Cabrito

Cooked beside the fire and never over it, turned for hours, because the fat has to render before the skin can crisp.

Goat. Not vegetarian — contains goat, lard.

Ingredients

• 1 young goat, about 5 kg, in quarters, or 3 kg goat shoulder and leg
• 3 tablespoons coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 500 ml water, for basting
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve
• salsa, as on its own page, to serve
• guacamole, as on its own page, to serve
• refried beans, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. IT IS COOKED BESIDE THE FIRE AND NEVER OVER IT, TURNED FOR HOURS. That is the whole technique and it is the opposite of a carne asada. A young goat is lean, bony and thin, and what little fat it has sits under the skin; it needs two and a half to three hours of gentle radiant heat for that fat to render out and baste the meat from above and leave the skin thin and crisp. Over the coals, the outside is black and the fat is still solid at forty minutes and the meat is dry at ninety. So the fire is built to one side and the meat stands vertically a hand's width or more from it, turned every twenty minutes, and the distance is adjusted rather than the fire.
2. THE TEST IS A HAND HELD WHERE THE MEAT IS. It should be possible to hold a hand at the meat's position for six or seven seconds. Two seconds is a carne asada fire and will burn this; ten seconds and it will take five hours and dry out slowly instead.
3. IT IS SALTED HEAVILY AND SEASONED WITH ALMOST NOTHING ELSE. Coarse salt, pepper, a little garlic. Young goat has a delicate flavour that a chilli rub buries completely, and there is no marinade for the same reason there is none on a carne asada: three hours of radiant heat would carbonise anything sweet or wet on the surface.
4. IT IS BASTED WITH SALTED WATER AND NOT WITH FAT. A brush of water with a spoonful of salt in it, every twenty minutes when it is turned. The water cools the surface slightly and slows the skin from setting too early, which gives the fat underneath time to get out. Basting with oil or butter seals the skin and traps it.
5. THE RIBS COME OFF FIRST AND ARE SERVED FIRST. The thin rib section is done a good forty minutes before the legs. Cut away and eaten while the rest finishes, which is how the whole animal gets served at its own right moment rather than everything waiting for the thickest part.
6. The goat quarters rubbed all over with the coarse salt, pepper and garlic and left 1 HOUR at room temperature.
7. A charcoal fire built TO ONE SIDE of the cooking area and let burn down to steady embers. NOT underneath the meat.
8. The meat set a hand's width or more from the fire, on a rack or spit, standing so the heat reaches it sideways.
9. TESTED: a hand held where the meat is should be bearable for 6 or 7 SECONDS. Moved further away if not.
10. Cooked 2 HOURS 30 MINUTES to 3 HOURS, TURNED every 20 MINUTES.
11. BASTED with the salted water at every turn.
12. The fire fed a little at a time to keep it steady, and the meat moved rather than the fire built up.
13. The RIB sections checked at about 1 HOUR 50 MINUTES, cut away when done, and served while the rest continues.
14. The legs TESTED at 2 hours 30: the meat should pull from the bone and the skin should be thin and crisp.
15. RESTED 15 MINUTES, then chopped through the bone into pieces.
16. Served with tortillas, salsa, guacamole and frijoles charros.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes