Carnitas: Pork, Pascillas and the Vernacular of Mau

Pork, Pascillas and the vernacular of Mau.

Anyone who has worked the line with me knows I have my own way of putting things. Aside from my oftentimes-colorful language that is. My late brother Chris and I had our own way of communicating that evolved over decades of cooking together. Some of it is Spanish-based; always Carne, never beef, pinche langosta instead of lobster. We never used the word “make”, it was always “spin up” (from the act of stuffing and spinning up tamales)-as in “I’m gonna spin up some Chile Colorado, get yer ass over here with some beer and tortillas”. Always “tater”, never potato (I used to love it when people asked for “tartar salad” instead of “tater salad”). Sammich ALWAYS instead if sandwich. “Marge” means marginal, usually means genuinely lame or worse.

There was always one word we used to describe something that was not quite authentic but pretty damn close. That word is “cheater”-as in “The f’ing smoker’s broken so I’m gonna have to build a cheater run of pork”. Cheater implies you’re getting close to how it should be without expending the normal amount of energy.

This is different than another favorite if mine; “half-assed”. As in “This 1×1 New York strip is half-assed at best, we should have stuck to the 1×2″. Half-assed implies that you tried to cheat the dealer and failed miserably.

Well, let’s talk Carnitas now. If you’ve ever seen someone build a big run of Carnitas it’s a sight to behold. The real deal way is in a huge copper pot that is sloped on the sides. There’s different ways to do it but I like doing it in pure pork fat  with onions, garlic, oregano, oranges and salt. The pork is cooked very slowly until the collagens break down and the outside is crispy. It’s hardly healthy but it sure is “la flora de Michoacán”, the flower of Michoacán, the region which claims to make the best.

Where do these two worlds collide? Cheater Carnitas. It’s not quite as good as the real deal but it’s super basic and tastes damn close. Slam it on some fresh tortillas from El Gallo Giro and top it with some of La Reina market’s salsa roja and you’re pretty damned close to perfection. Here’s the recipe.

Dave’s Carnitas Recipe:

1 5-6lb pork picnic or Boston butt roast

2 yellow onions, chopped in half and peeled

3 pascilla chiles, sliced in half

3 oranges cut in half

3 tbls kosher salt

2 tbls cumin

2 tbls cayenne pepper

4 tbls granulated garlic or 6 fresh cloves chopped

2 cups orange juice

Place the pork roast fat side up in a deep roasting pan. Score the fat cap with a few knife cuts to allow seasonings to get in. Rub dry ingredients all over outside of roast then place oranges, chiles and onions on top. Cover with foil and poke a small hole with your thumb in one corner. Put in a preheated 350 degree and cook for 4 hours. Remove from oven and take off foil. Drain (or save) pan juices and shred pork, it should be fork tender. Set oven on broil. After shredding pork, pour orange juice on top and sprinkle some kosher salt and place under broiler for 3-5 minutes. The sugar in the orange juice will carmelize and the salt will help draw some of the flavor from the meat. Pull from oven when you think it looks crispy enough, chop and ENJOY!