I'm working to develop a good recipe for Pernil, which is a puerto rican pork butt recipe. Though it can be smoked and that would be my preference, I can't - explained at the bottom - so here are some pictures of tonight's dinner:
The BEFORE picture:
Ready to Eat:
I love smoking meats and fish but can't for this recipe. I shot my mouth off volunteering to make smoked pork butt - a favorite of mine - for my next family reunion, to serve about 40 people this next March.
How was I to know that none of my relatives down there in North Carolina know even so much as one person that owns a smoker that I could borrow? They-all have lived there for about 3 decades; how could they not? I could not believe my bad news... They tell me people only grill down there.
Around here everyone and his brother owns one or two smokers....
So challenged with making about 3 pork butts with no smoker I look for a decent method and find: Pernil - Looks great so far. Looking for a Pernil recipe that makes sense - a good long cook to render the fat out and do it right, I find NONE. Even on this site (closest I could find here is just this one: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ghlight=Pernil and that won't cut it).
So I'm developing my own. I won't post my current recipe yet because its not done, but here is the readers digest version:
Paste up lots of onions and fresh garlic in the food processor, add lots of cumin, salt, oregano, pepper and key lime juice. Gash up the 10 pound pork butt deeply and lots, and stuff the paste into every gash and crack; coat the surface with the rest. Rack it up so it stays out of its own juices and slow cook more than 10 hours in the oven at about 250 F.
It was great tonight, but I'm still fine tuning it. But its a lot better than I thought I'd be able to do without a smoker.
Next time I do a butt in the smoker here I'm definitely going to do it as Pernil - very tasty, and I loved it the old way!
Suggestions anyone?
(Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but its hard to find the right place for help cooking a non-smoked dish on a smoking forum... Go figure!
)
The BEFORE picture:
Ready to Eat:
I love smoking meats and fish but can't for this recipe. I shot my mouth off volunteering to make smoked pork butt - a favorite of mine - for my next family reunion, to serve about 40 people this next March.
How was I to know that none of my relatives down there in North Carolina know even so much as one person that owns a smoker that I could borrow? They-all have lived there for about 3 decades; how could they not? I could not believe my bad news... They tell me people only grill down there.
Around here everyone and his brother owns one or two smokers....
So challenged with making about 3 pork butts with no smoker I look for a decent method and find: Pernil - Looks great so far. Looking for a Pernil recipe that makes sense - a good long cook to render the fat out and do it right, I find NONE. Even on this site (closest I could find here is just this one: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ghlight=Pernil and that won't cut it).
So I'm developing my own. I won't post my current recipe yet because its not done, but here is the readers digest version:
Paste up lots of onions and fresh garlic in the food processor, add lots of cumin, salt, oregano, pepper and key lime juice. Gash up the 10 pound pork butt deeply and lots, and stuff the paste into every gash and crack; coat the surface with the rest. Rack it up so it stays out of its own juices and slow cook more than 10 hours in the oven at about 250 F.
It was great tonight, but I'm still fine tuning it. But its a lot better than I thought I'd be able to do without a smoker.
Next time I do a butt in the smoker here I'm definitely going to do it as Pernil - very tasty, and I loved it the old way!
Suggestions anyone?
(Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but its hard to find the right place for help cooking a non-smoked dish on a smoking forum... Go figure!
