Quick question: Why add olive oil to the Cuban Roast marinade if using a pork shoulder

A

anna_x

Well-known member
It's already so fatty, can't it marinate in all the other ingredients and be cooked in that marinade?

I want to make this as a surprise for my DIL-to-be as her family is from Cuba.

 
I'm not a scientist but it was explained to me this way

the oil carries some of the flavor molecules of the marinade. water and alcohol are the other two carriers but some flavor molecules are soluble in oil specifically. (And why brand alcohol marinade is not just a gimmick).

For this reason different flavors will be conveyed from your marinade based upon the carriers used: water, oil, alcohol. If you only use one or skip one of those three carriers some of the ingredients of your marinade are effectively useless. You may get some surface flavor only but they won't convey at all beyond that.

It is debatable how much actually penetrates the meat other than salt and acid, but the idea would be that in the actual marinade process the oil is working and not just there for water retention or for the later cooking.

 
Paul, you find the most interesting articles! Going to go pokes holes in the meat right now.

 
That's a good article and particularly about marinades tenderizing. They "may" if they

contain papain but in my opinion, that product just makes meat mushy.

 
he recommends gashing over poking unless you are injecting

he also says to use "oil and vinegar salad dressing" as a shortcut marinade so I don't think his oil prohibition is a hard no.

"Myth: Stabbing with a fork helps marinades penetrate. Stabbing meat with a fork or a jaccard blade pushes bacteria down in. And the holes seal up as the meat collapses in on the trauma and fills with water."

"Help marinades by gashing the food. Since marinades don't penetrate very far into most foods, give them a hand. Gash your food. Cut slices into the surface, rough it up, give the marinade cuts, cracks, and pits to enter. There is also more surface area to brown and more surface area coated with baked on marinade."

 
Doing an overnight braise in my dutch oven right now. Probably just white rice and black beans...

I followed Orchid's instruction with just a bit of oil. Lots melting off and floating on top of the juices. DH is an early bird, unlike me, so he will turn off the oven when he gets up.

 
Thank you, Orchid, this looks really good. The family isn't coming for a few weeks yet...

just before the"kids" wedding. Can the beans be made ahead of time? Freezing might ruin the texture, right? Perhaps two days ahead of serving would work for the beans.

 
When I went to bed at 1:30 a.m., the pork seemed to be cooking too fast to leave all night so...

I turned it down to 180 until 6:30 a.m.when DH took out the dutch oven. I chunked the falling-apart pork and froze 2/3 of it for company in a few weeks. I cooked down the juices and marinade, strained it, but then realized the sediment was carrying the punch of flavor so mixed it back together. ( Looking forward to eating the 1/3 tonight just for us.)
IT IS REALLY TASTY!!!
btw, I used 2 heads of garlic. House smells good too!
Lisa and Orchid, this is a winner!!!

 
Ooh boy, I don't know. I have never frozen them before but I freeze pinto

beans all the time so why not?

 
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