Garlic pork

As tradition built it

Garlic pork

Directly descended from Madeira's carne de vinha d'alhos, brought by the Portuguese indenture wave from 1834 · 3 to 4 days, plus about 30 minutes to cook

Ingredients

• 3lb pork shoulder or loin, cubed
• as needed diluted vinegar, for rinsing
• 1 tbsp salt
• ½ lb garlic, peeled
• ¼ cup wiri wiri pepper, or two habaneros
• 1 cup fresh thyme
• 4.5 cups white distilled vinegar
• reserved from the fresh thyme above thyme stems

Method

1. Rinse the cubed pork shoulder or loin in diluted vinegar and salt it.
2. Blend the peeled garlic, wiri wiri pepper (or two habaneros) and fresh thyme to a paste.
3. Layer the pork in a sterilised jar with vinegar, the seasoning paste and thyme stems, repeating until the meat is fully submerged in the white distilled vinegar.
4. Brine at room temperature for three to four days, the meat visibly paling as it cures.
5. Drain and pan-fry on medium until the pickling liquid has evaporated and the meat browns in its own rendered fat, around 30 minutes, or broil or air-fry at high heat for a shorter finish.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide render, dehydrated seasoning dust, live-fire bread

Rung 05

Method

1. Hold the vinegar-brine cure exactly as tradition sets it, three to four days at room temperature is already doing real technical work and does not need shortening or replacing.
2. Finish the cooking stage sous vide at a low, controlled temperature to render the fat through evenly before the final pan-sear, rather than relying on a hot pan alone to do both jobs at once.
3. Dehydrate a portion of the garlic and thyme paste separately into a dry seasoning dust in the spice grinder, finished over the plated pork for a concentrated top note the wet cure alone cannot deliver.
4. Serve with a version of the traditional plait bread baked in the Big Green Egg run as an oven, for a faint wood aroma the original coalpot-adjacent hearths this dish grew up around would have carried naturally.