Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Carnitas — literally "little meats" — are the pride of the state of Michoacán, and one of the great achievements of Mexican pork cooking: chunks of pork shoulder, ribs and belly (and often more adventurous cuts: ear, cheek, tail) submerged in a huge copper cauldron of gently bubbling lard, cooked at a slow simmer for 3 or 4 hours until the meat has taken on the fat, softened to the bone, and the outside has turned crisp and mahogany. The carnitero pulls the meat out with a hook, chops it fine on a wooden board, mounds it onto two warm tortillas with a spoon of chopped raw onion, a scatter of coriander, a squeeze of lime and a spoon of salsa verde. It's the Sunday-morning breakfast of every Mexican state that has any respect for pork.
Method
Season all the pork chunks with the salt. Leave 30 minutes at room temperature.
In a wide heavy Dutch oven or wide pot (7-litre minimum), melt the lard over low heat until fully liquid. Bring to about 90C — a gentle wisp of steam but no bubbling.
Slide the pork chunks into the melted fat, spacing them out so they can move. Add the orange, garlic, onion, bay, oregano, peppercorns, cinnamon, milk and Coca-Cola. The pork should be almost submerged; if not, add more oil to top up.
Cook at a bare simmer (small bubbles rising every 5 seconds, not a rolling boil) for 2 hours 30 minutes. The fat should not smoke or foam violently. Turn the pork gently every 30 minutes.
Raise the heat to medium so the fat comes to a proper sizzle. Cook another 25 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally, until the outside of each piece is deep mahogany and crackling. This is where the carnitas texture is made.
Lift the pork out onto a wire rack with a spider. Let drain 5 minutes. Discard the aromatics; strain and reserve the fat for another use (it freezes beautifully).
Chop the drained pork roughly on a board — you want a mix of large pulled pieces, small crisped bits and a few chunks of crackling skin. Toss with a pinch more salt. Squeeze the softened orange over the top for a bright finish.
Warm double tortillas on a dry pan 20 seconds a side. Lay two overlapped on each plate. Pile with chopped carnitas. Top with diced onion, chopped coriander and a spoon of salsa verde. Serve immediately with lime, pickled jalapeños and radishes.
Tips
- Lard is the fat. Not olive oil, not vegetable oil alone, not butter. Pork cooked in pork fat is the whole point of carnitas. Save the fat afterwards — it's flavoured pork fat, perfect for fried beans or roast potatoes.
- Simmer slow, then crisp. The two-stage cook — 90C for 2.5 hours, then 130C for 30 minutes — is what gives you both the tender interior and the crackly exterior. Skip the crisp stage and you have pulled pork; skip the slow stage and you have fried pork.
- The Coke is not a joke. Michoacano carnitas cooks add a splash of Coca-Cola for its sugars and caramel colour. Coca-Cola in Mexico is still made with cane sugar (not corn syrup), which caramelises differently. If you can find Mexican Coke, use it; regular Coke works fine.
- Mix the cuts. Shoulder alone gives you good lean carnitas; adding belly and ribs gives you the fat-and-texture range that distinguishes a real carnitería from a home cook using one cut. Ask your butcher for a variety.
- Reserve the fat. That 1.5kg of lard you cooked the pork in is now flavoured with orange, garlic and pork. Strain it, cool it, and freeze it. It's the best fat you can put on roast potatoes or use to fry an egg.
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