Manteca de Achiote Yucateca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small heavy-bottomed saucepan, 1 to 2 quarts
• •Cast iron comal for toasting the oregano
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Glass jar or small clay jarro for storage
• •Stainless steel spoon (achiote stains wooden spoons permanently)

Instructions

1. 1

   Inspect the achiote

   Pour the achiote seeds onto a light-colored plate and pick through them. You want hard, brick-red seeds that smell faintly earthy when you crush one between your fingernails. Dusty, brown, odorless seeds are old and will give you a muddy, weak color. Achiote loses potency the longer it sits. If the seeds in your jar were bought two years ago, throw them out and find new ones. The whole purpose of this manteca is color and aroma. Tired seeds cannot deliver either.

   In Merida the achiote vendors at the Mercado Lucas de Galvez will let you smell before you buy. Ask for the current harvest. If you are outside the Peninsula, buy from a Mexican grocery with high turnover, not a spice rack at a supermarket.
2. 2

   Warm the lard gently

   Place the lard in a small heavy saucepan over the lowest heat your stove will give. Let it melt slowly until it is completely liquid and clear. You do not want it to smoke, sizzle, or even shimmer hard. La manteca es el sabor and burned manteca tastes like burned manteca. If you see the first wisp of haze come off the surface, pull the pan off the heat for a minute to cool.

3. 3

   Toast the oregano on a comal

   While the lard melts, heat a dry comal over medium. Drop the Yucatecan oregano in for about ten seconds, shaking the pan, until you smell it. Oregano yucateco is not Mediterranean oregano. It is a different plant with a sharper, almost citrus-resin perfume that defines Peninsula cooking. Pull it off the comal the moment you smell it. Burned oregano turns bitter and there is no recovery.

4. 4

   Add the aromatics to the warm lard

   Slide the garlic cloves, toasted oregano, bay leaf, canela, allspice, and salt into the melted lard. The lard should be warm enough that the garlic whispers, not loud enough that it browns. Let everything steep for five minutes over the lowest heat. The fat will start to take on the perfume of the spices before the achiote ever goes in. This staged infusion is what separates a real manteca de achiote from a bottle of red oil at the supermarket.

5. 5

   Add the achiote and infuse

   Add the achiote seeds to the warm lard. Almost immediately the fat will begin to take on color, first amber, then orange, then a deep ruby red that stains everything it touches. Keep the heat at its lowest setting. Let the seeds steep in the warm fat for 25 to 30 minutes, swirling the pan every five minutes. Do not let the lard bubble. You are infusing, not frying. If you push the heat, the achiote color turns brown and dull instead of brick red.

   Watch the color, not the clock. When the lard is the color of a clay roof tile in Valladolid, you are done. If after 30 minutes you are still seeing orange, your seeds were old. Use them anyway, the flavor is there, but next time buy fresher.

   Achiote stains everything: wooden spoons, plastic spatulas, countertops, your fingernails. Use a stainless steel spoon and work over a tray. The stain on the wood is permanent and the senoras in Merida wear it like a badge.
6. 6

   Rest off the heat

   Pull the pan off the heat and let the manteca sit, undisturbed, for another 15 minutes. The seeds will continue to release color as the fat cools. This residual infusion is where the depth lives. Rush it and you have a pretty color with no character behind it.

7. 7

   Strain into a clean jar

   Set a fine-mesh strainer over a glass jar or small clay jarro. Pour the warm lard through, pressing very lightly on the seeds and aromatics with the back of a spoon. Do not crush. Crushing the achiote seeds releases gritty pigment that will cloud your finished manteca. Discard the spent solids. You should have about two cups of brilliant ruby-red lard, fragrant with garlic, oregano, canela, and allspice.

8. 8

   Cool and store

   Let the manteca cool to room temperature on the counter. It will turn from liquid ruby to a solid brick-red salve as it sets, the same texture as soft butter. Cover and refrigerate. Use it to enrich recado-marinated pork before it goes in the pib, to brush onto fish before grilling, to fry onions and tomato for sauces from Tizimin to Campeche. A spoonful turns a pot of black beans into something a senora from Merida would nod at. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Home-rendered lard is worth the extra effort. Save the strained fat from a batch of carnitas or render fresh pork back fat slowly in a low oven. The flavor is rounder and the color picks up the achiote more cleanly than commercial lard, which often has a faintly waxy mouthfeel.
• •Do not substitute olive oil, vegetable oil, or butter. Olive oil tastes of olives, vegetable oil tastes of nothing, butter burns at the temperature achiote wants. Pork lard is the carrier this recipe is built on. La manteca es el sabor.
• •If you cannot find Yucatecan oregano outside Mexico, look in a Mexican grocery for oregano labeled 'yucateco' or 'oregano del monte.' Mediterranean oregano from a supermarket spice jar is the wrong plant, the wrong perfume, and the wrong dish. In a pinch, leave the oregano out entirely rather than substitute. A neutral manteca de achiote is better than one that smells like pizza.
• •Store the finished manteca in the refrigerator for up to two months. It also freezes well in small jars. Pull out only what you need and let it soften on the counter for ten minutes before using.
• •Use it to bloom: melt a tablespoon in a hot cazuela before you add onions, garlic, tomato, or pieces of fish. That first contact with the hot fat is how the color and aroma transfer into the dish. Stirring it in cold at the end gives you color without depth.

Advance Preparation

• •Manteca de achiote keeps refrigerated for up to two months in a sealed jar. The color and aroma actually deepen for the first week as the spices continue to marry in the cold fat.
• •Make a double batch when achiote seeds are fresh. The manteca freezes well for up to six months in small portions, ready to pull for pibil, pescado tikin xic, or a pot of frijoles colados.
• •If you plan to use the manteca for cochinita pibil, make it at least one day ahead. The recado rojo carries it deeper into the pork when both are made in advance and combined cold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 13g)