Cabrito al Pastor Norteño

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Iron asador (flat cross with prongs) sized for a whole 8 to 10 pound cabrito
• •Open fire pit or large open grill that allows vertical staking beside, not over, the coals
• •10 to 12 pounds of split mesquite hardwood
• •Heavy chef's knife for carving by the traditional cuts
• •Wide wooden serving platter, large enough for the whole carved animal
• •Butcher's twine for securing the legs to the cross

Instructions

1. 1

   Source the right cabrito

   Find a milk-fed kid, between 28 and 40 days old, no older. The Spanish word is cabrito lechal. The meat should be pale pink, almost white, and the carcass should weigh between 8 and 10 pounds dressed. An older goat is chivo, not cabrito, and chivo is a different dish. If your butcher does not know the difference, find another butcher. Ask for the animal split open along the breastbone, butterfly-style, with the head and offal kept separately for fritada.

   In Monterrey, cabriterias slaughter and dress the animals the same morning they roast them. If your goat has been frozen, thaw it slowly in the refrigerator for 24 hours before mounting it. A rushed thaw bleeds out flavor.
2. 2

   Mount the cabrito on the cross

   Lay the butterflied goat flat. Push the iron asador, a flat metal cross with prongs, through the carcass: the long arm runs through the spine, the cross arms through the shoulders and hips. The animal should be stretched open like a flag. Tie the legs to the cross with butcher's twine if needed to keep it from curling as it cooks. This is the norteño technique. The cross is what makes it cabrito al pastor and not cabrito al horno.

3. 3

   Build the mesquite fire

   Build a long, narrow fire of mesquite logs in a fire pit or large open grill. Mesquite, not oak, not charcoal briquettes, not gas. The wood comes from the chaparral country of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila and the smoke is part of the recipe. Let the fire burn down until you have a deep bed of glowing coals with low flames. You want radiant heat from the side, not flame underneath.

   Mesquite burns hot and fast. Keep a second pile of logs going off to the side and feed coals into the main fire as needed. The cabrito is going to be near the heat for four hours and you cannot let the bed die.
4. 4

   Season the goat

   Combine the melted lard, garlic paste, lime juice, and black pepper in a small bowl. Rub the mixture over the inside of the cabrito, the cavity side. Salt the outside generously with the coarse sea salt, on both sides. That is the entire seasoning. La manteca es el sabor and the mesquite does the rest. No me vengas con atajos like soy sauce, paprika, or commercial rubs. Cabrito norteño is salt, lard, garlic, and smoke. Asi se hace y punto.

5. 5

   Stake the cross beside the coals

   Drive the long end of the asador into the ground or into a heavy iron stand, angled so the cabrito faces the bed of coals from the side. The body of the goat should be 12 to 18 inches from the heat, cavity side toward the fire to start. The animal cooks vertically, by radiant heat, the way they do it at the cabriterias along Avenida Madero in Monterrey. This is not grilling. The goat never sits over flame.

6. 6

   Roast slow, turn the cross

   Roast for the first hour and a half cavity side facing the fire. The interior cavity is what catches the heat first and the meat near the ribs needs the most time. After 90 minutes, turn the cross 180 degrees so the skin side faces the fire. Continue roasting another two hours, rotating the cross every 30 minutes so the heat reaches the shoulders, hips, and ribs evenly. Watch the fat. When it starts to drip and the skin turns the color of dark amber, you are close.

   Listen to the cabrito. It should hiss and crackle steadily. If it goes silent, your fire died. If it spits and flares, your fire is too hot and the skin will scorch before the inside cooks. Adjust the distance, not the seasoning.
7. 7

   Check for doneness

   After about four hours total, the meat should pull cleanly from the bone with a knife and the skin should be crackling and lacquered a deep mahogany. Cabrito is traditionally served by cut: the riñonada (loin and kidney), the paletilla (shoulder), the pierna (leg), the costillar (ribs), and the pecho (breast). Each cut has a different texture. The riñonada is the most prized, soft and lightly funky from the kidney fat. The pierna is the most cooked through. Anyone who tells you cabrito is one texture has never eaten it properly.

8. 8

   Carve and serve at the table

   Lift the asador off the fire and lay it flat on a wooden table. Carve the cabrito into the traditional cuts with a heavy knife. Pile the pieces on a wide platter. Bring out the warm sobaqueras, the frijoles charros, the salsa borracha, the salsa de chile de arbol, the guacamole norteño, the cebollitas asadas, and the lime. Each person tears a sobaquera, fills it with meat and salsa, and eats. This is a Sunday meal in Monterrey. It is meant to last hours and feed everyone at the table twice. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •The cabrito has to be milk-fed and young, between 28 and 40 days old, weighing no more than 10 pounds dressed. Older goats are chivo and chivo is a stew animal, not a roasting animal. If you cannot find a real cabrito lechal, do not substitute lamb or older goat. Make a different dish. Una receta sin el ingrediente correcto es otra receta.
• •Mesquite is non-negotiable. If you live somewhere mesquite is hard to find, look for it as smoking wood at barbecue suppliers in the southwestern United States. Oak gives you carne asada smoke, not cabrito smoke. Charcoal briquettes give you nothing. The chemical character of mesquite, sweet, slightly resinous, with a long burn, is part of why cabrito tastes like Nuevo Leon and not like Texas barbecue.
• •Sobaqueras are flour tortillas the size of a forearm, named because they are stretched across the cook's underarm (sobaco) before going on the comal. If you cannot find them, large flour tortillas of the thinnest available kind will do. Corn tortillas are wrong here. Flour is the bread of the north and corn is the bread of the south. Geography is a recipe.
• •Cabrito is a cut-by-cut animal. The riñonada (loin with kidney) is the prized cut and goes to the elder or guest of honor. The paletilla and pierna feed the rest of the table. Anybody who serves cabrito as undifferentiated 'meat' has not understood it. Carve and announce each cut as you serve.

Advance Preparation

• •The mesquite fire takes 45 minutes to settle into proper coals. Build it before you mount the cabrito and let it burn down while you season the meat.
• •The frijoles charros, salsa borracha, and salsa de chile de arbol can all be made one day ahead. The flavors only deepen overnight.
• •Sobaqueras can be made the morning of and held wrapped in a cotton servilleta, but they are best stretched and cooked within an hour of serving. Reheat them briefly on a comal just before the cabrito comes off the cross.
• •The cabrito itself does not benefit from a long marinade. Salt and lard go on shortly before mounting. The smoke and the slow heat are doing the seasoning work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 245g)