Pernil - Puerto Rican Roasted Pork

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PolishDeli

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Oct 9, 2018
382
538
Made a Puerto Rican style rotisserie pork shoulder on Sunday.
Here are some pictures and notes of the process:

Slather a pork shoulder in sofrito. Peel back the skin to get seasoning everywhere.
Stab the meat in several places and insert a garlic clove into each slot.
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Wrap and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours.
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Trussed. Sometime I stich the skin back on instead of trussing. Not sure which method is better.
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On the spit.
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Stalled at 145°F. I have some apple chunks burning for extra heat and flavor.
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Done at 190°F - 200°F.
It took about 5 hours. Temperature was around 300°F for the first few hours. I upped that to 450° for the remainder. The chicharrón was slightly too caramelized as a result of the direct flame and higher temps during the last hour of cooking.
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On the plate with plantains, avocados, and PR rice n beans.
Buen provecho.
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Thanks for looking.
 
Can I ask where you sourced the powdered sofrito?
All I see at the stores is in liquid form.
 
You nailed that bud . Fantastic . The color before you turned the heat up was perfect in my eyes .
Awesome plated shot too .

Done at 190°F - 200°F.
Easy for some people to miss the slicing temp for shoulder cuts .
You nailed that too .
 
Very nice. I think the Skin looks perfect. Better too done than under and still Rubbery. Yuck!
Been awhile since I made one. I make the rice from time to time, but no Plantains to be found in this part of PA...JJ
 
Many thanks everyone!

C Chasdev
The sofrito is a puree. My wife makes it, so i don't know the details. No tomatoes in her version. It freezes well, but now you got me thinking: maybe I'll put some in the food dehydrator to make a powder?
 
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Many thanks everyone!

C Chasdev
The sofrito is a puree. My wife makes it, so i don't know the details. No tomatoes in her version. It freezes well, but now you got me thinking: maybe I'll put some in the food dehydrator to make a powder?
I've been researching Sofrito for a few months, got derailed by some health issues. So far it seems one ingredient not easily found in supermarkets is a chili pepper in the same family as habaneros and scotch bonnets, but without the pepper heat of those varieties called aji cachucha. I found an online supplier for those chili peppers, both fresh & pickled. I bought a jar of the pickled peppers but I haven't tried them yet (I need to take it easy for a month or two while I recover). Anyway here's the web link.

 
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Outstanding!
Congrats on the featured carousel.
I've been researching Sofrito for a few months, got derailed by some health issues. So far it seems one ingredient not easily found in supermarkets is a chili pepper in the same family as habaneros and scotch bonnets, but without the pepper heat of those varieties called aji cachucha. I found an online supplier for those chili peppers, both fresh & pickled. I bought a jar of the pickled peppers but I haven't tried them yet (I need to take it easy for a month or two while I recover). Anyway here's the web link.
...
Pickling completely destroys the complex flavors of the original pepper.
I've found several sources of no heat habanero seeds, but no desire to grow them until reading this thread.
 
Fresh peppers are also available at that web link - voila!


So maybe I'll eat the pickled ones on sandwiches. I'm still recovering from major GI surgery two weeks ago, complete colon removal, and hot peppers aren't on my recommended diet list ATM. I already ate some cooked bell peppers in some Hungarian style chicken my wife fixed recently, so pepper skins aren't a problem for me, and removing seeds is easy for me too.

But don't let me discourage you from some home growns - just not really the right time of year for me to attempt that in South Texas. Of course I can order the fresh peppers and save the seeds I remove until the timing is better . . .
 
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