Pork Butt / Shoulder for grilled skewers? Pinchos Muranos

[french fries]

Hey all,

Tonight I want to make Pinchos Muranos: grilled pork skewers, marinated in lemon, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika, bay leave, garlic, olive oil.

I'm wondering what type of pork I can use, or more specifically if I can use a cut such as a pork shoulder, or pork butt. I just LOVE the taste of those cuts but have only cooked them in braises, never grilled small cubes, and I'm wondering if it would work? 

Thanks!!

 

[french fries]

OK I think I'm just going to try it. Should be pretty tasty I think. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif

 

[deltadude]

I could only find two recipes for Pinchos Muranos, and one said Pork shoulder, so you should be good.
However it says to grill on the skewer for 15 minutes.  I don't think even if you marinade for 2 hours or over night for that matter, the meat would be tenderized enough to cook for only 15 minutes and not be chewy. 

Maybe a pro cook can comment

 

[boar_d_laze]

Tenderloin if possbile, loin if not.  Farmer John tenderloins from Smart and Final are reasonably priced and consistently good (but not excellent).

BDL

 

[teamfat]

So how did they turn out?  What did you end up using?  Shoulder can be a good choice for this, getting boneless country style ribs saves you a bit of knifework.  There's usually enough fat in the shoulder cuts to give you some leeway in cooking, it won't dry out that quickly, has great flavor but can be a bit on the chewy side.

Loin is a pretty lean cut and can become quite dry and tough if overcooked.  Tenderloin doesn't get as tough, but still gets damaged from overcooking.  You just have to pay attention, it is nice to have a cool side of the grill where you can let the meat rest a bit if it starts getting too done.

I hope it went well.

mjb.

 

[koukouvagia]

I generally use pork butt for souvlaki, it's usually the better choice.  I never use tenderloin and especially not loin - they both dry out if you overcook them for a second.  And even if you don't overcook them they dry out just sitting there afterwards.

I also make sure to add veggies to my kabobs.  Green and red peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, whatever you like.  Helps keep them moist.  Also cut the pork cubes rather small, it helps a lot if they're bite sized pieces if it turns out they're too chewy.

 

[french fries]

They turned out great! I used pork butt (shoulder) and cut it in really, really small pieces, about 1/4" to 1/2" cubes or slices. I had to take the biggest chunks of fat out, so that took a while. Then skewering took a while as the pieces were so small I put 10 of them on each skewers, resulting in a tiny skewer, so many skewers for a 2.5 lbs butt.

Then on the medium-hot grill for about 7mn.

They were really, really good, and everybody loved them. Note that I had done this with tenderloin before, and while it was very good, I was looking for a fattier cut with more taste. That did exactly what I was looking for, and it was not chewy, in fact it was surprisingly tender - although obviously not as tender as tenderloin.

I used lemon, olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, dried mexican oregano, a diced red jalapeno, 3 cloves garlic, ground coriander and salt. It marinated for about 1hr1/2.

I'll definitely do it again, I just have to make sure I have enough time on my hands to cut the meat, discard the fat, and make the skewers.