Hornado

As tradition built it

Hornado

Marinated 24 to 72 hours, roasted about 4 hours total

Ingredients

• 20lb (about 9kg), bone in pork leg, bone in, skin on, scored across the full surface, not just the fat cap
• 40 cloves (about 3 heads) garlic, crushed
• 3 tbsp cumin, ground
• 1 to 2 tbsp achiote oil or paste
• 2 litres (8 cups), plus more for basting beer or chicha de jora, enough to loosen the marinade to a workable paste
• 115g to 225g (4 to 8oz) lard, a little more, to brush the skin

Method

1. Choose a pork leg on the bone, skin on and well scored across its full surface, not just the fat cap.
2. Make a wet marinade of crushed garlic, ground cumin, achiote oil or paste and either beer or chicha de jora, enough to loosen it to a paste that can be worked into every incision, and rub it deep into the scored skin and the meat beneath.
3. Rest the leg, covered, in the fridge for 24 to 72 hours, turning it occasionally so the marinade reaches every surface.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C and roast the leg skin side up for 30 to 45 minutes to set the surface, then reduce to 160°C and continue for a further three hours, covered loosely with foil, until the meat is fully tender and pulls easily from the bone.
5. Remove the foil, raise the oven back to 200°C, brush the skin with a little more lard, and roast on until it blisters and crisps into cuero crocante.
6. Rest before carving.
7. Serve with llapingacho, mote or choclo, fried ripe plantain and a simple avocado and lettuce salad, with ají on the side rather than mixed through.

What a modern chef changes

Skin and leg cooked separately, sous vide then Big Green Egg

Rung 04, 05

Method

1. Separate the skin from the leg before cooking rather than roasting them as one piece: score the skin, dry it uncovered in the fridge overnight or in a low dehydrator to pull surface moisture, then fry or grill it separately at the very end so it puffs and cracks cleanly rather than fighting the meat's own moisture as it renders.
2. Cook the boned leg itself sous vide at 68°C for 18 to 20 hours in the achiote and garlic marinade, which delivers the long, low, even render that the traditional covered-oven stage is really trying to achieve, without the risk of drying the outer meat before the interior catches up.
3. Finish the meat hard and fast on a Big Green Egg over direct heat for colour and smoke, a few minutes a side, then reunite it with the separately crisped skin at the table rather than under it.
4. Make the accompanying ají with a batán rather than a blender if you have one, and serve the plantain as a thin, dehydrated crisp alongside the traditional fried maduro rather than instead of it, so the plate carries both textures of the same fruit.