Carnitas Estilo Quiroga

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Copper cazo de cobre from Santa Clara del Cobre or wide heavy Dutch oven
• •Long wooden spoon or carnitas paddle
• •Wire rack set over a sheet pan
• •Fine-mesh strainer for saving the lard
• •Comal for warming corn tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the pork

   Pat the pork pieces dry and season them all over with the coarse salt. Let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes while you prepare the cazo. The salt starts working before the meat touches the fat. Do not skip the skin, the belly, or the ribs. Carnitas needs different textures in the same pot.

2. 2

   Melt the manteca

   Set a copper cazo over a steady medium fire, or use a wide heavy Dutch oven if that is what your kitchen allows. Add the manteca de cerdo and melt it slowly. The fat should shimmer gently, not smoke. You want enough lard to come halfway up the meat once it goes in. Yes, that much. La manteca es el sabor.

   A copper cazo from Santa Clara del Cobre spreads heat beautifully, which is why Quiroga cooks use it. If you use enameled cast iron, keep the heat lower and stir more often.
3. 3

   Add aromatics

   Lower in the garlic, onion, bay leaves, thyme, and marjoram. Squeeze the orange halves over the fat and drop the halves into the cazo. Let everything sizzle for two minutes so the lard takes on the aroma. This is not perfume. It is structure. The pork will taste flat without it.

4. 4

   Start the confit

   Add the pork pieces carefully, skin side down where possible. The fat should bubble around the edges in a slow, steady rhythm. Pour in the water. Cook uncovered for 90 minutes, moving the pieces every 20 minutes with a wooden spoon or paddle. The meat should firm first, then slowly relax. That is the collagen beginning to surrender.

5. 5

   Add milk and cola

   Stir together the whole milk and Mexican Coca-Cola, then pour the mixture around the edge of the cazo, not directly over one piece of meat. It will bubble hard for a moment. Let it. The milk helps the surface brown and the cane sugar deepens the mahogany edges. Use Mexican cola with cane sugar or leave it out. Corn syrup cola gives the wrong sweetness.

6. 6

   Cook until tender

   Continue cooking for 60 to 75 minutes more, turning the pork gently so the pieces stay whole. The liquid will reduce and the fat will clear again. Test a shoulder piece with a fork. It should pull apart, but it should not collapse into shreds. Quiroga carnitas are sold in chunks, not as wet pulled pork.

7. 7

   Brown the edges

   Raise the heat slightly for the final 20 to 30 minutes. Stir more often now. The pork will begin to fry in the clear lard, the skin will blister, and the edges will turn dark amber to mahogany. Watch closely. This is the moment that separates carnitas from boiled pork. Pull each piece as it reaches the color you want.

8. 8

   Drain and rest

   Lift the carnitas onto a wire rack set over a tray or onto a clay platter lined with clean paper. Let them rest for 10 minutes. Strain the lard through a fine-mesh sieve while it is still fluid and save it. That lard is now seasoned with pork, orange, garlic, and time. It belongs in beans, atápakua, and the next cazo of carnitas.

9. 9

   Serve like Quiroga

   Chop some pieces and leave others in rough chunks. Pile the carnitas high on a barro plate or serve them straight from the cazo. Put warm corn tortillas from the comal, raw white onion, cilantro, lime, salsa verde, and pickled jalapeños on the table. Each person builds a taco. Flour tortillas belong to the north. Here, the tortilla is corn from the milpa. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Ask the butcher for a mixed cut: shoulder for meat, belly for fat, ribs for flavor, and skin for crackle. If they offer you only lean pork loin, walk away. Lean carnitas is a contradiction.
• •Do not crowd the cazo. If the pork sits in a tight pile, it steams before it fries. Use a wider pot or cook in two batches.
• •Salsa verde is the right table salsa here: tomatillo, chile serrano, white onion, cilantro, and salt. Carnitas do not need cheese, crema, lettuce, or any of that noise.
• •If you are cooking outside over leña, keep the fire steady and modest. Big flames scorch the lard and blacken the pork before the inside is tender.
• •The copper cazo matters because it spreads heat evenly, but the principle matters more: slow confit first, browning at the end. Understand that and you can cook well in a city apartment too.

Advance Preparation

• •The pork can be cut and salted up to 12 hours ahead. Keep it covered in the refrigerator, then bring it toward room temperature for 45 minutes before cooking.
• •Carnitas are best the day they are made, but leftovers reheat well on a hot comal or in a 425F oven until the edges crisp again.
• •Strained carnitas lard keeps refrigerated for several months. Label it and guard it. A spoonful in beans is a quiet education.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)