Carnitas

As tradition built it

Carnitas (Quiroga method)

Total cooking time close to four hours, traditionally over wood fire

Ingredients

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

• 1kg cueritos, pork skin, soaked first to soften
• 3kg lard, for rendering
• 1kg maciza, the lean leg meat
• 1kg costilla
• espaldilla
• 500g cuero, the thicker skin
• buche and nana, offal cuts specific to the region's full repertoire
• thin cueritos, added only near the end
• 100g coarse salt, added only once the meat is fully cooked

Method

1. Render lard slowly in a copper cazo for its even heat conduction across large volumes.
2. Add the maciza first, then the costilla and espaldilla.
3. After roughly 20 minutes, add the thicker cuero.
4. Then add the buche and nana, offal cuts specific to the region's full repertoire.
5. Add the thin cueritos only near the end so they do not toughen.
6. Cook for close to four hours total, traditionally over wood fire.
7. Add salt only once the meat is fully cooked.

Notes

IMPI, Mexico's industrial property institute, has granted “carnitas michoacanas” a collective-mark certification specifically to protect this method: copper or food-grade stainless cazo, pigs of 100 to 130 kg, slow lard cooking, coarse salt only.

What a modern chef changes

Sous Vide in Rendered Fat, Stainless Substitute

Rung 01

Method

1. A UK copper cazo is not realistically sourceable, so run the confit-fry in a heavy stainless steel stockpot instead, the honest substitute rather than pretending the real vessel is an easy purchase.
2. Bring the pork to a precise internal doneness sous vide, held in its own rendered fat rather than water, before the final open-pot fry, which then exists purely to build the crisp, browned exterior rather than to cook the meat through.
3. Reserve a portion of the cueritos, dehydrate them, then fry them separately into a genuinely crisp cracklings garnish.