Cooking Cheap

This is my adaption of the traditional Cochinita Pibil, using what I have for a smoking pit (Weber Smokey Mountain, the cut of pork, the ingredients I happened to have and my guess on what would work or not suck too bad. The hurdle is low: I want some “Mexican” flavored pork I can put in the freezer for tacos later in the year.

I had one half of a pork butt, the half with the bone, maybe 4lbs. I had a 100gm package (3.5oz) of Recado Rojo and I want to use my smoker without the all the banana leaves or foil of the oven baked recipes. Those are good, but you can bake in an oven 365 days a year. Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to be just right (80’s F) for smoking and I’m in the mood to capture some remaining summer. After reading conflicting recipes, here’s what I did.

I removed the bone and most of the outer fat. I split the hunk of meat into two chunks and scored the thicker parts so the paste/marinade can get inside. I purchased a fresh Orange (have you priced them lately?) and a lime. In a food processor, finely whirl

Paste/Marinade
• I/2 onion, quartered
• 2 roma tomatoes, quartered
• Juice of one Orange
• Juice of one Lime
• 1 Tblsp of Recado Paste (quarter of package)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp? of dried oregano
• 1 tsp? of fresh ground black pepper

This is more like a marinade than a paste. Taste it and adjust. Pour it over the chunks of pork in a plastic bag, massage it around and put in the fridge overnight. Clean up promptly because, recado rojo can stain.

After tasting, I thought about adding more recado. It’s tasty as written but another 1/4 package might be better but I’m being cautious. It’s an overnight marinade instead of a paste that is smeared on just before cooking. In the traditional method, the tomatoes and onions are layered onto the paste smeared protein. I know that the onion and tomato contribute flavor and moisture in the banana/foil and oven method so they were added to my marinade.

I’ve got two 1.5lb chunks of pig.I was thinking of shooting for 300F but my WSM has to be pampered to get it that high and I wasn’t up to pampering. Based on the outside temperature I guessed 20 lit Kingsfords would get me to 225 or so. You don’t have a lot of range, between 17 and 21 coals with enough unlit charcoal for as many hours as you think you need. I’m thinking 6 hours. Sure enough, it hit 235 and stayed near that with some valve tweaks so I would think I’m doing something useful. At 185F on the internal probe I removed the pork parts, wrapped them in foil and put them in a cooler. It also started to rain, just a a sprinkle, so that’s another sign the the outdoor session is finished.

As I feared, there wasn’t a lot of recado rojo taste in the finished meat. It was also a little dry and hardly any liquid in the foil. Perhaps, I could have gone for 195F internal. Or trimmed less. Doesn’t matter. It tastes great folded into steamed tortillas. It doesn’t have the bark and bite you expect from pulled pork. There’s more smoke flavor than an oven roasted Pibil, of course. So the banana leaves (or foil) wrapper makes a difference. That’s good to know.

What I’d do differently is a simple paste of garlic, recado, and enough orange&lime juice to get it spreadable and put that on just before smoking. After a few hours, remove it to a foil lined pan and then add the sliced tomatoes and onions and any left over juice, loosely wrapped and back on the smoker (or in an oven) for the remaining hours. AKA, the traditional. method has merits.

That’s for the next time. I’ve got decent taco fixings for the winter. That was the point. I’m not complaining if wasn’t perfect.