Pernil al Horno

Ingredients

• 3 kg bone-in pork shoulder, skin on
• 12 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• juice of 3 bitter oranges, or 2 oranges and 2 limes
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 40 g salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 onion, sliced, for the tray

Method

1. Score the skin, stab the meat

   Score the skin in a diamond pattern without cutting into the meat, then make deep incisions all over the flesh with a small knife. The seasoning has to get inside three kilos of pork; rubbing the surface does nothing at this size.

2. Make the adobo

   Crush the garlic with the salt, oregano and pepper into a paste, then loosen it with the citrus, vinegar and oil.

3. Push it into the cuts and wait a day

   Force the adobo into every incision, rub the rest over, and refrigerate uncovered for at least twelve hours and ideally twenty-four. Uncovered matters: it dries the skin, and dry skin is the only way to get chicharrón on top.

   12 h

4. Low and covered for four hours

   Sit it on the sliced onion, cover the tray tightly with foil and roast at 150°C for four hours, skin side up, until a fork turns freely in the meat.

   4 h

5. Uncover and blast it

   Take off the foil, turn the oven to 230°C and give it twenty-five minutes until the skin blisters and cracks. Watch it — the gap between chicharrón and charcoal is about four minutes.

   25 min

6. Rest thirty minutes

   Rest it properly before pulling it apart. Serve with moro de guandules and a sharp salad; the tray juices, skimmed, are the sauce.

   30 min