OK. The carnitas got me. I've been cooking from Nopalito and considering trying the recipe in the book - it's a fry in lard version and calls for 4 lbs of lard. I know it can be reused but I don't see myself using that much anytime soon.
I studied the carnitas topic that @Smithy referenced and checked out the Serious Eats method that @rotuts mentioned. I decided to try the SV method since it uses the same seasonings as the Nopalito so hopefully I will get something similar.
3 lbs of country-style pork ribs from Sprouts:
They're conveniently about 2 inches thick, as Kenji recommends. Inconveniently, they're not boneless and the bottom piece had particularly sharp piece of bone at one end so cut it out.
The middle piece also has a bone but it's not sharp and I was able to turn it sideways to avoid any bag-bone contact.
Bagged up with seasonings:
The bag is now swimming at 145°F for 36 hrs.
Nopalito adds some beer late in the cook. I would have had to freeze it into a beer cube in order to seal it up in this bag so I left it out for now. I plan to cube this up for browning so I'll decide whether or not to add a little beer at that time. Perhaps I will cook down the bag jus with a little beer and a bit of piloncillo and moisten the meat cubes with that before I brown them.
