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Carnitas Sous-Vide?! Help

Alex_36374

I'm looking to do my Carnitas Sous-Vide. I normally braise them in an Orange Jalapeño sauce. Is there any reason why I wouldn't use a reduced sauce in the bag with the meat? Just looking for more flavor.

Thanks!!

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seijoed

Use a pressure cooker

Alex_36374

I did last time, but honestly, wanted to try them SousVide

seijoed

It might possibly be even more rendered, but.... Carnitas need to be crispy, tender, spicy sauce and really nice pull.

douglas_bd

So, I'd think about the entire recipe here, you're probably going to want a long cook at a relatively high temp to get the right pull to the meat. Something like 85C for 12 - 18 hours, I'd guess, or go lower but much longer 63-65C for 48 - 72 hours. Then, I'd recommend finishing it in a deep fryer to crisp it up. I'm not sure the orange jalapeno will hold up to that time-temp-finishing combination. Also, I think long cooks with acidic juices gives the meat a mealy texture - I've seen this with a similar OJ sauce and skirt steak for fajitas on a long cook. I'd cook sous vide with just a bit of oil, get the texture you're going for. Fry it off to get the edges nice and crispy. Or maybe fry off half of it and leave the rest for some texture variation. Then I'd create a sauce to add at the last minute. Especially with orange juice, this will keep the flavor bright. Maybe concentrate a bit of the juice, add some charred jalepeno's, then add some fresh juice back in for that punch of flavor.

Alex_36374

Thanks! Very helpful.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

It depends on the texture you want. But the Modernist Cuisine at Home recipe for sous vide carnitas suggests cutting pork shoulder into cubes, bagging it with pork stock, and cooking for 36 hours @ 65C. At this point, strain the bag juices into a pot, add your orange/jalapeno flavorings and let the liquid reduce a bit. Then add the pork cubes and baste them with the reducing flavored jus until they pick up some nice color and the glaze gets syrupy. The texture will be less flakey/pulled-porky than using a pressure cooker or doing an extended braze. At any rate, that's how I'd adapt the MC@H recipe to your particular purposes. I'm with Brian in thinking that long cooks in an acidic environment can really make meat suffer (mealy is a great adjective to describe it). I wouldn't hesitate to add some chiles to the pork stock in the initial step though.

mike-chefsteps

Try the Carnitas Tacos with Mole recipe in the Cooking Sous Vide: Beyond the Basics course. It's worked really well for me - very tender and juicy.

One variation I intend to try is separating the major pieces of the pork shoulder before roasting, to increase the amount of delicious crispy pork that results.

Alex_36374

Thank you everyone -- here's a quick update on what I did. Amazing results. Took Brian Douglas' suggestion. Cooked the carnitas Sous-vide at 163 for 24 Hours ( more like 27 hours). The texture was exactly what I was looking for, pulled pork. Incredible. In a cast iron skillet, I reduced an Orange Juice Jalapeño sauce (garlic, fresh OJ, fresh lime, jalapeño, some chipotle spice, mexican mint, mexican oregano, a hint of agave, a bit of the stock/juice from the bag). I then added the meat to the skillet, crisped it up on the BBQ for about 15 min. To die for!