Carnitas

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sqwib

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Sep 25, 2007
5,962
1,034
Philadelphia
"Carnitas"
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Sous Vide Pork Picnic
180° first 3 - 4 hours dropped to 143° next 20 hours
bumped up to 155 next 24 hours.
 
  • I originally planned on doing this recipe in a crock pot at 24 hours on low.
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  • Mixing in my pork rub.
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  • a pan is lined with plastic wrap and sprayed with cooking spray.
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  • Pork is dumped in to pan
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  • Top is covered with plastic wrap and another pan is sprayed on the bottom with cooking spray and placed on top of the plastic wrap.
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  • The pork is placed in the refrigerator weighted with bricks to rest overnight.
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  • Removed Plastic
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  • Flipped
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  • Comes out nicely.
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  • Squaring up the loaf.
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  • Cut and floured
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  • Deep Frying
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  • Topped with my version of Taco Bell Hot Sauce.
 [h3]Taco Bell Hot Sauce (success but can be tweaked a bit)[/h3]
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 16 oz, Franks red hot
  • 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 heaping teaspoon chili powder
  • 1  teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 tablespoon minced dried onion
  • 2 tablespoons canned finely chopped jalapeno slices
Place in sauce pan and stir well, simmer at a very low temperature for 15 - 20 minutes. Remove and cool.

 

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Looks Good, Don't It?. Looks are deceiving my friend, this whole 8 pound batch went directly in the trash.

Something happened during the cook that made it inedible, I am going to repeat the recipe in a crock pot in a few weeks.

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NOT SURE but, The date was fine,

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I've had gassing but not like this.

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The first 3 -4 hours were at 180 degrees, I have a few theories.

1 Bacteria (gassing),
2 air in bag so meat does not have contact with the water (this portion was steamed).
3 Plastic Leaching (scary thought)
4 leaving the skin intact and being exposed to air in the bag.

I'm going to repeat this in a crock and also on my Sous Vide setup (properly)
 
still working on that.

The pork
 
Interest, what went wrong?  How was the taste like?

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According to this, your Sous Vide cooking method is so far from what Sous Vide really is, see this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide
The taste was horrible I am still working on that, I really think it was bacteria, I have a few picnics left that I will try in a month or so.

Here is the article you linked

Sous-vide (/suːˈviːd/; French for "under vacuum")[sup][1][/sup] is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times—72 hours in some cases—at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 55 °C (131 °F) to 60 °C (140 °F) for meats and higher for vegetables. The intention is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain moisture.

Temps on the picnic were run high the first few hours as a precaution, not sure if it was necessary. However since I was not going for a specific temeperature such as in my Sous Vide Chuck Steak and London Broil Here, but rather focused on rendering due to the nature of the recipe so exact temp did not matter, rendering was the goal here. It probably could have been done at lower temps like 143-155 however higher temps insured that everything would break down Fat, Skin, Connective tissue this is all mixed into the meat and holds it together once cooled sort of like souse.

I probably would run 155° for 48 straight up next time.

This can be done in a crock on low for 24 hours a bit easier than the Sous Vide.

Question; are you saying since the unforeseen circumstance of the bag gassing up it is not Sous Vide Cooking or the fact that the temps were higher then reduced and bumped up again is not Sous Vide Cooking? I am still fairly new to this but I am pretty sure it is still Sous Vide. It's a shame I cant call this cook a success lol...
 
Thanks SQWIB, I was starting to believe I was the only one that posted failures. We all know they happen, its just no one wants to tell on themselves....LOL Sometimes the best ideas just don't make it when you try 'em.

Dang shame to waste that pretty picnicie. You were getting really close to head cheese there for a min, you had my mouth watering..... I can't help my redneck palate! I guess I could call it a terrine instead. <Chuckles>
 
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