Carnitas are coming! And confit.

In retrospect, it’s hard to fathom why we haven’t started selling carnitas yet. Oh, I could come up with various lines like, “I wasn’t sure if people would buy them.” or “We just don’t have the time to make them right now.” Certainly those things are true. And yes, it’s true that we sold pork belly confit that first chaotic week and then dropped it mostly due to exhaustion. But we’re starting to get our sea legs under us, and inexplicably we have not yet sold the food that I’ve been know to call “the best thing to do with pork” or simply “The. Best. Food.” Carnitas. Well, everything changes now. We will be selling carnitas, AND confit, at Red Feet wine market starting July 19th at 10 AM.

Now, you may be thinking, “Dude, maybe it would make things easier if you stick to introducing one new product at a time.” Which brings us to the question of what exactly are carnitas and pork confit. According to this, carnitas are “little chunks of meat, meat meaning pork, cooked in its own fat, with salt”. Whereas pork confit, according to this, is made by “taking a fatty cut of pork and braising it very slowly in its own rendered lard”. So you see, they are really the same thing.

There are differences between carnitas and confit:

• Cooking method: Confit tends to be fried in fat in the oven whereas carnitas is fried in fat over an open flame. Same end result, although carnitas are often a little more carmelized.
• Spicing: Most carnitas I’ve had has been seasoned simply with just salt. This is how I prefer them, but sometimes you’ll find them soaked in a citrus marinade or seasoned with aromatics such as allspice. Confit tends to be spiced with herbs such as parsley, thyme or rosemary. Ours will be seasoned simply with salt which gives you the flexibility to season it however you like. Trust me, though, they really don’t need anything.
• Preservation: Confit is traditionally packed into crocks, covered with the hot lard and then stashed in the root cellar for several months whereas carnitas is eaten fresh.

But the biggest difference is how they’re served. Serve them with corn tortillas, some fresh chopped cilantro and onions, crema fresca and Negra Modelo and you’ve got carnitas. Serve them with braised cabbage, mashed potatoes, a good loaf of bread and a bottle of bordeaux and you’ve got confit. Both meals are perfect for the right occasion.

We’ll be selling our carnitas/confit in medium sized chunks in a tub with a little of the cooking fat. They can be served cold or you can heat them up in some of the fat in a pan on the stove. Either way, it is traditional to shred them with a fork before serving.