021 we had over 20 orders. The July 4th, 2020, weekend was our biggest to date with 16 orders, we rented 14 grills and sold 2 additional pigs. Late July in 2020 we connected with Gosset’s Homemade Foods, a local company that makes all our sides, there products are awesome and consistent. Well worth the connection and it made it more convenient for our clients as well. Their Mac & Cheese is the best I have ever tasted and is a big hit with everyone that buys it. I always say, “If there are two big guys and a little bit left over, someone is going to get hurt.”

2021 is totally different, our first order for 2021 was three 250lb pigs in early February wedding. March was pretty busy, and then May it have seemed everything broke loose, at the time of this writing June 11th is our second busiest weekend since July 4th 2020.

Our process starts after we confirm our orders with the client, which made us change our order policy, the orders will only be processed and in our books with a 25% Non-Refundable Deposit, otherwise we could not make any plans for the weekend till the order confirmation, now it is easier to make our schedule, serious customers have no problem making a 25% deposit.

Throughout the week our phone is ringing almost non-stop, especially just before a Holiday weekend with answering calls, teaching the DIY’ers and setting up our schedule’s weeks in advance, which makes scheduling a huge challenge, different size pigs, different pick-up times, different cook on site with different options., sometimes it seems that it would be easier to juggle 4 running chain saws!!

Tuesday afternoon our order is placed with the Pig Farmer, and he weighs the pigs and hauls them to a State Inspected Slaughterhouse on early Wednesday morning to be processed. We pick up the pigs late Wednesday evening and put them in a temperature-controlled refrigeration unit, then if we have orders for our Dry Rubs, we oil the outside and apply the Rub on the outside and then we liquefy the Rub to inject at various spots in the Ham, Shoulder and Loins and place the pig in a bag and then we apply vacuum which helps to drive the flavor throughout the meat. I like to see the marinate process being at least 48 hours, I feel the optimizes the flavor of our Dry Rub.

Now around 60% of all our orders get the Dry Rub Option and we are thrilled with great feedback. My personal favorite swings from the “Smokey to the Fruity”, depends on the mood, I guess. We hit our goal with the rubs, we wanted something to enhance the Roasted Pork flavor by adding a good rub, this rub needed to be mild but powerfully favorable. We coat the outside with our Dry Rub as well as the belly cavity and then we liquefy the rub and inject it into the thick meat.

Our cooking usually starts on a Saturday and sometimes Fridays, so that means to get up early on Saturday morning or stay up on Friday nights to put the on the spit and on the fire, that may mean getting up at 1:00am to start the cook process and most times we are not done till late Saturday evening, so far, we survived on less sleep.

Then on Monday the cleanup process starts, grills and equipment come back either Monday or Tuesday. It takes a lot of work making sure everything is cleaned properly for the next weekend, this is usually not all completed till Wednesday evening and then it starts all over again.

Do It Yourself (DIY)

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 19:51:19 GMT

Do you love to BBQ/Grill and be the “Hero of the Show”?.. now’s your chance.

If you are a Grill Master or a Grill Master wannabe, then you have all the basic knowledge that you need, to do a superb job in roasting a pig, large or small. I am sure that the first time there will be a lot of apprehension, before you get started, but do not worry we are here to assist you from start to finish, if you have any questions, feel free to call.

Obviously, you need a pig, we are happy to provide you with a good clean pig that was processed/dressed under State Inspection, so you will see a round blue stamp on the outer portion of the skin. Not only are the pigs slaughtered in an Inspected Slaughterhouse, but our pigs are also placed in a machine to remove all the hair from the main body of the pig. This assists you in enhancing your presentation, plus it makes the skin perfect to eat, which has an amazing irresistible flavor.

Equipment selection is the next part of the process, and our recommendation will always be to use our Rotisserie Grills, however there is a size restriction, 175lb live wt. pig is our recommended maximum, you can go bigger, if the head of the pig is removed. Our Grated grills are only recommended for large pigs or if you are pushed for time and want a “Set it and Let It” process, then the grated grill is an option for you, however the skin is almost inedible at the end of the cook process, only because of the bitter smoke flavor that is absorbed into the skin. ( See our equipment selection blog )

Are you adventurous? Try your own process ideas, such as applying a Rub, or filling up the belly cavity with Sauerkraut, another meat, Apples/other fruit, or whatever else you can think of. Or you can ask us to provide you with one of our (6) Rub Options. If you want to marinate with either a rub or another liquid, then we would recommend following our process. We lay the pig on its back and apply oil and sprinkle the rub on the skin and the entire body cavity, then we liquefy the rub by adding water 1:1 ratio and then we use our commercial injector and inject the liquid at multiple locations in the hams, shoulders and neck portion. We flip the pig and basically do the same thing and then we place the pig in a large plastic bag and apply vacuum to force the rub flavor into the meat. Any pig over 120lbs live wt. is too close to the bag size and makes it almost impossible to apply a vacuum, so the bigger pigs are just placed in the bag, without vacuum, which is still ok, if the rub is applied at least 24 plus hours prior to the start cook time.

So now you have the pig and the grill, what about the charcoal? We try to have Kingsford 20lb bags on hand for the convenience of our customers, one stop shop. You can use any wood/pellets or charcoal for fuel, our preference is to start off with the Kingsford Briquettes. For our Rotisserie Grills you will need one 20lb bag to start, fill up both trays, 10lbs per tray etc. We slide the charcoal trays against the end of the inside of the grill so we can add either Chunks of Wood or Wood Pellets. We prefer to use one small section of the charcoal trays for pellets, the wood pellets smoke really well, which can enhance the flavor.

Use lighter fluid to start the charcoal and let it soak for a few minutes prior to lighting. Allow all the Lighter Fluid fumes to burn off before you place the trays back in the Rotisserie. Initially the temperature is going to spike up to 300 plus and after a ½ hour or so the pig will start to absorb the heat and the grill temperature will go down.

Temperature adjustment is all based on how much charcoal you keep in the Charcoal Trays, weather and air density play a big factor in the overall cook time. The mean temperature that we like to see is 225 degrees, if the temp drops to 200 then add charcoal if you add too much charcoal and the temperature goes over 300 open the door to release the heat. Low and slowly makes the best Roasted Pork.

That’s it – Send the equipment back and leave the cleanup process to us, the only thing we ask is; “Don’t put the Motor Assembly in the Rotisserie”

Remember – the meal isn’t ready till the Roasted Pork is ready, figure out enough of time to cook at a lower temperature, you’ll be glad you did.

Let us know how we can help you be the Grill Master!

Summer Is Here!

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 22:30:09 GMT

Nothing Like A Summer Cookout!

Our Grilling/Roasting Equipment

We have two different styles of Roasting Equipment to roast Pigs, the Rotisserie and Grated Grills, both

work well to roast pigs, however the Rotisserie Style Roaster makes the best Pig . We only use the

Grated Grills for our Large Pigs, any Pig weighing more the 175lbs live weight, see below for our

recommendation, in making your next Party a ”Big Hit”.

The Rotisserie Style Pig Roaster is a more “On Hands” type, where you need to add charcoal about every

30 minutes or so, while the Grated Grills are more “Set & Let” and you need to add all the required

Charcoal at the start of the grilling process.

Our Rotisserie Grills are rotated using a 4RPM Gearmotor that is mounted directly to the Spit. Any food

roasted on a Rotisserie Grill is basted by its own juices and it keeps the meat moist, unless you obviously

over Cook the meat, which is why we will always recommend the Rotisserie Grill .

Our Grated Grills are also Charcoal Fueled Grills and as I mentioned above, you need to fill up the Grill

with our Recommended amounts for the Pig you are cooking, because it is difficult to add Charcoal at

anytime of the Grilling Process. The heat is controlled by increasing or decreasing the amount of

Oxygen, which is controlled by small dampers on the outside bottom portion of the grill.

The difference of taste between the Roasted Pork is pretty much the same, however I think that the

Rotisserie Grills make a better product at the end of the day, The Grated Grills have a Grease Catching

Tray right below the grate and the grease flows out the back through a small pipe and into a metal

bucket. The difference between the two grills is specifically the mentioned Grease Tray, in the Grated

Grill. What happens is as the grease drips off the pig and drops into the extremely hot tray and towards

the end of the grill process the grease actually chars and releases a bitter smoke that imbeds into the

skin and makes the skin bitter and un-eatable.

One of the best parts of the Roasted Pig is the Crisp Skin, especially if you add our Optional Dry Rub

Seasoning , It’s like eating a thick potato chip laden with flavor of the basted process.

So our recommendation will always be “ Rotisserie ”

We have (8) eight Rotisserie Grills and only (3) Grated Grills – With (2) Tow Behind Rotisseries and (1) Tow Behind Grated Grill.

Our Chicken Grills are large enough to Grill 40lbs of Chicken and they have a lid to allow us to control the temperature and smoke process, make a much better Chicken Leg or Chicken Breast then the open top grills you see along the road or at events where they process large amounts of Chicken. Our Chicken Grilling Process is a (2) two hour process, where the first hour it’s all about the charcoal and the last hour of our cooking process is all about the Smoke, where we add wood and wood pellets. So by having the lids on our grills we can drive the smoke to the bone. The last half hour of our grilling process is all about our homemade sauce that adds tremendous amounts of flavor as well. If we do this process by the book you will find that, not only is it different, it’s also the best you ever tasted. Most meats are the

best using a Slow Cook Process, so mix it up a little and order Pig and add some Chicken, it’s all about the food, your guests will always remember your event, by the food they eat.

Grilled Food is all about the Roasting Equipment, so if you rent our grills and follow our instructions a “Do It Yourself” person will roast the same product that we do.

Enjoy Your Summer and Happy Eating

Cook On Site Chef Michael Moran

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 23:57:13 GMT

Featuring Our On Site Chef, Michael Moran

Martin's Roast A Pig is proud to introduce one of our Cook On Site Chefs, Michael Moran. Michael started working for us late summer 2020 and he has been instrumental in assisting the customers by roasting and carving pigs at their parties.

He is a fun loving guy that knows customer service is paramount to helping us maintain our Motto "Pig Roasting Your Way." Tell Michael how, when and where and he will do his best to meet your goals. The meal is not ready till the pork is ready, however we work very hard in trying to meet the time goals, so the party can be on time.

Thank you Michael for your contribution and assistance, it's appreciated. Saturday's can be a long day for Michael, depends on the size of the pig, more than once he comes back after 9:00pm.

That's our story, now here is Michael's...

1'm second generation Irish... Paternal and maternal grandparents came over from different parts of Ireland. I grew up in West Chester, PA, but have lived Annville since 2009. I have five children, Caitlin 21; Michael 18; Samantha 15; Tins Jonathan and David 13.

Food related jobs...

I worked as a Waiter at Devon's Seafood and Steak in Hershey, PA. I also worked at Applebee's for a year.

I just started Cross Fit and love it! I play guitar in the church Worship Band, do some gardening and love to read and listen to theology podcasts.

Your Pig Roasting Highlights...

I really like the people I meet at the different parties and special ocassions.

Spring Outdoor Catering Ideas

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 20:09:11 GMT

Nothing Like A Great Cookout On A Beautiful Spring Day!

Spring is definitely in the air and it is time to get out and enjoy the fresh air with family and friends. Considering what to serve and the stress of putting it together, keeping it going... AND enjoy time with family and friends... how do people do it?

Food That Entertains The Guest

Of course, determining the main course is usually what comes to question first once you have decided, this calls for an outdoor event.

Roasting is always a fun interactive option. Such as:

Pig Roasting
Chicken
Sheep / Goat Slow Roasted

Let's Take The Creativity A Little Further...

Consider options that offers your guest choices to go with this main course. There is always room for more flavor to leave them talking. We offer custom created SAUCES & RUBS .

Sides & Desserts To Complete The Picture

At Martin's Roast-A-Pig we offer an easy method for selecting the side dishes and desserts hand picked by you to match your guest list. This allows you to enjoy an event full of great hand-made food showing the love of only offer the best to your group and still have the energy to enjoy your time with them by leaving the hard work to someone else.

Ready to plan your event and order your food? We are ready to help you enjoy your event!

Welcome to the First Edition of the Martin's Roast A Pig Blog

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 16:00:10 GMT

Introductions are always needed, right?

Well, here we are, I am John Stoltzfus owner of Martins Roast A Pig, I share that ownership with Miriam, my lovely wife of 34 years. We have 5 Children, 3 married and one engaged... Our oldest daughter Anna Mary and our Son-in-law Elmer live the closest to us, around 5 miles, our second daughter Heidi and our Son-in-law Jimmy live in Abbeville, SC and our oldest son Anthony and our daughter-in-law Dorothy live in Sharon Springs, NY. Our youngest daughter Lavina is engaged to Aquillis Stoltzfus from Sunbury PA area and they plan to move to that area after their wedding in November. Our youngest son Aaron Jay is on the move, being with Jimmy and Heidi this winter and wanting to be with Anthony and Dorothy this summer, miss him around home…

We purchased the Martins Roast A Pig business from David Martin in May of 2020, who lives only 3 miles from us, so help is always close. Covid-19 had a big impact on our business earlier in the year, however by October we were still busy. Almost every Saturday after we are done for the day, a call goes to David, who is my greatest mentor and counselor in Roasting Pigs, thank you David...

Last year later in the summer we introduced our homemade sides that are made locally by Gosserts Homemade Goodness, LLC, we are proud to sell their awesome food, see our “Sides” section in our website. Later in October we released our Dry Rubs, which turned out well and adds a special touch to a good pork.

We are also concerned about Food Safety, so on February 17th I took Martins Roast A Pig’s first ServSafe Test, so this year I want our focus to be Food Safety for our Customers so they feel confident in getting only the best quality food for their venue.. All of our Pigs are processed at a USDA Inspected Slaughter House in Myerstown PA.