Cooking Today's Pork w/ Yesterday's Recipes

[Pontormo]

I am marinating pork shoulder right now as per a recipe in Diana Kennedy's Recipes from the Regional Cooks of Mexico for Puerco en Naranja, i.e. a stew with fresh orange juice, garlic, peppercorns and Mexican oregano. I plan to cook it tomorrow.

The meat is supposed to be moistened only with orange juice from the marinade and a fresh, second orange. It is not browned in fat first. It is simply placed all in a snug casserole with the skin of an orange and baked FOR TWO HOURS.

THEN one is to drain off all but 3 T of pan juices (I hope), and cook it uncovered for another hour.

Only then is the meat browned by turning up the oven 50 degrees after it's been drained again.

Pan juices that are not pure fat are reduced with juice of yet a third orange that is poured over the meat, and in my case, served with a beautiful Mexican rice with limes and fried plantains, courtesy of Docsconz's thread on his culinary trip in March 2006.

Sounds good, no?

At any rate, Kennedy begins by praising how juicy the lomo or round boneless loin meat is in Mexico, but advising North Americans to use shoulder or rib end loin instead since our pork is drier. She was writing in the 1970's. I can't imagine what she'd say about the Niman Ranch pork that I bought.

To further complicate matters, I asked the butcher to trim & cut the meat into cubes vs. the 1-2 pieces of a larger piece of meat she recommends.

Do you think I should keep the flavors, but change methods of preparation? Add some onions just in case?

N.B. If this issue has been addressed in earlier threads, please direct me there. Thanks.

Edited April 3, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[edsel]

Niman Ranch pork is certainly an upgrade from the usual supermarket stuff, but it's still leaner than pork used to be. The bigger problem might be the cubes-vs-larger pieces issue. Maybe cut back on the cooking time?

I had some slow cooked "heritage" (Berkshire) pork on Saturday that was cooked low-and-slow overnight. Again, this isn't as rich (and fatty) as pork used to be, but it was scrumptious.

Since your pork is cut into smaller pieces, the main thing is to shorten the marination time. Unless you want pickled pork....

[andiesenji]

When I cook lean pork roasts, loin or eye of loin, fresh ham, I insert strips of pork fat (unsalted) or use pancetta (it is not smoked as is US bacon).

I have made the same stew, however I buy the boneless shortribs that have much more fat than the roasts cut from the large muscles.

[Abra]

Pontormo, that's very much like the way I cook pork for pulled pork when I'm not able to get it on the smoker. With large chunks of shoulder, I think you'd have to be really careful not to have the meat shred as you poured off the fat and set it to brown. Small pieces will definitely take much less time, perhaps only half the time, and the effect is going to be different because of all the exposed meat surfaces. Probably they won't shred, although I don't know if you want that effect anyway.

However, I think the fat will be enough. I have a Niman pork shoulder in my freezer now, and it has plenty of fat for that treatment.

[eje]

I just made a Kennedy mole with a Niman Ranch shoulder and it turned out great.

Country spare ribs are another great (and reasonable) cut to use for these sorts of things. Cook a little faster than shoulder, though.

My nemesis, however, is the Niman cut my local butcher sells as "boneless pork roast". So darn lean! It's like a 3 pound chicken breast.

[Werdna]

Recently I've been buying pork-shoulder 'steaks', cross cuts of fatty, well marbled pork shoulder for about 1.60 a lb, to me I'm getting the best cut of meat from the pig, for the cheapest price! I've pan-seared em, braised them, sliced em thin and used them for stir frys, they work for anything! Just last weekend I made a filipino adobo-seasoned pork confit from them and my guests said they were the best pork 'chops' the had ever had

I see the other cuts of pork, chops without the sleightest trace of fat, tenderloins, and just cant bring myself to want them.

[k43]

It shouldn't be difficult to get some pork fat from the butcher, at least if you don't shop at a supermarket where everything is prepackaged at a central location. If you're not into barding, you could simply drape a layer of fat over the loin as it cooks, or butterfly the loin and roll it up with the fat.

For chops and other thin cuts, I use an infallible method given in the NY Times many years ago: Pan fry the chops 4 minutes on each side, turn off the heat, cover tightly and let it sit for 12 minutes. (An instant read thermometer should show 150.) The residual heat finishes the meat perfectly, and there's plenty of moisture.

[Pontormo]

See Post #4 above. Abra was absolutely right on all counts. The Niman Ranch pork was not too lean to cook in this fashion, ending up moist with plenty of broth to reduce and finish with more fresh orange juice. While presentation would have been superior had I cooked the meat in one big chunk, all the crusty bits on the chunks that I ended up "pulling" were an accidental treat.

[Abra]

Great, I'm glad it worked out for you!