Slow-Cooked Carnitas (recipe following ramblings)

Simple and yummy! It's also crazily easy.

Carnitas literally means "small meats," referring to the small portions of meat that results from shredding long-cooked critters. Traditionally, this is done by simmering pork in a copper pot full of lard with an orange for a couple of hours.

I don't have a copper pot and this isn't going change any time soon. I do have a crock pot and it works just fine. So does the addition of an overnight soak in salted water, garlic and bay, but that's up to you.

The lard is flavorful, traditional and really not so scary. In fact, I'd take lard over any and all of the manufactured solid vegetable fats on the market. Lard aside, this cooking method NEEDS to be done in fat; broth/ water/ OJ will result in dry, dry disappointment.

The orange adds a smidgen of flavor, but more importantly adds moisture to the fat, allowing the meat to not brown too soon. Once the moisture evaporates, the meat browns a little. Cool, huh? You can finish off in a pan if you want more carmelization.

You need to use a heavily-marbled pork roast like a Picnic Roast or Butt Roast. This is slow cooking and these kinds of meats do best here. All of the connective tissue and fats will break down during the cooking process and make the meat oh-so-tender and lusciously unctuous. Using lean meat wouldn't work very well as there's not enough fat in the meat to keep it moist during this kind of cooking.

Have fun, don't panic and be prepared for a meal redolent in porky goodness.

This takes about 6-7 hours from warming the fat until it's done depending on the crock pot you're using.

Once you realize how easy this is, you'll wonder where homemade carnitas have been all your life :)
__________________

Carnitas

4 pounds of lard
5 pound pork butt (shoulder)
one small orange, washed and sliced
one appropriately-sized crock pot (I used a 6 quart. It will be a tight fit, but that will help the flavor.)

Optional overnight soak:
1/4 cup salt (approx measurement- I added until "it looked right.")
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
3 bay leaves
one 1-gallon freezer bag
enough water to cover meat when it's in the bag

Trim the meat of all silver skin and excess fat. Leave the bone in as it adds flavor. It will be much easier to remove after cooking, too.


1) Heat lard in crock pot. (I did this on high with the cover on. This will take a while. I put the lard in and watched the previous week's Boardwalk Empire, which runs about 50 minutes. I'm pretty sure it takes less time to melt that lard, but hey- Steve Buscemi...)

When the lard is melted (or right before it's done melting), turn the crock pot to low (you will be cooking at this setting) and let it cool for 10 minutes.

2) If you soaked the meat, remove from the liquid and pat dry. If you're using meat from the package, rinse and trim.

3) Put the meat and oranges into the lard, cover and find something to do for 5-ish hours. If you didn't soak, feel free to add a little salt to the outside of the meat before adding it to the lard.

You aren't going to see a lot of bubbles if there are any at all. This is fine; we're slow-cooking in a crock pot. not deep frying. It's going to look odd. Fight to urge to turn the heat up. Just walk away and don't think about it for a few hours.

In about 4-5 hours (or 2-3 if you don't have a low setting), check the meat. It might not be done, but you can get a gauge of where it is. Take a fork and test the meat- if it's still a little hard and not shredding, keep cooking for a while longer (the cooking process can take up to 7-8 hours). If it starts to shred, but not easily, you probably have an hour yet. If the meat shreds with no effort and kind of looks like it's about to fall apart, it's done!

When it's done, remove the meat to a dry and cool. Shred. Eat. Love.

I've been known to giggle at this stage.

I like them with flour tortillas, lime, cilantro (coriander leaves) and Guacamole. <3

Most certainly, you can do this on a stove in a heavy pot. I like the crock pot here. It doesn't get quite the caramelization, but it's tenderness makes up for that.

Decisions...

I think I'm going to make this my cooking blog. :)

I'm excited about this. The kinda-hubby was pondering a recipe-sharing site somewhere (most likely Facebook), so this is a start for me.