Chocolomo de Tizimín

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 8-quart stockpot or wide cazuela
• •Cast iron comal for charring chiles and warming the recado
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Sharp boning knife for trimming offal
• •Tongs for the chiles

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the offal

   Rinse the liver, heart, kidney, and tongue under cold running water. Soak the kidney in cold salted water for 20 minutes, then drain and rinse again. This pulls the strong minerality down to something honest. The liver and heart only need a quick rinse and a pat dry. Trim any silver skin, fat caps, or tubes you find on the heart and kidney. Cut everything into clean 1-inch cubes. The pieces should be uniform so they cook evenly in the pot.

   Chocolomo is born of the slaughter. After a res is butchered in Tizimín, the family cooks the pieces that will not keep, the liver, the heart, the kidney, the tongue, alongside the loin. That is the dish. Do not skip the offal. Without it you are making caldo de res, not chocolomo.
2. 2

   Start the bone broth

   Place the marrow bones and beef tongue in a heavy 8-quart stockpot. Cover with cold water by three inches. Add the halved onion, the halved head of garlic, the bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, and cumin seeds. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam carefully in the first twenty minutes. Cold water and a slow climb to a simmer is what makes a clear, deep broth. A rolling boil clouds the pot and toughens the tongue.

3. 3

   Cook the tongue until tender

   Simmer the tongue and bones for 90 minutes, partially covered, until the tongue can be pierced easily with a knife. Lift the tongue out onto a board. While it is still warm, peel off the rough outer skin with your fingers and a small knife. The skin pulls away clean when the tongue is properly cooked. If it fights you, the tongue needs more time in the pot. Cube the peeled tongue and set aside.

4. 4

   Char the chiles and toast the recado

   While the bones simmer, heat a dry comal or cast iron skillet over medium-high. Char the xkatik chiles whole, turning them with tongs, until the skins blister and blacken in spots, about three minutes. Set aside. On the same comal, warm the recado rojo for about thirty seconds per side. The achiote should release its earthy aroma and stain the comal red. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo. The recado is the soul of every Yucatecan dish, and warming it wakes up the annatto seeds and the spices ground into the paste.

5. 5

   Build the recado base

   In a blender, combine the warmed recado rojo, the peeled garlic cloves from the second head, and 1/2 cup of the naranja agria juice. Blend until completely smooth. The mixture should be deep brick red and pourable. This is not a sauce. It is a foundation. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve if you see any unbroken bits of achiote seed. You want clean texture going into the broth.

6. 6

   Fry the recado in lard

   In a small skillet, melt the manteca de cerdo over medium heat. Pour in the strained recado mixture. It will sputter immediately. Cook for four to five minutes, stirring constantly, until the paste darkens slightly and the lard begins to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. Frying the recado is not optional. Stirred raw into the broth, it tastes flat and dusty. Fried in lard, it tastes like Yucatán.

   Recado rojo is not just 'spice paste.' It is annatto seeds, garlic, cumin, allspice, black pepper, oregano, clove, and naranja agria ground together on a metate or in a molcajete. The good ones come from señoras in the markets of Mérida and Valladolid, sold by the brick. Buy from a Yucateco vendor if you can find one. Do not use the dyed-orange industrial pastes.
7. 7

   Build the stew

   Stir the fried recado into the simmering bone broth. Add the cubed tongue, the loin or chuck, the salt, the hierbabuena sprigs, half of the epazote bunch, and the charred xkatik chiles. Keep the heat at a low simmer. The broth should now glow a deep amber-red, perfumed with hierbabuena and clove. Cook for thirty minutes, until the loin is tender but still has bite.

8. 8

   Add the offal in order

   Add the heart first. It is dense and needs the longest of the offal pieces, about fifteen minutes. Then add the kidney. Cook for eight minutes more. Finally, add the liver. The liver only needs four to five minutes to set, no longer. Overcooked liver turns chalky and ruins the pot. Each organ has its own clock. Respect it. No me vengas con atajos.

9. 9

   Finish with naranja agria and hierbabuena

   Pull the pot off the heat. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup naranja agria juice and the rest of the epazote. Tear in a few fresh hierbabuena leaves at the very end. The acid lifts the dish and cuts the richness of the offal, and the herbs added off the heat keep their green perfume. Taste for salt. The broth should be assertive, mineral, and bright at the back of the tongue. If it tastes shy, it needs salt, not more cooking.

10. 10

    Serve at the table

    Ladle the chocolomo into wide bowls, fishing pieces of every cut into each portion: loin, tongue, heart, liver, kidney, and a marrow bone if it landed your way. Set the chopped raw onion, radish, cilantro, habanero, and the lima agria and naranja agria halves in small dishes around the table. Each person finishes their own bowl, squeezing citrus and adding habanero to taste. Warm corn tortillas on the side. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •If you cannot find naranja agria (sour orange), mix two parts fresh orange juice with one part lime juice and one part white grapefruit juice. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. The real fruit has a bitter floral note from its peel that no substitution fully captures. If you live anywhere with a Mexican or Caribbean market, ask for it by name.
• •Lima agria is not regular lime. It is the small, bumpy Persian-cousin citrus of the Yucatán with a bitter, almost herbal flavor. Sub regular lime only if you must, and know what you are missing.
• •Recado rojo from a Yucatecan brand or a market vendor is non-negotiable. The industrial achiote pastes sold in some supermarkets are mostly food coloring and salt. The real recado has whole spices ground in. Look for brands made in Mérida, or better, find a señora at a market who sells it by the brick.
• •Buy your offal from a real butcher and use it the same day. Liver in particular goes off fast and you will taste it. If the liver smells like anything but clean iron, send it back.
• •Chocolomo is a slaughter-day dish and was traditionally cooked outdoors over wood fire in a large cazo. A heavy stockpot on the stove gets you there, but if you have a way to cook it outside on coals, the smoke adds something the indoor version cannot.

Advance Preparation

• •The bone broth and tongue can be cooked one day ahead, refrigerated separately, and the broth defatted before continuing. The flavor only deepens overnight.
• •Recado rojo, if homemade, keeps refrigerated for two weeks. Store-bought bricks last for months in a cool dry pantry.
• •Do not cook the offal in advance. Liver, heart, and kidney must be cooked on serving day, in the order the recipe specifies. Reheated organ meat turns rubbery and the dish suffers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)