Carnitas, literally translated means “little meats”. This is a dish made by braising, simmering and frying pork in its own fat, lard or cooking oil. It is often called a confit (1) but it really isn’t. A confit (as it refers to pork and not a fruit preserve for instance) involves immersing the pork completely in fat (lard) and slowly simmering it until very tender and then “canning” it for long term preservation.

1. Confit is a French cooking method that involves slowly cooking food in fat or another liquid at a low temperature to preserve it. The word “confit” comes from the French verb confire, which means “to preserve.

If we are looking at street food in Mexico then carnitas are closer to a confit in their construction. The pork (almost the whole animal if you check the image below) is cooked submerged in a cauldron of lard. It is usually cooked at slightly more than a low simmer and it is eaten fresh (so to speak) rather than being preserved.

Ingredients

• 800g fatty pork forequarter cutlets
• 370g pork fillet
• 2 oranges – 1 1/2 juiced (approx 1 cup) and 1/2 cut into wedges
• 2 (thin) 5cm sticks of cassia
• 12 (quite small) pimienta gorda (allspice berries)
• 6 (very small) bay leaves
• 1 cup canola oil
• 250ml coca cola
• 1 litre water

The meat I used in this dish is what I had in the fridge. I had a craving for tacos and I wanted to cook something I had never tried before (too cook that is – I have eaten carnitas before). The meat was not as fatty as it should have been I think.

The spices/flavourings used in this dish can differ (although every recipe I saw contained pimienta gorda). Other additions often include black peppercorns, Mexican oregano, cloves, cumin, garlic (which I really should have used – I didn’t have any in my pantry), onions (1), and even marjoram and thyme

1. this was really a mistake on my part – I had plenty of onions but never used any – I kind of made up this dish on the fly after looking at about 20 recipes

place all ingredients in a heavy based pot

I used canola oil in this recipe. Most “traditional” recipes call for manteca or pork lard. I will try the lard next time.

I added coca cola to my dish (only 250ml) but I think it could have benefitted from double that (next time). Several recipes also called for the addition of condensed milk at this stage (WTF??) but this did come up more than once so I have to assume it’s not uncommon to do (also next time).

Bring to a boil over high heat

Reduce the heat and skim off any scum that floats to the surface

Reduce heat to very low and simmer until pork is tender and liquid has reduced (1 1/2 to 2 hours)

The scent of the cooking pork filled my home with a particularly Mexican aroma that triggered memories of my first (and hopefully not my last) trip to Mexico.

Strain the liquid off the meat to remove all the bits floating around in the pot. Place the meat in a baking tray, cover with the liquid and bake on high (180 – 200C) until liquid has reduced and the meat is frying in the oil (that remained from the original liquid – we aren’t adding any more)

Cook until crispy edged and nicely browned. Chop the meat and use for tacos (or just eat it straight out the bowl)

I served this with flour tortillas, pico de gallo, lime/chipotle crema and a smokey chile salsa.

References

• Pork confit – https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/how-to-can-pork/
• Tacos de Carnitas el paisa” santa Fe – https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=480910597369118&set=a.480910567369121