Pork, Slow-cooked in Lard: the Carnitas Story

Tonight, I made something I had wanted to do for a long time: carnitas. Carnitas, in case you don't know, is a wonderfully tasty Mexican pork dish. It is not without a lot of work though, not least of which was finding a recipe that I was happy with. The traditional dish requires pork shoulder slow cooked in lard. I have nothing against lard but many people do it seems. So I had to skim through a lot of recipes that substituted the lard for something else - chicken stock, oil, even milk. But I very quickly decided that I would go for maximum flavour and so lard was in. Then there is quite some variation in preparation of the meat. You take a hefty chunk of pork shoulder, cut into big pieces and then ... Well, there are another heap of options. I went for a basic one of lime zest, salt, pepper and oregano which I rubbed into the pork and left overnight. Goodnight, sweet pork! In sleep we all lie naked and alone.

The next day, I heated up my lard - about 3 lbs all told.

In went the pork cubes, plus orange slices, handful of chopped cilantro, and a few bay leaves. 

Bring the whole thing up to a slow boil then back it down to a simmer and do something else for two hours.

You could do what I did and spend the time making a salsa fresca, or pico de gallo. I just love this and making it is so simple and satisfying. Mine uses five fresh ingredients, mixed together: three tomatoes, half a bunch of cilantro, one sweet onion, two large jalapenos and two finely chopped green onions. A sprinkle of salt and the juice of a small lime and you are done.

Anyone else notice that the plural of tomato is tomatoes, but the plural of jalapeno is jalapenos?

After two hours or so, the pork should be nice and tender. Take out a chunk and see if it falls apart easily when poked by a fork. The rest of the chunk is now useless, so you must eat it right away.

Decant some of the fat to a skillet, then crisp up the carnitas so they are brown on the outside and soft and juicy inside. You have to be a bit careful here otherwise you will over crisp the meat and the whole point of cooking it in lard for two hours will have gone.

Next step ... eat. Repeat and fade.

* * *