Barbacoa de Borrego

As tradition built it

Barbacoa de borrego

8 to 12 hours, in an earth pit

Ingredients

The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.

• 1 whole lamb or large joint
• maguey leaves, roasted and braided
• mesquite or oak coals and stones

Method

1. Line a pit roughly 80cm deep and 1.2 metres across with mesquite or oak coals and stones.
2. Wrap the meat in roasted, braided maguey leaves and lower it into the pit.
3. Seal the pit with cloth and earth, and leave undisturbed for 8 to 12 hours. The maguey both protects the meat and gives it a distinct vegetal aroma while holding in moisture.
4. Collect the cooking juices as consomé de barbacoa, to serve alongside.

What a modern chef changes

Ceramic mass as earth pit, reintroduced maguey aroma

Rung 06

Method

1. A Big Green Egg run low and slow for 8 to 12 hours reproduces the earth pit's sealed, steady, indirect heat far more precisely than a conventional oven can, and its ceramic mass holds temperature the way packed earth does.
2. Reintroduce the maguey's specific aroma directly, since the Egg cannot replicate it on its own: line the meat in fresh or dried maguey leaves exactly as the pit method does, or, where maguey is unavailable, smoke briefly over agave-wood chips before the long slow cook.
3. Finish the collected cooking juices, consomé de barbacoa, through a chinois for a genuinely clear broth to serve alongside, rather than the cloudy result an unstrained version gives.