Pork Butt Carnitas & Mexican Crab Cakes

Got a nice BRT pork butt from Caputo's for $1.29/lb. Going to do traditional carnitas. Cubed the pork, and rubbed it with oregano, kosher salt, & black pepper. Going to cook it slow and low in 3# of lard, OJ, lemon juice, and a cinnamon stick. Probably 3 hours on the stove top Going to serve on corn tortillas with cliantro, and whie onion, perhaps some hot sauce.

carnitas ing:



rubbed cubed pork:



Also doing some Mexican crab cakes with sour cream as the wet ing, as well as poblano pepper, red pepper, and celery. Got a couple pounds of live blue crabs from H mart in Naperville($2.99/lb.). Steamed them off, and got the meat out.

crab:


done:



yield:




crab cake:



thanks for looking, more pics to follow.

Jim,

Next carnitas, please get to any decent Mexican meat counter and pick up freshly-rendered lard. For this dish, it will make all the difference in the world. And don't forget the offal, ribs and skin....

Jeff

JeffB wrote:Jim,

Next carnitas, please get to any decent Mexican meat counter and pick up freshly-rendered lard. For this dish, it will make all the difference in the world. And don't forget the offal, ribs and skin....

Jeff

not too many mexican markets near marseilles, or my travels today.

i knocked it out of the park for a gringo.

really nice carnitas with a citrus kick, and really tender:




crab cake:



my plate:



for a pork butt not done on a smoker I was really impressed. Also even with so much lard, the carnitas were not greasy at all. Todays method will be the go to one from now on.

Leftover carnitas will become some nachos for the NFL games tomorrow. Go Ravens.

Looks good Jim

How were the crabs - were they full? I ask that because I always see them at H-Mart but have never bought them. When I was a young boy in Baltimore, my father would take me crabbing but we always threw back the females which is all they sell at H-Mart and other oriental markets.

this was my first time cooking, and shelling blue crabs(i typically cook live dungeness crabs, or do snow, and king), so i dont have much to go by. I have eanten lump crab many times, but this was my first attempt @ picking the meat myself I think they yielded quite a bit of meat, and it was really tasty. My wife also ate most of the roe, and butter mixed with some white rice while I was shelling them. I will buy these again for sure.