Pork Carnitas
Tools of preparation
Slow Cooker
Sharp Knife to cut roast into workable pieces for searing. Purchased at a specialty cooking store form a retail worker.
Skills Required
Main ingredients purchased from grocery store:
Pork Shoulder delivered to grocery store in refrigerated truck.
Oranges (squeezed for juice)
Onions
Chopping Veggies quickly and evenly
Cumin
Butcher cuts whole pig into usable parts and discards waste.
Pig farmer raises and slaughters pig.
Farmer feeds pig several times a day for years.
Farmers hires contractor to build barn so that he can farm pigs, a crew of construction workers erects the building
Delivered from Florida orange groove to local grocery store by truck driver
Picked and packed into crates by a picking crew
Field men tests sugar and acid of the crop to insure ripeness
Growing conditions must remain close to ideal throughout growing season
Watered by automatic watering system installed by landscapers.
A groove of orange trees are planted by farmers. Trees are pruned and watered for three years before they produce fruit.
Sunlight
Proper temperature
If temperature drops too low wind machines are used to prevent frost
Wind machine is created in factory by factory employees.
Truck driver ships crates of onions to grocery store from bulk storage facility
Fork lift driver at bulk facility loads truck with pallets of onions
Onions are delivered to a temperature controlled bulk facility by a truck driver. Fork lift drivers stacks pallets of onions.
Food inspectors check onions for pathogenic bacteria and also grade quality. Onions are sorted by grade and size.
Farmer cures onions, a drying process, so that they can be safely stored in a bulk facility
Onions are harvested mechanically with a specially equipped tractor
Irrigation equipment is installed by landscaper crews or sometimes the farmers themselves
Factory workers build the tractor used for harvesting onions.
Farmer knows that onions are ready for harvest because the tops above the soil begin to wilt
Proper growing conditions, such as cool temperature, are needed for crop to come to fruition.
Mechanics fix parts of tractor as they break down with expected wear and tear.
Farmer sows onions after he uses farming equipment to turn up top soil
Packaged cumin is shipped to local grocery store by a truck driver
Bulk cumin is delivered to a spice company where workers package it into small labeled containers for resale.
A large shipment of ground cumin which was shipped from India is received in United States docks in New York. A ship captain has navigated the vessel across the ocean and a crane operator unloads full shipping containers onto the docs.
Workers in an agricultural factory separate cumin seeds from the flowering plant by using a mechanical agitator. The seeds fall through a filter when they are shaken free of the plant. The workers then place the seeds in a grinder which creates cumin powder.
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Farm hands sow the seeds, regularly weed the cumin crops by hand, and eventually pick the flowers containing the cumin seeds.
The industrial grinder and agitator is built by factory workers and maintained by mechanics.
Weeds are a major hurdle in cumin farming. Chemists develop herbicides which are applied to crops by farmers.
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An industrial worker uses a grinding stone to sharpen the knife creating a final product that will be sold in stores.
Molten steal is poured into a mold by mechanical equipment operated by a forgery worker. The product is put through an annealing process to toughen the metal.
Miners take iron ore from the ground. The iron ore is delivered to a forgery where workers heat in blast furnaces where the impurities are removed and carbon is added.
All elements are delivered to a factory that produces slow cookers. Parts are assembled by factory workers, tested by quality control and packaged in boxes before being shipped to retail location.
Electrical components are created by workers in a factory specializing in electronics.
The ceramic component is made by a CNC machine. The program which spins the ceramic component was written and entered into the CNC by a CNC mechanic or program writer.
Knowing the right spice mix
General knowledge cooking technique
I have looked up many different spice mixes used for carnitas.and tried several. Recipes were posted by chefs or people who enjoy cooking on cooking blogs or websites like allrecipes.com
By watching chefs on cooking shows, watching Dan cook and talking to him about technique I have learned some great knife skills (like smashing fresh garlic with the flat side of the knife). Skills like this cut down the cooking time a lot compared to when I was first attempting to cook for myself.
Personal preferences and a general knowledge of what ingredients and spices work well together have come a lifetime of helping my mom cook.