Is cooking in lard throws us into the eternal flames of hell or is there redemption for us? Let’s make carnitas to hear the words of God!

Habits that we picked up by yesterday’s best available science die as hard as any, and sometimes even harder. It seems habits don’t care if those beliefs were proven wrong by today’s best available science.

What’s in the science?

The worst thing is that we don’t really change much in the way of living but only swap bits out. Much like when people realized that car fumes are bad for our health, nobody was looking for real solutions, like creating non-polluting cars or promoting alternative transportation methods but installed catalytic converters that catches the worst of the particles.

In the culinary world, for years fat was so bad that even looking at grease could cause us heart attack. Luckily, the food industry came to our rescue with vegetable oils for those who didn’t want to live without deep fried goodies. It saved the day and the hearts of many until everybody or rather their mothers started to deep fry everything even chocolate bars so vegetable oil became much worse than cooking in animal fat could have ever been.

Nowadays, we do the same with sugar and pointing our finger at it as the main cause of obesity pandemic, cancer or diabetes. Myriad of companies have been flocking to save our sweet tooth and substitute sugar with an alternative solution that will save the sweetness of our days and even adds a couple of years to our life.

What’s in the society?

Yet, somehow nobody seems to care about learning the lesson from our past mistakes and simply jump off the bandwagon. Sure, there isn’t any money to be made by making people stop doing something so probably we won’t be bombarded with “Live a clean life and make your own” ads during Super Bowl.

Nor we will feel peer pressure from social media influencer, paid by companies, to start a new life that’s remarkably different from the previous one. Afterall, we move the economy, everybody needs our purchasing power, especially those who try to sell us all what we need.

What’s in the Bible?

In reality though, we need very little and even the biggest influencer of the past two millennia, Jesus said so. Yet, many of us turn a blind eye on gluttony until it seriously threatens our life and even then, many of us hardly will to do more than swap one thing for another while the best method would simply be, not doing what’s not good for us.

The deadly sins don’t exist because nobody is tempted to fall for them though. These desires are woven into our nature and require constant effort to be maintained on a daily basis to live a life that pleases God and makes us healthy, one little bite at the time.

What is carnitas?

Carnitas means “little pieces of meat” is a variety of pulled pork but rather than prepared in the oven or even better on the barbecue, it is made by submerging in lard. It is slowly simmered until the desired tenderness is achieved which can last anything from 3 to 4 hours then the heat is increased and the outside of the meat becomes crispy.

Once done, the meat is pulled into little pieces and ready to be served, mainly as the protein filling for tortillas along with some green stuff, optional sauces, and spices. The less adventurous will be happy to leave out jalapenos or anything that hurts more then necessary but there are so many ingredients out there that goes well with carnitas that we don’t have to be worried about leaving some territories uncharted.

Although having carnitas looks like indulging in the forbidden pleasures of life when seeing the pork bashing in lard for hours if we are able to keep ourselves reasonably restrained then we can share and enjoy a nourishing meal not just when it’s finally done but even for days after.

Ingredients

Meat

4lb / 2kg Lard
4lb / 2kg Pork butt (Other meat like rib or pork feet can also be added or substituted)
2 Orange juice and peel
2 Bay leaf
1½ head Garlic
2 sprigs Thyme
¼ cup / 75g Salt
Optional
- 1 cup / 240ml Evaporated milk
- 1 teaspoon / 3g Black pepper
- 1 head / 100g Onion

Pico de gallo (optional for serving)

2 Tomato (diced)
1 Red onion (diced)
1 Avocado (diced)
2 sprigs Cilantro
2 tablespoons / 30ml Extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon / 3g Salt

How to make Carnitas

Meat

In a big enough pot, heat on high temperature as much lard as needed the meat to be completely submerged. Optionally cut the meat up to smaller pieces.
Once the lard is melted and starts to boil, lower the heat to medium-low, add the salt, garlic, laurel, thyme, squeezed orange juice, orange peel and any other optional spices, herbs or vegetables too.
Turn the meat every 30 minutes, otherwise it may burn down.
After about 90 minutes of slow cooking, check the meat if it can be pulled apart with a fork.
Remove the orange peel and increase the heat to high. Fry the meat until it gets a golden brown crust.
Remove the meat from the lard, pull and serve.
To keep the meat fresh and tasty as long as possible, we have to isolate it from the air. Keep the leftover submerged in lard in a cool place where it can solidify and seal off the meat from air.