Al Pastor idea

[ssv3]

I wasn't clear in my question. I'm going to be using a slightly different process to you - I'm going to "par-cook" the al pastor in a smoker before putting it on a rotisserie, since we are not going to be chowing down on it for several hours. So my question was - what internal temperature to cook the meat to in the smoker, prior to transferring it to the rotisserie? I'm thinking 110-120F, aiming to get there over a couple of hours?

Gotcha!

I pretty much calculated approximate chow time and hung it in the barrel so that part naturally you have to calculate based on when and until what time you want to serve. At roughly 275* pit temp from the meat's raw stage, I was ready to serve in slightly under 2 hours. Of course all that matters on how big your spit is. Mine was roughly 5lb ish at its raw stage.

 

[stickman]

OK, so here's how it went:

Saturday evening, made the marinade using Joshua Weissman's recipe (https://www.joshuaweissman.com/post/tacos-al-pastor)

Had a bit of a freak-out - at 9:10 PM, I discovered that my achiote paste had gone off. Luckily our local Nugget Market doesn't close till 10:00 PM, and even more luckily, they still had a couple of packets in stock!

A couple of tweaks to Weissman's recipe - I added some MSG, and once I had it all built I thought it could use a bit more zip, so I added a bit of Kashmiri chili powder. Checking the reserved portion the next day we felt it was a bit under-salted for marinade purposes (although it tasted great on a spoon), so we did give the meat a light sprinkling of additional salt prior to cooking.

For the meat, I had purchased two Costco pork butts and trimmed them hard, basically to the same shape that I use for buckboard bacon. There's about 7 lbs of meat here.

I then sliced these up into steaks:

and into the marinade.

Sunday, Josh came round with his new knife. It's AEB-L steel, 245 mm gyuto with birdseye maple and purple heart handle, with a Denka-style finger notch. Custom built by Matt Sicard out of Ontario Canada.

So naturally he wanted to play with it. He made the fixings.

While he was doing that, I set up the workspace in the back yard. We got the FTG, the Treager, the Weber with rotisserie attachment, and the Engelbrecht mounting the Carson Rodizio set up. The plan was to try this two ways and see which method worked best.

Mounted the meat on each spit between two pineapple halves. The Weber spit has spit forks, but this are not available for the Rodizio spit.

Rodizio spit goes into the Traeger. I start on "smoke" and slowly wind the temperature up to 225. Over 2 hours, the internal temperature goes up to about 105 F.

Weber spit goes straight on the weber. I've got about 6-8 coals lit on one side, with a smoke box loaded with pellets and hickory chips on top. I had a pellet maze on the other side. The smoke box worked a treat, but I've had no luck with my pellet maze - I can never get it to stay lit. I'm sure there is a thread on this forum somewhere that can tell me what I am doing wrong!

So after two hours (we could have waited longer but TBH we got bored), we pulled both spits. Internal temp between 105 and 110F.

Next, we trimmed off the pineapple skins and started the high temp cook. On the Rodizio:

And on the Weber:

Now it's a case of waiting till the meat is bubbling and nicely caramelized on the outside, shaving bits off and back on the grill:

Close-up of the final product:

And service:

 

[stickman]

So what did we learn?

Well, the flavor profile was fabulous. Weissman's recipe is great (although if my family was less spice-averse I would have given it more kick), and the smoke added a whole other dimension. The pineapple drippings also worked really well.

The texture was mostly great - juicy, firm, with the odd bit of crisp - we had been tasting during the rotisserie phase and we felt the FTG was not going to be necessary. However, there were some flaws. Some (small) parts of the meat had gotten a bit mushy from the pineapple juice in the marinade - maybe ease back on the amount, or marinade for less long next time. There was still the odd bit of gristle. We could do better perhaps by chopping the meat a little finer - or smoking at lower temperature for longer. I'd be cautious about that though, because the smoke level was just about perfect.

Overall - I think the result was not inferior to any other Al Pastor I have had.

Slicing was a two-person job. This was in part because the meat and pineapple shrank and got loose. So, I held the spits vertical, pushing down on the top piece of pineapple with tongs, while Josh sliced. This method worked fine for both the Carson spit and the Weber, although with the Carson spit you also have to support the pineapple at the bottom or the whole assembly will shoot to the bottom of the spit.

Advantages of the Traeger/Rodizio approach:
1. Better control of temperature and smoke level during the smoke phase
2. More fire control and faster cooking during high temp phase

Advantages of the Weber approach:
1. WAY less equipment involved. You only need a Weber kettle with a rotisserie attachment, charcoal baskets and a smoke box
2. Cleanup was a breeze

Bottom line was that both methods worked fine. However, next time I do it, I will use the Traeger/Rodizio approach.

The other thing - this was a longer process than I expected. 2 hours in the smoke, and by the time we were done, 2 hours on the rotisseries. In total 5 hours from starting prep in the morning to service.


Cheers, all!

Ramsey

 

[stickman]

My buddy Felipe gave me some interesting advice after I described this method to him:

1. Cut the pork steaks thinner. Maybe 1/4 inch. Will reduce the gristle. (I think if I do that I will definitely reduce the amount of pineapple juice in the marinade)

2. Put a piece of caul fat in between every ~4th slice. This will render out and increase the surface frying effect of the rotisserie.

3. Cut super-thin shavings from the spit when it is cooked. Will increase the fraction of caramelized meat and will also reduce the gristle effect.

----------------------------
P+S Maverick 2000 (coming soon!); Klose 20x36 Pipe Smoker; Engelbrecht Braten 1000; BGE XL; Weber 22" with rotisserie; Camp Chef 900 FTG; Camp Chef Somerset 4-burner stove; Traeger 15x22; Breville Control Freak

 

[Learning to BBQ]

Damn, that was fun! Thanks for posting Ramsey! That must have been a fun time for you guys. Glad it all turned out well. I appreciate the comparisons. It's hard to do a smaller version of the real thing, but you did it right! Kudos Brother(s)!

 

[stickman]

Damn, that was fun! Thanks for posting Ramsey! That must have been a fun time for you guys. Glad it all turned out well. I appreciate the comparisons. It's hard to do a smaller version of the real thing, but you did it right! Kudos Brother(s)!

Thank-you! Yes, it was insane fun. We've been eating leftovers for the last two days - a handful of grated Oaxaca cheese on the griddle with a corn tortilla on top, once the the cheese has turned to frico, flip and lightly fry the other side in the cheese fat. Meanwhile fry up the leftover Al Pastor on another griddle. Fold the taco, cheese side in, and fill with meat, pickled onions, etc ... and enjoy. And, we have another pot of the meat in the freezer! :smile:

 

[Itsdone]

That seems like a lot of work. For home use, i would just marinate those slices and use a Wok to sear them. Then toss some fresh pineapple chunks into the Wok at the last few minutes. Or just grill them slices and get some char on them. That method seems just for show to be honest. Only the first few carvings are going to be flavorful.

 

[stickman]

That seems like a lot of work.

Yep. But a ton of fun! I think my son would agree with you, though. I showed him this thread, and his response was - "You're a nutter"!

For home use, i would just marinate those slices and use a Wok to sear them. Then toss some fresh pineapple chunks into the Wok at the last few minutes. Or just grill them slices and get some char on them.

I am sure this would give a good result, if not quite what I was going for. You'd not get the same smoke dimension.

That method seems just for show to be honest.

You are not wrong that it IS a good show. I enjoy that, and mostly so do my friends! :wink:

Only the first few carvings are going to be flavorful.

On this I respectfully disagree. This is a standard churrascaria approach, and you get caramelization every time you put the rotisserie back on the spit. Same as a Picanha. Of course, at some point you get too close to the spit to carve, and so you get a disk about 2 inches across that only has one sear on it.

 

[Itsdone]

Yep. But a ton of fun! I think my son would agree with you, though. I showed him this thread, and his response was - "You're a nutter"!


I am sure this would give a good result, if not quite what I was going for. You'd not get the same smoke dimension.


You are not wrong that it IS a good show. I enjoy that, and mostly so do my friends! :wink:


On this I respectfully disagree. This is a standard churrascaria approach, and you get caramelization every time you put the rotisserie back on the spit. Same as a Picanha. Of course, at some point you get too close to the spit to carve, and so you get a disk about 2 inches across that only has one sear on it.

Maybe not on the Wok idea, but on a blazing hot charcoal grill, those marinated slices would be soo much flavorful then that rotisserie setup. More char equals more flavor.

 

[stickman]

Maybe not on the Wok idea, but on a blazing hot charcoal grill, those marinated slices would be soo much flavorful then that rotisserie setup.

Definitely worth a try.

I think the results would be different, though. On a rotisserie, you are to a large extent frying the meat surface using rendered fat from the meat. That's not worse or better than straight charring, but you would expect it to be a different flavor profile. And, two hours of smoke gives you a different flavor again (not necessarily worse or better).

 

[stickman]

Now I come to think of it, what you are proposing is basically carne asada with pork. If you go to a taco truck, you can have both carne asada and al pastor, right? They offer different things - they are both good and one is not necessarily better than the other.

 

[Itsdone]

Now I come to think of it, what you are proposing is basically carne asada with pork. If you go to a taco truck, you can have both carne asada and al pastor, right? They offer different things - they are both good and one is not necessarily better than the other.

You should try taking those slices and spreading them out on a showtime rotisserie basket. Best of both worlds. Set it, and forget it. Ron Popeil would approve.

 

[stickman]

You should try taking those slices and spreading them out on a showtime rotisserie basket. Best of both worlds. Set it, and forget it. Ron Popeil would approve.

Carson offers one of those for the Rodizio, too.
https://carsonrodizio.com/collections/catering/products/basket-skewer

 

[bonz50]

Sounds like a plan. I've done that at least a few times. I used to hang the spit in my Hunsaker or PBC drum, cook it a little bit, take it out and slice the edges off right onto the flat top and hang the spit back to keep warm (replicating a rotating spit). We ate and drank from afternoon to just about midnight.

that looks amazing!!!!

recipe??

 

[ssv3]

Looking great Stickman! :thumb:

 

[ssv3]

that looks amazing!!!!

recipe??

Thanks Tony!

Here is a detailed thread of that cook with all the recipes.

https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=239927