Much learned from the first attempt. This time I found some sour
tangerines. Nice green peels. I am using double the salt, two
tablespoons. Unlike the last attempt I see something different has
happened. After 12 hours I rotated the meat in the marinade and noticed the
fat and skin had shrunk quite a bit. Today, 12 hours later I took meat out
to cook and the skin had expanded more than double the original size. The
slits I had cut in the skin now looked like a swollen pineapple. So the
salt really did draw moisture into the meat as Alton Brown taught. I
watched some YouTube videos and decided to cook at 400F for the first hour
then only 5 hours at 250 rather than 7. I am aiming for a moist, deeply
flavored meat like my favorite Cuban restaurant serves.

We'll know soon. Man, you can't beat the aroma.

Paul

On Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:04:30 -0700, Paul M. Cook wrote:

> Much learned from the first attempt. This time I found some sour
> tangerines. Nice green peels. I am using double the salt, two
> tablespoons. Unlike the last attempt I see something different has
> happened. After 12 hours I rotated the meat in the marinade and noticed the
> fat and skin had shrunk quite a bit. Today, 12 hours later I took meat out
> to cook and the skin had expanded more than double the original size. The
> slits I had cut in the skin now looked like a swollen pineapple. So the
> salt really did draw moisture into the meat as Alton Brown taught. I
> watched some YouTube videos and decided to cook at 400F for the first hour
> then only 5 hours at 250 rather than 7. I am aiming for a moist, deeply
> flavored meat like my favorite Cuban restaurant serves.
>
> We'll know soon.

Fat and skin of what shrunk? What marinade? Skin expands? What
moisture? And why are you cooking by time instead of internal
temperature? WTF are you talking about?

"Spiro Weville" > wrote in message
...
> On Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:04:30 -0700, Paul M. Cook wrote:
>
>> Much learned from the first attempt. This time I found some sour
>> tangerines. Nice green peels. I am using double the salt, two
>> tablespoons. Unlike the last attempt I see something different has
>> happened. After 12 hours I rotated the meat in the marinade and noticed
>> the
>> fat and skin had shrunk quite a bit. Today, 12 hours later I took meat
>> out
>> to cook and the skin had expanded more than double the original size.
>> The
>> slits I had cut in the skin now looked like a swollen pineapple. So the
>> salt really did draw moisture into the meat as Alton Brown taught. I
>> watched some YouTube videos and decided to cook at 400F for the first
>> hour
>> then only 5 hours at 250 rather than 7. I am aiming for a moist, deeply
>> flavored meat like my favorite Cuban restaurant serves.
>>
>> We'll know soon.
>
> Fat and skin of what shrunk? What marinade? Skin expands? What
> moisture? And why are you cooking by time instead of internal
> temperature? WTF are you talking about?


Probably best you not know. But lemme tell ya, it was damn good!

Paul

On Apr 10, 5:04*pm, "Paul M. Cook" > wrote:
> Much learned from the first attempt. *

Paul...take a browse here....

http://icuban.com/food/lechon_asado.html


Three Guys/Miami have a great cookbook you might like to read.