OK, the recipe I will share with you is NOT the original, real deal machaca.
In common parlance, machaca has come to be a reference to shredded beef cooked in the Mexican style. It is similar to the Cuban dish, ropa vieja (old rags, a reference to the appearance of shredded beef.)
The original machaca was more of a reconstituted beef jerky.
In rural Mexico, there weren't any refrigerators back in the day. So beef would often be preserved by drying. Slabs of the stuff would be sprinkled with lime juice, salted, and hung out to dry in the hot sun and wind. When completely dried, the beef would, texturally, have more in common with a wood plank than with something you would eat.
So the cook would grab a machaca, a fist size rock, and the dried beef would then be machacado, that is, literally, beaten, pummeled, smashed, until the fibers of meat would seperate and the resulting fluff would be cooked with tomatoes, onions, chiles, etc, and sometimes scrambled up with eggs.
If you want to go that route, I applaud your industry and your zeal for authenticity. Me, I'll go with the standard shredded beef approach, at least until the lights go out and we are back to drying our beef in the back yard.
The modern machaca has its financial charms. This is a way to take a fairly tough cut of beef such as a blade roast or seven-bone roast and turn it into something tender and flavorful. In fact, I recommend that you use a cut for this dish which is cheap and tough. Not only will you save money, but the tougher cuts of meat turn out to have more flavor anyway.
Machaca!
6-8 lbs of beef chuck or blade roast
2 large white onions
6-8 cloves of garlic
1 tps cumin
1 16oz jar of salsa (Herdez is good)
3 roasted, sliced, peeled poblano chiles (optional)
Salt and pepper roast(s) and place under broiler until browned, turning once. While they are browning, cut the onions in half and slice. Saute onions and garlic in a large pot. When the onions are soft and the meat is browned, add the cumin, put the meat in the pot with the onions and garlic, and add water to barely cover. Simmer slowly for at least two hours, until the meat is so soft it falls apart.
Remove the meat from the broth. Put the meat in a bowl, removing any bones, hunks of fat or other icky bits, and shred the meat with two forks. While doing this, put the heat up to high on the broth, and cook it down until it is nearly a glaze. Then dump the meat back in, cook until the meat absorbs the broth, then dump in the salsa and stir. Optionally, you can add diced roasted peppers, preferably poblanos, at this point
Serve in large flour tortillas with sliced black olives and other garnishes such as shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded lettuce, etc.
In common parlance, machaca has come to be a reference to shredded beef cooked in the Mexican style. It is similar to the Cuban dish, ropa vieja (old rags, a reference to the appearance of shredded beef.)
The original machaca was more of a reconstituted beef jerky.
In rural Mexico, there weren't any refrigerators back in the day. So beef would often be preserved by drying. Slabs of the stuff would be sprinkled with lime juice, salted, and hung out to dry in the hot sun and wind. When completely dried, the beef would, texturally, have more in common with a wood plank than with something you would eat.
So the cook would grab a machaca, a fist size rock, and the dried beef would then be machacado, that is, literally, beaten, pummeled, smashed, until the fibers of meat would seperate and the resulting fluff would be cooked with tomatoes, onions, chiles, etc, and sometimes scrambled up with eggs.
If you want to go that route, I applaud your industry and your zeal for authenticity. Me, I'll go with the standard shredded beef approach, at least until the lights go out and we are back to drying our beef in the back yard.
The modern machaca has its financial charms. This is a way to take a fairly tough cut of beef such as a blade roast or seven-bone roast and turn it into something tender and flavorful. In fact, I recommend that you use a cut for this dish which is cheap and tough. Not only will you save money, but the tougher cuts of meat turn out to have more flavor anyway.
Machaca!
6-8 lbs of beef chuck or blade roast
2 large white onions
6-8 cloves of garlic
1 tps cumin
1 16oz jar of salsa (Herdez is good)
3 roasted, sliced, peeled poblano chiles (optional)
Salt and pepper roast(s) and place under broiler until browned, turning once. While they are browning, cut the onions in half and slice. Saute onions and garlic in a large pot. When the onions are soft and the meat is browned, add the cumin, put the meat in the pot with the onions and garlic, and add water to barely cover. Simmer slowly for at least two hours, until the meat is so soft it falls apart.
Remove the meat from the broth. Put the meat in a bowl, removing any bones, hunks of fat or other icky bits, and shred the meat with two forks. While doing this, put the heat up to high on the broth, and cook it down until it is nearly a glaze. Then dump the meat back in, cook until the meat absorbs the broth, then dump in the salsa and stir. Optionally, you can add diced roasted peppers, preferably poblanos, at this point
Serve in large flour tortillas with sliced black olives and other garnishes such as shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded lettuce, etc.
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