Kitchen Secrets with Our Cuban Chef – Masas de Puerco Fritas

Masas de puerco fritas are chunks of pork shoulder marinated in garlic and sour orange, simmered until they give way, then fried until the outside goes dark. There is no breading and no sauce poured over at the end. The seasoning goes in early and stays in.

Two cooking stages do two different jobs. The slow simmer breaks down the connective tissue running through the shoulder, so the inside turns soft enough to cut with the side of a fork. The fry takes minutes and only dries and browns the outside. Skip the first stage and the pork fights back. Skip the second and you have stew.

Once you understand that split, it is a forgiving dish. The marinade is a short list you probably already keep, the cut is one of the cheapest in the case, and the only part that needs your full attention is the last few minutes in the fat.

Why the Cuban table runs on pork

Pigs came to the Caribbean with the earliest Spanish settlers and took to the place immediately. They ate what the kitchen threw out, they bred quickly, and they did not need open pasture the way cattle did. On a small farm a pig was a practical investment rather than a luxury, and over generations that turned pork into the default meat of the Cuban countryside.

Nothing went to waste. The fat was rendered into lard, which was the cooking fat in most Cuban kitchens long before bottled oil arrived. The skin became chicharrones. The shoulder and the leg fed a household. Lechon asado, the whole roast pig, is the version everyone pictures, but it needs a fire, most of a day and a crowd to justify it. Masas de puerco fritas carry the same flavours into an ordinary weekday: the same garlic, the same sour orange, the same fat, done in one pot on a stove.

The word masa means a mass or a lump, and the plural is exactly what the dish is – the shoulder cut down into hand-sized chunks instead of kept whole. It became standard cafeteria and fonda food because it holds well, reheats without turning to string, and eats just as easily out of a paper container as off a plate. Cuban cooking arrived in Tampa with the cigar industry in the 1880s, and fried pork came with it. Order it here with rice and a few raw onion rings on top and it reads the same way it does in Havana.

Ingredients

• 3 lb (1.4 kg) boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1.5-inch chunks
• 12 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 tsp salt, plus more for finishing
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground
• 1 cup (240 ml) sour orange juice, or 2/3 cup orange juice mixed with 1/3 cup lime juice
• 1 large white onion, half sliced thin for the pot and half cut into rings for serving
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups (480 ml) water
• 4 cups (950 ml) lard or neutral oil, for frying
• 1 lime, cut into wedges

How to make masas de puerco fritas

1. Crush the garlic cloves with the 2 teaspoons of salt in a mortar until you have a rough paste. Work in the oregano, cumin and black pepper, then stir in the sour orange juice. If you cannot find sour orange, the orange and lime mix lands in the same place.
2. Put the pork chunks in a bowl with the thinly sliced onion, pour the marinade over, and turn everything with your hands until every piece is coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight if you have the time. The garlic and the citrus only ever work on the outside of each piece, which is why the shoulder is cut small: more surface for the marinade to sit against.
3. Tip the pork, the marinade and the onion into a wide heavy pot. Add the bay leaves and the water, which should come about halfway up the meat. Bring it to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat for 45 to 60 minutes, until a fork slides into a chunk with a little resistance still left in it. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the cooking liquid into a cup and set it aside now, while there is still liquid to take.
4. Take the lid off, raise the heat, and let the rest boil down for 15 to 20 minutes until the pot is nearly dry and the pork is sitting in its own rendered fat with the onion gone soft and brown. Remove the bay leaves.
5. Lift the pork onto a rack or a paper-lined tray and leave it for 20 minutes, then pat every side dry. This step decides whether the pork browns or steams, so do not cut it short.
6. Heat the lard or oil in a deep pan to 350F (175C). Test with a single chunk: it should bubble steadily around the edges without spitting hard. Fry in four batches so the temperature does not crash, 4 to 6 minutes per batch, turning once, until the outside is deep brown and the corners have gone hard.
7. Lift each batch onto a rack rather than paper, which traps steam underneath and softens what you just built, and salt immediately while the surface is still hot enough to take it. Let the fat come back up to temperature between batches.
8. Pile the pork onto a warm plate and scatter the raw onion rings across the top. Spoon over a little of the reserved cooking liquid, a teaspoon or two and no more, or you will undo the crust. Squeeze lime over everything just before it goes to the table, and serve while the edges are still crisp.

Chef’s notes

• Do not simmer the pork to collapse. If it falls apart in the pot it will shred in the fryer and you will lose half of it in the fat. You want it tender but still holding its shape, because the fry finishes the job.
• Wet pork will not brown. Water hitting hot fat turns to steam, and steam keeps the surface below browning temperature. Twenty minutes of air drying and a firm pat with paper is the difference between crisp corners and pale, greasy chunks.
• Watch the fat temperature more than the clock. Below about 325F the pork drinks the fat instead of sealing against it. Crowding the pan is the usual cause, so keep each batch under a pound and wait between them.
• Taste before you salt at the end. The marinade reduces down with the pork and concentrates, so the meat comes out of the pot already seasoned. Add a pinch after frying, taste one piece, then decide.

What goes on the plate with it

The standard plate is pork, rice and beans, and it is standard because it works. Black beans and rice soak up the pan juices and give the fried pork something soft to sit against. Fried yuca or tostones do the opposite and add a second crisp texture, which some people prefer. Raw onion and lime are not garnish here – the sharpness cuts the fat and resets your mouth between bites, so put more of both on the table than you think you need.

For drinking, a cold malta or a light beer holds up without competing. Finish with a colada or a cafecito once the plates are cleared. If there is pork left over, keep it in the fridge and warm it in a dry pan rather than a microwave; the edges will come back, and it makes a good filling for a sandwich the next day.

Come eat it instead of making it

If you would rather skip the four hours of marinating and the pot of hot lard, we make it here at 5555 S 78th St. It is listed on the menu as Fried Pork Dough, which is the word masa translated the literal way – the same chunks of shoulder, fried until the outside crisps and the inside stays tender. Order pickup or catering through the full menu, or call us at (813) 450-2176.