Pernil Pork Party - Chapter 2

Today I began the process of my 2nd practice Pernil.    My plan is to season the Peril on Monday and allow it to sit in the seasoning until Saturday when I will cook it.  This should allow the meat to really absorb the flavor and thus make the meat extra tasty.

I have already began calling audibles on the recipe based on my experience, trials, and remembering Thomasa's (my abuelita's) recipe for pernil.

Here is a picture of the ingredients all put together on a table:

Seasoning

10 Cloves of Garlic

1.5 Teaspoons Cider Vinegar

1.5 Teaspoons of Olive Oil

Adobo

.5 Teaspoon Dried Oregano

1 Teaspoon Chopped Fresh Oregano

8 Black Peppercorns

8 Tablespoon of Salt

Marinade for Injection

1 Thai Chili

1 Dried New Mexican Chili

1 Dried Chipolte Chili

1 Tablespoon of Cider Vinegar

1.5 Cup of Water

.5 Cup Vegatable Stock

Adobo 

Mash up all the seasoning ingredients except the adobo together in a mortar and pestle.  Remember to mash it up good as the more you mash it up the better it tastes as mashing the garlic really releases it's flavor. 

Once the seasoning is made its time to take the meat out of the refrigerator.   Unwrap it and put it on a platter.

My energy at this point turned towards the injection marinade.   For this marinade I start with tossing the whole chilies into the pot with the water and vinegar.  Bring it to a boil as we are trying to extract some of the peppery goodness from the peppers into our marinade.   Be strong with the chilies and kind of manhandle them in the boiling water with some tongs.    The water should begin to turn a red/brown tint due to the chilies letting their goodness go.  The more manhandled the chilies gets the spicier the boil gets.  So be careful!  Once its nice and colored toss in the vegetable stock and let it cook down a bit.   Once it has reduced (like 10% after the stock was added) its time to turn the mixture off.    Feel free at this point to season it with adobo to your liking.   Before we inject the pig with it we need to cool it down.   So toss the pot in the freezer to get the temperature way down. 


Now for a fun part and how we are going to finish off our seasoning.   Finely chop up the New Mexico and Chipolte chilies and mash them into the seasoning mix too.

We are now ready to turn our eyes to the pig.   As per the original recipe we cut diamonds into the skin bit of the pig.    When the skin cooks it gets really hard so make sure they are bit size little pieces when you cut in your diamonds.

Grab a nice long thin knife and start stabbing the pig like the (&!@(#*& pig did ya wrong.   Cut nice deep holes in it.


Rub down the pig with the seasoning and use your fingers to push seasoning down into the stab holes that you made with your knife.   Once every inch is coated its time to give it a final seasoning with some adobo (amount depends on your taste) and let the pig rest in the refrigerator for a couple of days.  The longer it sits the tastier so take your time.   I prepared mine on Monday and my intent is to cook it on Saturday.   This should make it extra tasty.

Here is a picture of my piggy goodness before it goes into the frig.   Of course...and I hope this goes without saying...but cover the pig and make sure it is covered good.  It will be a stinky pig as its got a ton of garlic in it :)

Pernil Pork Party Chapter #1 (prev post)

Pernil Pork Party Clinical Trial (next post)