Sometimes you screw up. If you don’t you’re not trying hard enough. That’s exactly how I came up with this. I was trying to make these amazing sous vide pork carnitas cubes I saw Rick Bayless do. When they hit the frying pan the pork lard melted and they self destructed. Time to make tacos!
This recipe uses the slow cooking technique called sous vide. Historically the domain of fancy restaurant kitchens, low cost home systems have become available in the last few years. Mine is an Anova. The concept is simple. You vacuum pack what you are cooking and cook it slowly over long periods of time. In this case it took 48 hours at 155F. Not for everyone, but if you have a home sous vide set up give this a try. It’s a fun meal to serve family style.
sous vide pork carnitas tacos
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork shoulder divided into 3 even pieces
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 6 Tbsp rendered pork lard - if you don’t have it don’t worry
- Pork lard to fry the carnitas - vegetable oil is OK in a pinch
- Salt to taste
- 24 corn tortillas
- assorted garnishes cilantro, salsas, pickled red onion etc
Instructions
Sous vide the pork
- Combine the cumin, granulated garlic and chili powder. Season each piece of pork with one third of the seasoning mix. A little goes a long way when you are cooking sous vide. Vacuum pack the pork individually, adding 2 Tbsp of pork lard to each vac pack.
- Set your sous vide up to cook at 155F. Cook the vac packed pork for 48 hours. If not using immediately, heath safety suggests cooling it after 48 hours in ice water then into the fridge. In the vac pack, this keep a few days in the fridge.
To serve
- When ready to serve, remove from the vac pack and fry over high heat in a generous amount of pork lard. If you get to the point where you can’t see free lard in the pan you don’t have enough. You are looking to get some of it crunchy so be bold.
- Cook one pound at a time in a non-stick frying pan. Don’t be tempted to cook it all at once - it won’t brown well. Salt it to taste at this point. Repeat three times.
- Serve the pork carnitas warmed corn tortillas and your assorted garnishes. Let people build tacos to their taste.
Nutrition
sous vide pork carnitas tacos
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork shoulder divided into 3 even pieces
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 6 Tbsp rendered pork lard - if you don’t have it don’t worry
- Pork lard to fry the carnitas - vegetable oil is OK in a pinch
- Salt to taste
- 24 corn tortillas
- assorted garnishes cilantro, salsas, pickled red onion etc
Instructions
Sous vide the pork
- Combine the cumin, granulated garlic and chili powder. Season each piece of pork with one third of the seasoning mix. A little goes a long way when you are cooking sous vide. Vacuum pack the pork individually, adding 2 Tbsp of pork lard to each vac pack.
- Set your sous vide up to cook at 155F. Cook the vac packed pork for 48 hours. If not using immediately, heath safety suggests cooling it after 48 hours in ice water then into the fridge. In the vac pack, this keep a few days in the fridge.
To serve
- When ready to serve, remove from the vac pack and fry over high heat in a generous amount of pork lard. If you get to the point where you can’t see free lard in the pan you don’t have enough. You are looking to get some of it crunchy so be bold.
- Cook one pound at a time in a non-stick frying pan. Don’t be tempted to cook it all at once - it won’t brown well. Salt it to taste at this point. Repeat three times.
- Serve the pork carnitas warmed corn tortillas and your assorted garnishes. Let people build tacos to their taste.
Nutrition
Montreal smoked meat is Canada’s answer to the pastrami sandwich. It’s a seriously great sandwich.
I love sandwiches. Seriously. It’s a bit of a sickness. And my absolute favourite? The Montreal smoked meat sandwich.
Luscious smoked beef piled high on rye bread and slathered with ballpark yellow mustard. Kosher dill on the side. Maybe a Cott’s cherry coke. Sandwich nirvana.
Montreal smoked meat is bullet proof BBQ brisket
My second favourite thing to do with a brisket is to smoke it Texas style. Real BBQ brisket is one of the truly great things in this world. I think anyway.
Texas brisket is not an easy thing. Hard to get right. Really hard. Overdone. It’s dry. Underdone. It’s dry. Seriously annoying.
But if you nail it. Then you’re in this wonderful place. A place where BBQ brisket jiggles when you poke it. Where the collagen runs when you slice. A magical place.
I’m getting pretty good at it. I’ve smoked more than a few. I am not scared to plan a party around it.
But I do hold my breathe. Every single time. I still get nervous. 15 people for dinner. And I’m betting I’m going to nail Texas brisket. It’s a little stressful.
Montreal smoked meat though? I sleep easy. It will work. I can make Montreal smoked meat work every single time. And so can you.
It’s a culinary campaign. Epic really. Takes 10 days start to finish. And you give up a big chunk of your fridge.
You have to tend to it every day. Smoke it then and then steam it. Real work. But it is so unbelievable worth it. And it’s pretty much bulletproof.
Montreal smoked meat is different than BBQ
Montreal smoked meat is cured. Then smoked. Then steamed. Same as pastrami. But it’s a different cut. Beef brisket. Pastrami is made with the navel. And that changes everything.
You want a high quality, untrimmed brisket. If the fat cap is any less than 3/8 inch stay away. Fat is critical. Fat tastes good. Don’t kid yourself. This is not health food. No doubt about that.
Curing salt is key
A little food science. Montreal smoked meat is cured. Step number one. The first step is to cure the meat.
That’s probably sounds more intimidating than it actually is. Toss a few ingredients together. Rub it on the beef. And wait. For 8 days or so.
It’s a little crazy sounding. I know. But this is the only tricky bit. And it’s not really that tricky.
This recipe uses pink salt or prague powder number 1.
Number 1. That’s a thing. It means it has 6.25% sodium nitrite in salt. If it doesn’t say number 1 us the instructions on the package. It’s a minor adaptation. But it matters. A lot.
More is not better here. You want to use what you need and no more. These are nitrates. Those scary things everyone is always worried about.
Pay attention. Maybe don’t eat this everyday. But once in a while probably won’t kill you.
Montreal smoked meat is a long game. An 8 day cure. It’s a long time. There are no shortcuts though. You just need to want it bad enough. And you should want it bad enough.
Wrap it up. Make room in your fridge. And flip it every day. That’s it. Not hard. Just slow. The ultimate slow food.
