chicagokp
Babbling Farker
I just braise in salt water before I finish it in lard.
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Real Carnitas part 2
- Thread starter Pugi
- Start date
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
One thing I have learned that Brethren are not only meat experts but chili experts and bean experts. Today I am making refried beans from scratch to go with carnitas so I thought I would show the process. The pinto beans were soaked in water over night then rinsed well with fresh water. To those I added about 10 cloves of garlic and a jumbo onion chopped into large pieces. Garlic and onion are for flavor and will be removed before smashing. This is all thrown into crock pot and cooked until beans are well done, almost overdone.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
Now on to the main course. 2 of the 3 ingredients, lard and pork. The lard is bought at store and is usually white in color. This is some lard that we had left over from the real carnitas original thread. That is why it has a tan color when in solid form.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
This part I like to do on the kettle but because of freezing cold temps I am doing inside. Normally I would seer over hot coals, today in a very hot pan with a little lard. Try and seer as much as possible by turning. Notice I'm not afraid to get a little char on it. This step replaces the one in original thread that we heated the lard up to smoking point and then seered each hunk of meat in hot lard.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
The pork placed into lard, you want the lard to have a slow bubble and no more, we are not deep frying French fries here. Slow, lazy bubbles. The foam is from liquids coming out of pork and will soon stop after excess is gone. The pic is deceiving, the meat is almost covered by lard.
RevZiLLa
is One Chatty Farker
Keep it coming, Pugi!
coyotero
Knows what a fatty is.
Vamos Pugi, si se puede.
JV
JV
chingador
is Blowin Smoke!
awesomeness all around. Nice work Pugi. Cannot wait to see the finished pics. Homemade refried beans are the business. I am hoping you are going to use lard for the refrieds too.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
You know I will, being we are on the subject of lard, our practice is to freeze it once then toss it out. So you get 2 cooks of carnitas out of it. Make lard and cook, freeze, thaw and cook, toss it. Reasoning is it gets to many impurities in it for long term storage after that. We would rather be safe then dead.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
I wanted to show this pic, the lard now has a cream color to it. This is from all the liquids the meat is producing. As the cook progresses this will burn off and the lard will return to a amber color.
chingador
is Blowin Smoke!
Looking good. I know I have said this on another thread, but in Houston, a couple of Mexican restaurants that are known for their carnitas do it a little different. The slow roast a whole shoulder, than cube it up and deep fry in lard. It is really good. I am sure it is nothing like what you are doing, but pork fried in lard in any form or fashion cannot be too bad.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
That sounds typical for restaurant style. They fry in lard to make it taste authentic. I've been to restaurants that serve so called carnitas that's never been touched by lard, I can tell by taste and its not a good taste. Authentic is the total cook in lard.
chingador
is Blowin Smoke!
Yeah totally. I do like the restaurant style though. You get the crispy crust all around. I cringe when people throw pork in a crock pot with liquid mad call it carnitas. Kind of like what the burrito chain calls barbacoa. Not even close
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
Dang I forgot to post earlier, the total cook time is about 3 to 4 hours depending how thick the meat is. Traditionally carnitas is served with pickled peppers not salsa. Today I'm serving with pickled peppers and a kicked up guacumole, its basically a guacumole and pico de gallo mix.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
The meat is fall apart ready. Time for the 3rd ingredient, salt. I put about 2 heaping tablespoons in glass and diluted with hot water. Then poured that into the bubbling lard. I'll give that about 15 minutes to get it in the meat and it will be complete. So total ingredients, meat, lard and salt.
Pugi
Full Fledged Farker
Here it is!!! I pulled it out of the lard. You can see some broke in half just getting it out. It is very tender. For comparison it will be easier to fall apart then pulled pork. I'll try and post plating pics later. Company is coming over for dinner and I have to shift my focus to them.
coyotero
Knows what a fatty is.
Compa Pugi;
Te salieron ATM.
JV
Te salieron ATM.
JV
