Cochinita Pibil, the begining

Kevin's Cochinita Pibil

I've been studying recipes for Cochinita Pibil for a couple of years. Rick Bayles and Steven Raichlen offer some good ones. There are even some interesting videos on Youtube. Most of them involve wrapping the pork in banana leaf and roasting in a pit. I've been making this with various methods and what follows is what I did today.

The cast of characters:
Starting with the red brick at the top and going clockwise we have 3.5 ounces Achiote paste, 1 teaspoon Cumin seed, 2 teaspoons Kosher salt, 1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano, 1 teaspoon black pepper corns, 5 cloves Garlic and a medium white onion quartered. From the bottles at the top I will use 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar and ¾ cup Naranja Agria (bitter orange juice).



7 pound pork butt.



This ones for Poobah.



Roast the onion and Garlic in a dry skillet until you get a little charring on all sides.



Roast the Cumin seed in the dry skillet until you can smell the oils begin to release.



Grind the pepper corns, Oregano and toasted Cumin with a mortar and pestle. I put the salt in there too. The grit seems to speed up the grinding process.



Put all of the marinade ingredients above in a blender and puree to a smooth paste. Don't put the pork butt in the blender, it won't fit.



Remove most of the fat cap and make small slits all over the pork to allow the marinade to penetrate.



Place your pork in a non reactive vessel and slather the marinade all over it.



Cover and refrigerate overnight.

That's all for today. The pork will be wrapped in banana leaf and into the pit about 8:00 PM for an overnighter. Hope I remember to post the results.

TheFinn said:

Wow that looks fantastic. How hard is it to find bannana leaves? I assume since you are from Minnesota that you aren't pulling them off the tree out back.

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That's for sure. There is a little Mexican grocery just down the block that has them frozen.

Time to get cooking. Layed out the Banana leaves.



Managed to move the butt from the marinade bowl to the leaves without a farking fwoosh.



Closed it up and secured with bamboo sticks.



And into the pit.



We'll see what tomorrow brings:wink:.

And it's done. Let it go for about 9 hours at 225*. That was too long. It's a little dry but still has excellent flavor. I've got this week off from work so I think I'll try it again later in the week.

The banana leaves look very dry on the outside.



But still moist inside.



Blurry porky goodness.



This didn't suck.

ljh34465 said:

Nice thread with good photo documentation - thanks.

What criteria did you use for the time/temp? Did you ck internal temp along the way?

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I did not, should have though. I just put it in the cooker and let it go overnight. Next time I will do this during day time so I can track internal temp.