Pernil

Puerto Rico's pork shoulder studded with garlic adobo and roasted slowly until the skin lifts into cuerito and the meat pulls apart

Origin: San Juan & Puerto Rico

From the journey of Garlic.

Pernil is a pork shoulder rubbed with an adobo built on crushed garlic, dried oregano, black pepper, salt, olive oil, and vinegar, left overnight, and roasted for five or six hours. It is the centre of Puerto Rican Christmas, cooked for Nochebuena and eaten through the parrandas, the house-to-house Christmas visiting that runs into January. The garlic is used in a quantity that startles people: a whole head or more for a five-kilogram shoulder, crushed to a paste with salt in a pilón, the wooden mortar that is the single most Puerto Rican piece of kitchen equipment. It is not merely rubbed on. Deep incisions are cut into the meat and the paste is pushed into every one of them with a finger, so that the seasoning reaches the middle of the joint rather than sitting on its surface. Garlic underlies the whole Puerto Rican kitchen. It is the base of sofrito, of adobo, and of mojo, and the island's cooking is built on the Spanish, West African, and Taíno inheritance in which alliums, peppers, and culantro are ground together into a paste and used as the starting point for practically everything. The skin is a separate object with its own name. Cuerito is the crackling, lifted away from the fat in one sheet, and it is the part people ask for. It is achieved by drying the skin, roasting long and low with the skin loose, and finishing under a fierce heat; some cooks lift the skin off entirely for the last half hour and crisp it separately, which is reliable if less traditional.

Ingredients

Pork

5 kg bone-in pork shoulder with the skin on

To prepare

2 limes, juiced, for washing

Adobo

1 head garlic, about 15 cloves, peeled
3 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp sazón or 1 tsp annatto powder

To finish

1 tbsp coarse salt, for the skin

To roast

200 ml water

Method

Wash the pork in cold water with the lime juice, rinse, and dry it thoroughly.
Loosen the skin from the fat with your fingers and a knife, working from one side and leaving it attached along one edge so it can be laid back.
Cut deep incisions all over the meat, about 4cm apart and going well in.
Crush the garlic to a paste with the salt in a mortar, then work in the oregano, pepper, cumin, sazón, oil, and vinegar.
Push the adobo deep into every incision with a finger, then rub the rest over all the exposed meat and under the loosened skin.
Get the paste into the cuts rather than onto the surface. A joint this size cannot be seasoned from the outside and the difference is obvious on the plate.
Lay the skin back over, cover, and refrigerate overnight and up to two days.
Bring the shoulder to room temperature, pat the skin completely dry, and rub the coarse salt into it.
Sit it skin side up in a roasting tin with the water in the bottom and roast at 150°C for five hours.
Raise the oven to 230°C for a final thirty to forty minutes, watching it closely, until the skin has puffed and blistered all over into cuerito.
If the skin is stubborn, lift it off in one sheet and put it back in on its own for fifteen minutes; it crisps far more reliably alone.
Rest for thirty minutes, then pull the meat apart in coarse pieces and break the cuerito into shards over the top. Serve with arroz con gandules.

Notes

Cut deep and season inside the meat, not just on it. Dry and salt the skin before roasting and finish under a high heat. Lifting the skin off to crisp separately is the reliable method and a great many Puerto Rican cooks do it. Sazón with annatto gives the familiar colour and is sold in packets; a teaspoon of annatto powder does the same job. It is cooked the night before Christmas and eaten for several days, and the leftovers are the correct filling for a sandwich.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pernil
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 6 h
Total time: 7 h
Yield: 12
Cuisine: San Juan & Puerto Rico
Ingredients: 5 kg bone-in pork shoulder with the skin on; 2 limes, juiced, for washing; 1 head garlic, about 15 cloves, peeled; 3 tbsp dried oregano; 2 tbsp salt; 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper; 4 tbsp olive oil; 3 tbsp white vinegar; 2 tsp ground cumin; 1 tbsp sazón or 1 tsp annatto powder; 1 tbsp coarse salt, for the skin; 200 ml water

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control