What is Pastor Pork?
Al pastor, also known as pastor pork is a Mexican dish originating in Puebla with Lebanese roots. Pork shoulder is marinated with pineapple juice, achiote paste, and vinegar. The meat is sliced thin and stacked on a spit, much like gyro meat. It then slowly turns over an open flame or heat source. This extremely flavorful meat is salty, umami, and very tender. Pastor pork is used in numerous dishes, as a filling and topping for tacos, huaraches, and more.
What does Pastor Pork Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Pork shoulder, also called Boston butt is a relatively tough cut of pork with marbled white fat throughout the red meat. The flavor is umami and fatty. Pork shoulder is best for a slow roast to break down the tissue and to create a more tender bite.
The pineapple is a tropical fruit with a large, round, oblong body and textured and patterned skin. When unripe, the pineapple is green and when ripe it exhibits yellow tones and smells sweet. At its top, the pineapple has rough green stalks, called the crown, which must be removed along with the skin, before eating. The flesh of the pineapple is yellow, juicy, and has a soft fibrous texture. The flavor is sweet, tart and intensely fruity. The core of the fruit is removed, as it is too tough to chew properly.
Vinegar is made from alcohol. It can be made from wine, fermented apple, grains and other sources. Healthy bacteria is used to ferment this product. The final result is a thin liquid used to season foods. All vinegar is sour. White vinegar has a sharp sour flavor and is clear. Red wine vinegar is a clear red color and tastes a bit more rounded. Balsamic vinegar is dark red or brown and tastes rich, fruity and sour. There are many other kinds of vinegar, each with its own unique flavor profile. Some types of vinegar are suited to specific flavors and cuisines. It is used in sauces and in dishes both sweet and savory.
Pineapple juice is squeezed from the tropical pineapple. The flavor is tangy, refreshing and sweet and the color is a somewhat opaque yellow. It is best erased cold.
The ancho pepper is a dried poblano pepper and only takes on the name of ancho, once dried. The poblano stay on the vine until it is red. It is oblong and 3-4 inches in length with seeds and flesh that are hot and spicy. Once dried the poblano becomes the ancho and has a crispy and dry texture that can be ground or rehydrated. The ancho is dark reddish in color and has a strong heat that is great for sauces and salsas.
Achiote paste, also known as recado rojo in Spanish is a spice blend used in Mexican and Belizean cuisines. Achiote is another word for annatto seeds which is one of the primary ingredients of achiote paste and imparts the red colors that denote this spice blend. Cumin, garlic, cloves, black pepper, allspice, and salt accompany annatto seeds in the spice paste. The flavors are spicy, earthy, and nutty with a hint of tartness. It is used in mole sauces, tamales, and a number of savory dishes.
Garlic is used in cuisines around the world and is extremely popular for its depth of flavor. The garlic bulb forms underneath the soil and is harvested once it reaches maturity. The bulb typically has thin, dry, white and flaky skin, surrounding the individual cloves. Often there are 10-12 cloves to a bulb/head of garlic. The cloves are cream colored with a strong smell and flavor that is spicy and sharp. Garlic takes on a nutty flavor in addition, when cooked. It is used in countless dishes, sauces, breads and more.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
Cumin is a spice used in many cuisines around the world. The seed from which cumin is ground is a thin seed with a long body and tapered ends. Cumin is just a few millimeters in length and has a light brown or tan tone, which can look a bit grey. Ground cumin is light brown and has a flavor that is spicy, earthy and a little nutty. When pan heated, the flavor of cumin is both tempered and enhanced.
Cloves are the buds of the Syzygium aromaticum tree. They are dried and can be used whole or ground as a spice. Cloves have a strong, sweet and peppery flavor that can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
Oregano is an herb in the mint family and grows on thin and delicate stalks that produce tiny oblong leaves with tapered ends. These leaves are less than half an inch in length. Oregano has a mildly fuzzy texture and is thin and delicate. The green herb has a sharp and peppery flavor that is pungent, slightly bitter, green and a bit minty. When eaten, raw oregano creates a stringent feeling in the mouth. This herb is used in many cuisines and can be found frequently in Italian dishes, such as tomato sauce.
The peppercorn plant grows in tropical climate and produces tiny black fruit. The fruit is dried and become hard. At this point it is ground into a textured powder comprised of black and grey dots. It has a flavor that is spicy, pungent and sharp. Pepper is an extremely popular spice, especially in Western cuisines and lends a gentle heat to dishes. There are different varieties of black pepper and the flavor changes subtly because of this.
