Slow-Roasted Yucatan Style Pork

[s'kat]

There doesn’t seem to be a thread devoted to puerco pibil, so I wanted to open one up for discussion.

The movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" popped up in this thread. Al Dente asked if anyone had the recipe, and I PMd the one that was floating around on my hard drive.

A week later, he PMd back, wondering if he had done something wrong... the meat had come out with a stewish quality. Since it had been quite some time since I'd made it, I told him I would do so again, and we could compare notes.

When I got home, and began looking through my cookbooks, I realised that I had originally taken Rodriguez' recipe, and combined certain elements of it with another recipe. My La Parilla cookbook, I found, contains it's own version of achiote recado and pork in banana leaves. Without any detailed notes to shed light on what I'd previously concocted, I decided to just prepare one of each recipe, and compare the final products.

<snip>

Well, the great pork-off took place on Sunday. I made one recipe using the Rodriguez method, and one from the La Parilla cookbook. I think that when I orginally did this, I combined the two, but never kept any notes during that process.

This is, essentially, the La Parilla recipe.

Here they were before going into the oven, side by side. Rodriguez is on the left, la parilla on the right.

And a closer view of the more pasty rodriguez wet rub:

And the far more liquidy la parilla:

After cooking for 4 hours, they both rested for 30 minutes before I removed the foil, and began shredding.

Rodriguez definately became more liquidy:

There was so much liquid on top of the other, I had to scoop a piece out:

So, I guess the final question would be- did these taste like stew meat? Basically, it's really what they are doing- stewing slowly in their own juices until tender. Still, I didn't really get a stew meat mouthfeel from either one.

Both were really good, too. It was hard trying to decide which we liked better. One person chose the Rodriguez sample because it was spicier. The rest of us eventually went with the La Parilla recipe. They were both great, but L.P. had more of a depth of flavour.... the combined spices were slightly more complex and earthy. Rodriguez was a bit more raw tasting. NTTAWWT.

Next time, I think I'll stick with the L.P. recipe, even if it is a bit more time consuming to make the recado as printed. The extra time, in my opinion, is defianately worthwhile.

Stew meat? No. Killer meat for stuffing into soft tortillas? Hell, yeah!

<snip>

So, have you made a similar dish, and how did yours turn out? And where in the world does one find banana leaves?!?

edited to add recipe link

Edited August 5, 2004 by s'kat (log)

[ellencho]

I once made the Susan Feniger/Mary Milliken from their Mexican Cooking for Dummies book and it turned out so-so, not as good as what I had at their restaurant. I also made a recipe that I found at Food network's site and it was HORRIBLE. Pork Mimi's Way, Yucatan Style: Cochinita Pibil . The Feniger/Milliken recipe tasted richer than the food network recipe which was thin and way too tangy.

I did not make either with banana leaves but I know you can get frozen banana leaves in the frozen sections of asian markets.

But wow, neither of my attempts looked as good as yours.

[Al_Dente]

When I put together the Rodriguez dish that s'kat was kind enough to send to me, I was under the impression that this would have more of a roasted taste. But once I had everything assembled, I realized that with so much liquid, it would surely stew.

It wasn't bad, just not as flavorful as I expected and I didn't like the mouthfeel that much. Perhaps if I were to brown the cubes of pork first, and then braise them in the same liquid that I would reduce, it would turn out more to my liking.

It was better than the movie anyway.

[FoodMan]

I've been meaning to try this since I saw the movie. Thanks for the recipe.

Elie

[CtznCane]

there is a fine recipe for Cochinita Pibil (Slow Roasted Achiote Pork in Banana Leaves in Rick Bayless' book "Mexico One Plate At a Time." I've used this recipe several times now and have gotten nothing but raves when I've made it.

[sladeums]

Here's another couple recipes that look to be drier.

One here, scroll down the page:

click here for Cochinita Pibil recipe 1

and one from the Cuisines of Mexico here:

click here for Cochinita Pibil recipe 2

[Jensen]

I made this the week I did my foodblog. Don't know how to link to a specific entry in the blog but the days describing the pork start on this page:

just scroll down a bit when you get there

It wasn't crispy like carnitas but it wasn't like stew at all.

[ExtraMSG]

Thanks for the showdown.

I usually get banana leaves in the freezer section of Asian grocers, although some Mexican grocers have them, too.

I've never had cochinita pibil in the Yucatan, so I don't know what's most traditional, but I have had it at several restaurants that are trying to make regional Mexican food, and it's never been stewish. More like a roast. Certainly there's some liquid, but not as much or more than there is meat. Again, like a roast rather than a stew.

My understanding is that it's traditionally closer to Carolina BBQ or Hawaii's kalua pork. Here's Zaslavsky's description in Cook's Tour of Mexico:

Cochinita pibil is Yucatan's most famous dish -- a pit-roasted whole pig first rubbed with seasoning paste then wrapped in banana leaves.  You can always find weekend-only stands along raodways selling pit-roasted pork, especially on Sunday morning, when you're in Yucatan.  In Yucatan, as at the carnitas stands in Michoacan or Jalisco, whole pigs are cooked an you buy the pieces you want: slice of loin, chunk of leg, or particular innards....

Don Amalio has been in the wholesale business for more than twenty years and his backyard has thirteen pits....At the bottom of the pits, heat-retaining rocks are covered with wood and set ablaze.  Banana-leaf-lined metal pans with tight-fitting covers containing the pork, recado, herbs, and spices are set over the rocks, earth is shoveled over, and the cooking process begins.  Huge metal pans, sometimes containing an entire pig, are lowered into the ground at 6 am every Friday for Don Amalio's weekend-only business to be removed at 5 am the next morning.

Interestingly, if you have Ortiz's Complete Mexican Cooking (at least the 1967 edition), her recipe is for a 10 lb suckling pig.

Edited August 5, 2004 by ExtraMSG (log)

[s'kat]

Wow. My husband might have his little smoker, but it's like a whole new world of pork cookery has opened before my eyes. It looks like my late summer/fall cooking schedule will inevitably have to include some testing of these new recipes.

Jensen, I'd missed your foodblog initiallly, but very well done! Sorry to hear that you haven't been able to make it again- it looked just gorgeous!

And I never would have thought to look in the freezer section at the Asian market for banana leaves. Thanks!

[mhberk]

I just caught the movie this weekend and decided to make the recipe sometime in the next month. I looked on the Internet for different variations and found this. Has anyone that has attempted to make it, tried letting the meat marinade for 8 hours and then draining the marinade off before cooking?

Edited September 8, 2004 by mhberk (log)

[scott123]

Regarding stewing/consistency issues, using banana leaves will give you a very different product, as they are slightly porous, allowing some moisture to escape. They also lend a flavor that is quite unique in itself.

The one critique I have of Rodriguez's recipe is the use of a citrus/vinegar combo as opposed to the traditional freshly squeezed sour orange juice (aka seville, naranja agria).

I also should note that the converted-coffee spice grinder method for grinding annato seeds should have a disclaimer. Because these seeds have such a high oil content, the particles embed themselves in every nook and cranny and you'll be finding chunks in your grinder for weeks.

[StanSherman]

What do you think about doing some cold smoke to the meat after the marinade?