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Week three: dinner that cooks while you're out

Week three of Mexican month at the Thursday Night Table, and this is the one that asks almost nothing of you until dinnertime. Week one was chicken tinga simmered with LocAle. Week two was carne asada off a hot grill. This week is carnitas: pork shoulder that spends the day in a slow cooker with orange, garlic and spices, then gets shredded, crisped in a cast-iron skillet and piled into tacos or bowls.

Last Thursday we said the beer would move to Sea Cow, our Milk Stout, the one built for a braise. This is that braise. The slow cooker earns its spot in September, too: it does eight hours of cooking on the counter without turning the oven on in a house that's already warm.

One thing to know before you shop: there's no kitchen at the brewery. Food on site comes from rotating food trucks, so this dinner happens at your house, on your counter and your stove, and the beer is the part we bring.

This week's can: Sea Cow, Milk Stout, 6% ABV / 32 IBU

Sea Cow is our Milk Stout, 6% ABV and 32 IBU, and in a slow cooker the second number is the one to watch. Hop bitterness doesn't cook off the way water does: whatever goes into the pot stays there, and it gets more noticeable wherever the liquid cooks down. Sea Cow keeps its bitterness low, so it can spend eight hours around a pork shoulder and then cook down to nothing in a hot skillet without turning harsh.

It is also a stout, so it pours dark and tints the braising liquid a deep brown. One cup goes into the pot in the morning, and the last 4 oz wait in the fridge for the skillet at dinner. The details are right below the ingredients.

What goes in the pot

Prep: about 20 minutes. Slow cooker: 8 hours on low. Shred, crisp and build: about 35 minutes. Serves 6 to 8, which works out to 16 to 20 tacos or 6 to 8 bowls.

For the pork and the braise

• 3 1/2 to 4 lb boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), fully thawed, cut into 2-inch chunks, thickest fat cap trimmed
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 white onion, peeled and quartered
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup (8 oz) Sea Cow Milk Stout, from one 12 oz can
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice (about 2 oranges), squeezed halves saved
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice (1 lime)

For crisping

• 2 tbsp lard or neutral oil (1 tbsp per batch)
• The last 4 oz (1/2 cup) of the Sea Cow can, covered and refrigerated until dinner
• 1/4 cup of the braising liquid, strained and skimmed

For tacos

• 16 to 20 small corn tortillas
• 1/2 white onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 orange, cut into wedges
• Optional: salsa or sliced jalapeño

For bowls

• 6 cups cooked white rice
• 2 cans (15 oz each) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 ripe avocados, sliced
• Diced onion, chopped cilantro and orange wedges, as for the tacos
• Optional: crumbled cotija

About the can. The pot takes 1 cup (8 oz), two-thirds of a 12 oz can. Don't tip the rest in: with the lid on, the liquid barely reduces, and the pork adds juices of its own, so extra beer only means more liquid to strain off at the end. Instead, cover the opened can and put it in the fridge. It will be flat by dinnertime, which doesn't matter in a hot skillet, because those last 4 oz go over the pork while it crisps. The cold can for the table at dinner is a fresh one.

Tacos or bowls? Either one uses the whole pot of pork. If you set out both, halve each topping list.

Step by step

1. Season the pork. Pat the pork chunks dry with paper towels, then toss them in a large bowl with the salt, cumin, oregano, pepper and cinnamon until every side is coated. Use fully thawed pork, never frozen, so it heats through evenly. This takes about 5 minutes.
2. Layer the slow cooker. Scatter the onion quarters, smashed garlic and bay leaves across the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker, then pile the seasoned pork on top.
3. Pour in the beer and citrus. Stir 1 cup of Sea Cow with the orange and lime juice in a measuring jug, pour it over the pork, tuck the squeezed orange halves in around the edges and put the lid on. Cover the opened can, with its last 4 oz, in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.
4. Cook low and slow. Cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours, or on HIGH for 5 to 6 hours, and leave the lid alone; every peek lets heat out. The pork is ready when a chunk falls apart as soon as you press it with a fork. Slow cookers run hotter or cooler by model, so go by the fork, not the clock.
5. Shred the pork. Lift the pork onto a rimmed sheet pan with a slotted spoon, leaving the orange halves and bay leaves behind in the cooker, and pull the meat apart with two forks, discarding any large pieces of fat. Allow about 5 minutes.
6. Strain and skim the liquid. Ladle the liquid left in the cooker through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, spoon the fat off the top, and measure 1/4 cup of it into a jug with the saved 4 oz of Sea Cow; that is your crisping liquid. Keep a few more spoonfuls of the strained liquid for leftovers. About 3 minutes.
7. Heat the skillet. Set a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat for 3 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of the lard or oil and swirl it across the pan.
8. Crisp in two batches. Spread half the pork in a single layer, drizzle half the crisping liquid over it, and leave it alone for 5 to 6 minutes, until the liquid sizzles away and the underside browns and crackles. Toss, give it 1 more minute and move it to a platter, then add the second tablespoon of fat and crisp the rest of the pork the same way.
9. Warm the tortillas. Wipe the skillet out with a folded paper towel held in tongs, turn the heat to medium, and warm the tortillas about 20 seconds a side, until soft and pliable, stacking them inside a folded dish towel so they stay warm. Making bowls instead? Warm the rice and black beans.
10. Build and serve. Set out the crisped pork, the warm tortillas or the rice and beans, and the toppings, and let everyone build their own. Tacos go tortilla, pork, onion and cilantro, salsa or jalapeño if you like, then a squeeze of orange. Bowls go rice, black beans, pork, sliced avocado, onion and cilantro, and a little cotija if you like, then a squeeze of orange.

Safe versus tender. The National Pork Board puts the safe internal temperature for pork at 145°F, followed by a 3-minute rest, and a shoulder crosses that line long before it is ready to shred. The Board's own chart lists shoulder at 145 to 180°F and says it is best enjoyed at 180°F. Pulling it into shreds usually takes a little more, somewhere around 195 to 205°F on an instant-read thermometer. That range is our texture cue, not the Board's number, and it is about texture, not safety.

No slow cooker, more heat, and leftovers

No slow cooker? A Dutch oven does the same job. Build it the same way, cover it, and braise in a 300°F oven for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until a fork pulls a chunk apart. It works just as well; it just heats up the house, which is the one thing this week's recipe was trying to avoid.

Heat. Nothing in the pot is spicy. The heat comes from the salsa or jalapeño at the table, so one pot works for the people who want fire and the people who don't.

Leftovers. Pack the pork into shallow containers with a spoonful of the strained liquid and get it into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, or within 1 hour when it is above 90°F outside, as the FDA's safe food handling page advises. The same page lists 165°F for leftovers, so crisp the pork again in a hot skillet until the instant-read thermometer reaches 165°F, rather than warming it back up in the slow cooker. Day two is quesadillas, carnitas with fried eggs, or a sheet pan of nachos.

Pour this alongside

A cold Sea Cow from a fresh can, poured into a glass, is the natural partner: the same beer that spent the day with the pork, sitting next to the crisped edges and a squeeze of orange.

For anyone skipping the beer, make a sparkling orange. Squeeze 3 oranges and 1 lime into a pitcher (these are extra, on top of the ingredient list), pour in a 1-liter bottle of cold sparkling water, stir gently and pour it over ice. It picks up the orange from the pot, and it takes two minutes.

How much of the beer is still in there?

Start with the arithmetic. The whole 12 oz can of Sea Cow at 6% ABV carries a little under three-quarters of a fluid ounce of alcohol before any heat touches it. The recipe spreads that across six to eight servings, and most of the braising liquid never goes back onto the pork.

The USDA publishes numbers on what survives cooking in its Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6. For alcohol stirred into a dish and then baked or simmered, it lists about 10 percent remaining after 2 hours and about 5 percent after 2 1/2 hours, the longest time on the table. Neither half of this recipe is the method that table measured. A lid holds in more than an open simmer does, because vapor that reaches the lid drips back into the pot. The last 4 oz get only a few minutes in an open skillet, and a short cook leaves more behind than a long one. So we won't put a number on this dinner.

What we can say plainly: heat takes some of the alcohol out, an open pan takes it out faster than a covered one, and nothing in this recipe takes all of it out, so a small trace stays in the finished carnitas. Spread across six to eight plates, that is a small amount, which is why this sits comfortably on a family table. It is also why we won't tell you it vanishes completely, and why anyone who avoids alcohol altogether should know it's there.

Thursday Table: 15% off Sea Cow to-go

If you are making the trip, see what's coming up at the brewery that week.

Where to find Sea Cow

Look for Sea Cow in the beer cooler at shops around South Florida. The surest bet is the taproom itself, at 1701 W. Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33444, the first building off the I-95 Atlantic Ave exit.

Taproom hours: Mon 1–7 · Tue–Thu 12–10 · Fri–Sat 12–11 · Sun 12–8.

We don't ship beer or sell it online. The website is merch only, shipped within the USA.

Next Thursday at the Thursday Night Table: week four of Mexican month, and Passion Pit, our Fruit Ale, goes into a habanero glaze for grilled chicken with mango salsa.

Please drink responsibly.