Welcome to "Brent Meats World." On the premiere episode, Brent Young, butcher and restaurateur, takes us to Carnitas Ramirez, one of the best taco restaurants in NYC. What sets this place apart is their commitment to using every part of the pig — from the ears to the uterus — to create their flavorful carnitas. Follow along as Young meets up with the owners Giovanni Cervantes and Yvon de Tassigny to prepare the madre lard, fry the pork, and prepare their popular plates, including the pig brain sesadilla, gordita de chicharrón, and maciza tacos.
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00:00We're here at Carnitas Ramirez,
00:02one of the most popular taco restaurants in New York City.
00:05Here they are utilizing every part of the pig
00:07to make the most authentic and adventurous tacos
00:09you can find.
00:11I'm holding a freaking paddle cooking pork.
00:13This is amazing.
00:14The menu offers classics like pork belly
00:16and pork shoulder tacos,
00:18but the real thrill and adventure starts
00:20when you explore the items you're unfamiliar with,
00:23like the pig brain quesadilla or the pig uterus tacos.
00:26I hate under-seasoned brain.
00:30Today we'll be getting a crash course
00:31from my friend and chef owner, Giovanni Cervantes,
00:34to see how he and his team
00:35are making carnitas the authentic way.
00:39I'm Brent, and this is Brent Eats World.
00:43The process starts early at 7 a.m.
00:45and begins by setting up the two cazo pots with lard.
00:49One cazo pot is used for searing the meat,
00:51while the other slow cooks in what is called a madre,
00:53or a rich mother stock.
00:55This is our madre lard.
00:57This is one of the most important ingredients?
00:59It's the most important ingredient.
01:00That's where you keep your flavor,
01:02your identity as a carnitas place.
01:05If something particular that people
01:08is gonna taste in your food,
01:10it's gonna come from that.
01:12The best restaurants and the best tacos
01:15have the best mother, yeah?
01:16Yeah.
01:17This one we're gonna wait now
01:19until it's gonna be at a good temperature,
01:21which is gonna be around 300, 320,
01:24and we're gonna start searing our first piece of meat.
01:26The next step of the process
01:27is to load the biggest cuts of pork
01:29into the cazo pots as early in the morning as possible.
01:32It's a very time-sensitive process
01:34since these cuts will take the longest to cook.
01:37These are the pork shoulders, the pork butts.
01:41You don't want the meat to burn on the bottom,
01:43so you kinda gotta move it pretty regularly.
01:46This is really satisfying.
01:48You never get to drop entire pork butts into a fryer.
01:53I know, right?
01:54I feel like in another life,
01:55I just would've been an army cook.
01:57Cooking for like 100 is like the most fun thing
02:01in the world, because you're like,
02:02yeah, I just wanna drop whole pork butts in a fryer.
02:05You should take a taste.
02:07It's delicious at this point.
02:13That's phenomenal.
02:14It reminds me of like a bone broth
02:18with just a little bit of added fat.
02:20It tastes like a bone broth latte.
02:23So now that we've got this nice golden color,
02:27a little nice firmness to it,
02:29we're ready to go and put it into the madre.
02:33Once we sear all the pork and transfer it to the madre pot,
02:35the name of the game is time management.
02:38There are a ton more cuts
02:39that all have different cook times
02:41that need to get seared off
02:42and left to simmer in the madre.
02:45Everything that's gonna be cooked today
02:46is gonna end up in one pot,
02:48so you have to time it all correctly.
02:51Exactly.
02:52How many different meats are we cooking
02:54and how many different tacos are on the menu?
02:56We're gonna do probably today 12 or 14 different cuts.
03:00Okay.
03:01Is each cut its own taco?
03:03Yes, definitely, but also I guess the magic
03:06and the fun of carnitas is to mix and match.
03:10But mathematically, you can mix that like,
03:14what, like 100 times?
03:16Sure.
03:17The fun of that, like the most extreme of that idea,
03:21let's say it's our surtida taco,
03:22which is the one that we recommend to everybody to try.
03:26That's just like a little bit of pieces
03:28of all the cuts in one taco.
03:31Why cook everything in one pot instead of,
03:34all right, we have 10 different cuts.
03:36We can have 10 different pots here.
03:38I never saw that before.
03:39Like, I've seen restaurants that has more,
03:43a lot of pots because they're making a lot carnitas,
03:47but it's not because they divide the different cuts
03:51into different pots.
03:52So like the essence of carnitas is?
03:55To combine them.
03:56It's like that, you know?
03:57It's like a nice orgy experience, you know?
04:01Like it's like everything is together, you know?
04:04Pretty good party.
04:05While these bigger cuts continue to simmer
04:07in their gooey, delicious fat,
04:09we need to prep the quick cook items
04:11like pig's head, ears, and snout.
04:14These heads we get in have already been deboned.
04:18Nice.
04:18So here you can see the tongue.
04:19You got some cheeks in here.
04:21You got your ears.
04:23What we're mostly after in the snout,
04:25what we call the papada, the jowl.
04:27What are we ultimately making with this head?
04:29We wanted to use as many parts of the pig as possible.
04:33We wish we could just buy whole pigs,
04:34but then we wouldn't have two ears a day.
04:37Yep.
04:38People want more than four tacos a day,
04:41so now we gotta get shaving.
04:42They do.
04:43Pigs come with hair.
04:44Pigs come with hair, as you can see here.
04:46One thing that nobody wants to eat is hair.
04:48Yeah, I mean, people are skeezed out by hair.
04:51Yeah, rightfully so.
04:53You wanna try one?
04:54You want a little shave?
04:55Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:56There you go.
04:57Have at it.
04:58You know, you guys are like the dream customer
05:01for a butcher shop, because, you know,
05:03we have four or five pigs every week.
05:05That's only eight or 10 ears.
05:08But like, I want them to go somewhere,
05:10and like, we can't sell them all the time.
05:12I love that you guys use every single piece.
05:16Yeah, Gillette Mach 3 sponsorship
05:19is what we're looking for.
05:21As I finish up cleaning the wax out of this pig's ear,
05:24our focus shifts to the parts of the pig
05:26that really make this restaurant unique.
05:29The next things we need are the chamorro,
05:31the rabo, nana, oreja, and cachete.
05:34Let's get those ready.
05:35You know what's nana?
05:36No, what's nana?
05:37Nana is the uterus.
05:39Duolingo doesn't teach nana.
05:41Yeah, yeah, nana.
05:42No.
05:43Is this typical?
05:44Like, do most carnitas restaurants
05:46have such a breadth of things?
05:49Is anyone else serving uterus?
05:51Yeah, I mean, like, you will literally find them
05:54way more often in like old school generational type
05:56of like carnitas shops.
05:58My grandma or like people who are in that generation,
06:01they used to love all these like weird like cocks, right?
06:04Like organs, that sort of stuff.
06:07So this is our, we call it a ponche.
06:09So we put it in this ponche to keep it contained,
06:12because there's small pieces.
06:14Okay.
06:15Later on, trying to fish them out,
06:16can get a little confusing with other broken down stuff.
06:19So with this guy, we'll just plunge right in here slowly.
06:22These off cuts like tongue, ear, uterus,
06:26these are what carnitas are all about.
06:29Gio has created space on his menu
06:30for people to experience something out of the norm,
06:33and nothing shows that more than our next item.
06:36All right, so we're gonna start making our sesadilla.
06:41It's basically a brain taco that usually comes like
06:45on a hard shell tortilla.
06:48So this is just brain, right?
06:51Yep.
06:52No, really no mistake here.
06:55The thing about this is like once you start cooking them,
06:58they all kind of like melt.
07:00It doesn't hold its shape.
07:02To start the process is like we just put some garlic
07:06and a pasote is gonna be added at the same time
07:08with the sesos, with the brains.
07:10And we're gonna have some scallions as well.
07:13Then when I start adding the brains,
07:15again, you can see that the shape and the texture
07:17is super soft, super creamy.
07:21I wouldn't tell you.
07:22I'm gonna be honest.
07:23I'm not worried about a lot of things.
07:25I'm a little worried about brains.
07:26Yeah?
07:27Yeah.
07:28I mean, I wouldn't tell you to taste them just right now.
07:31Thank you, thank you.
07:33And now the flavors start getting way, way much better.
07:38So you can try it, my friend.
07:39Let me know if you need to add some salt.
07:41I hate under-seasoned brain.
07:44Let's go ahead and give it a try.
07:46First things first.
07:55That's delicious.
07:56Yeah.
07:57That's fantastic.
07:58Honestly, like meaty scrambled eggs.
08:01Yeah.
08:02Yeah.
08:02I was not expecting that.
08:03I will be humbled if I was not expecting that.
08:06All right, so we're gonna wait for this to cool off.
08:09And then we assemble together.
08:12Okay, so now we have the fully cooked brain.
08:15Now we're making the quesadilla?
08:17That's it.
08:17Basically what we do is we always get just a small batch
08:20of these tortillas already made from our vendor.
08:23Heat them up with some lard.
08:25They get nice, a little crisper and flexible.
08:28We use these toothpicks, obviously,
08:29so they're together, right?
08:31Because otherwise they will just fall apart.
08:33Once we have an order, we just make it per order.
08:36In three minutes, they're done.
08:38It's basically a pierogi.
08:43This for me is so special.
08:45When I was a teenager,
08:48I actually went into an English school.
08:54Part of the reason I loved to go to that school
08:56it was because it was a gorditas de chicharron spot
09:00right in front of the school.
09:02And bro, I was just so in love into it.
09:06This meaty looking head cheese type cake thing
09:09that chef is so passionate about is called prensado.
09:13It's basically a solid unit of all of the cooked cuts
09:16stuffed into a five gallon bucket,
09:18pressed overnight, sliced, fried,
09:21and stuffed into a gordita.
09:23Similar to your adolescence of this,
09:26like when I decided I was gonna be a butcher,
09:29my parents were like, what?
09:31My dad didn't give a shit until one day,
09:34do you know Scrapple?
09:36So I'm from Pittsburgh.
09:38It's like a Pennsylvania Dutch thing
09:40that you make very similar to this,
09:43but just has cornmeal in it,
09:45but it's like pig's head
09:46and all of the leftover everything you cook together
09:49and then you fry it.
09:50And it's like, yeah, it's a breakfast thing.
09:53All right, so I'm gonna chop this up for our gorditas.
09:56So we're gonna throw this into the plancha.
10:06So now we're building up the gorditas one by one.
10:09You first, by hand, you make like a thicker tortilla shape.
10:14Grab a little bit of this.
10:16And then you just keep like doing this movement
10:19of pressing it, try to get like a uniform shape.
10:24Slow down, slow down, slow down.
10:25Wow, this is crazy.
10:27Not too bad.
10:28No, it feels pretty bad.
10:30Keep the round shape, all right?
10:32Okay, okay.
10:32You have to make it a little tight.
10:34Okay, okay.
10:35You have to make it a little thinner,
10:36but it needs to be fast though,
10:38because you're not like, like that.
10:40Wait, wait, wait, wait.
10:41Yeah, that's the movement.
10:43Not bad, not terrible.
10:44No, it's pretty bad, it's pretty bad.
10:46So what we're trying to avoid is that, no?
10:48The tear!
10:50That's what we're trying to avoid.
10:51Yeah.
10:52Because, you know, once we put it on a fryer,
10:54it's just gonna-
10:55It's gonna burst.
10:56Yeah, so not a good job, bro.
10:59You need to keep trying.
11:00Dude, that actually is not good.
11:02I do not like not being good at things.
11:06All right, I'm gonna leave it to you.
11:07I'm gonna leave it to you.
11:09One of the last things to be fired off
11:10right before service is called a chicharron carnudo.
11:14It's a giant slab of skin-on pork belly
11:16seared for about 15 minutes.
11:19This technique creates an incredibly crunchy exterior
11:22while keeping the belly tender all the way through.
11:25We gotta open up in 15 minutes,
11:26so we're gonna move everything out of this castle
11:29and get it into all these pans.
11:31All right, what's the process?
11:33How do we sort this?
11:34You just kinda start fishing and put it where it goes.
11:37Put it where it goes.
11:39Now that everything is done,
11:40we fish out all of the cuts from the madre,
11:43organize them in specific bins,
11:45and put them on display so customers can start mapping out
11:48their perfect taco experience.
11:51Two minutes, ready for service.
11:53Let's go.
11:54We're fishing.
11:56Batsune!
11:57All right, we got our full order, everything we cooked today.
12:08First thing off with that,
12:09that madre cooking lard is amazing.
12:13It really comes through.
12:13You get rich onion, garlic.
12:16Of course it's meaty as hell,
12:18but you really taste that fat that it was cooked in.
12:22That's amazing.
12:23Cabeza!
12:27All of its texture.
12:29Flavor's going throughout the whole thing,
12:31but getting that crunch of ear,
12:34getting the crunchy skin makes this taco totally different.
12:38Now this is our uterus.
12:40That's specific.
12:41Had a lot of pig skin in my day,
12:43but it's kind of like a softer, softer version.
12:47Let's go brain.
12:54Keep coming back to scrambled eggs,
12:55and it's not that dissimilar.
12:57Frying that brain in a tortilla makes all of the difference
13:01because brain on its own, okay,
13:03it's a little bit weird of a consistency,
13:06but having crunchiness with kind of the smoothness
13:11of the brain actually works really well.
13:14That's delicious.
13:15Mm.
13:24Don't miss this.
13:26Wow.
13:27Stuffed, fried, everything, it's super crunchy.
13:32This whole thing is amazing.
13:35I've never had something like this before.
13:38Like a little gordita empanada type meat cake
13:44inside is so unique, so freaking delicious.
13:49Really satisfying.
13:50I wanna eat this whole thing and regret ordering two more,
13:54but definitely gonna do it.
13:55All right, so here's my tips.
13:58To me, maybe because it was just the first bite,
14:01but that moziza was fantastic.
14:03I felt like the essence of that madre
14:06really came through in that bite.
14:08A very, very close second.
14:11Do not skip anything with pork skin on it.
14:14You want that crunch,
14:16and it really makes all of these tacos pop.
14:20It's so good.
14:22And the biggest thing to not miss out on is the gordita.
14:25It's special.
14:26They're the only ones doing it.
14:28That thing is amazing,
14:30and I feel like it's the essence of this restaurant.
14:32That was good.