Name: Basic Pork Stock/Shredded Cooked Pork (Caldo de Puerco/Carne de Puerco Cocida)
Yield: Makes 8–9 cups stock, 3–4 cups shredded cooked pork
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, bruised; 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste; 4 bay leaves; 1 head garlic, unpeeled, cut in half crosswise; 10–12 cups cold water; 3 pounds bone-in pork shoulder butt, trimmed of all but a thin layer of fat

Preparation info

Makes
8–9 cups
stock

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

Zarela's Veracruz

By Zarela Martínez

Published 2001

About

This simple stock can be used for some of the same purposes as Basic Chicken Stock, but the flavor is more distinctive and does not blend into other dishes as flexibly. The recipe can easily be doubled and any surplus stock frozen.

If you have no need for the cooked pork butt, you can use pork bones instead. I suggest a combination of pork neck bones and meaty spareribs, in about a 2:1 ratio. For a stock with more body, add 1 or 2 fresh pork hocks as well.