Cazo
A cazo is the wide, deep, round-bottomed pot, traditionally of hammered copper, in which Michoacán-style carnitas are slowly simmered and fried in lard.
Description
Mexico News Daily describes Michoacán as synonymous with copper cazos, which carnitas cooks source from the coppersmiths of Santa Clara del Cobre, one of the state's Pueblos Mágicos and home to the Museo Nacional del Cobre and an annual copper fair in August. The article links the tradition to the Purépecha, skilled metalworkers before the Spanish arrived.
Use for carnitas
In the cazo, pork pieces are seared and then simmered for three to four hours in their own fat between roughly 90 and 100 C, sometimes with orange juice or cola; aficionados hold that copper's heat conduction gives crisp skin and tender meat and consider it essential to authentic Michoacán carnitas. Larousse defines carnitas as pork pieces fried in the animal's own lard, and Quiroga, the self-styled world capital of carnitas, is widely credited as their birthplace.
Other uses
Chicharrón makers also fry pork skin in large pots of lard, and the browned residue at the bottom of those pans is pressed into chicharrón prensado. The scraps that collect at the bottom of the carnitas pot are sold as achicalada.
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See also
References
- "State by Plate: Michoacán and carnitas". Mexico News Daily. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Carnitas". Larousse Cocina (Diccionario enciclopédico de la Gastronomía Mexicana). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "¿De qué está hecho el chicharrón prensado?". El Financiero. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Tacos de nana, bofe, nenepil: glosario taquero". Chilango. Retrieved 2026-10-10.