Use a heavy pot with a smooth bottom; a cast-iron or enameled dutch oven is perfect. Cut the pork into strips about an inch square and 3 or 4 inches long. Barely cover with water, and add salt. Bring to a moderate simmer. Tumble the pork chunks occasionally. After an hour or an hour and a half, when it is possible to cut the meat up further with the edge of a sturdy spatula, do just that. Continue simmering and chunking until you have almost no water left, and the meat is in small chunks and shreds, about another half hour to an hour.
When all the water boils off, you should have enough rendered fat to fry up your pork until nicely browned everyplace, and crispy in some places. If not, add a bit of good lard, duck fat, or vegetable oil, and keep on turning and scraping with your spatula until further improvement seems impossible, up to another half hour. Serve on warm tacos with minimal garnishes.
This is impossible to resist. You might as well just make margaritas and call it a night.
This is the mother of all carnitas recipes, and comes from the glorious Cuisines of Mexico, by Diana Kennedy. As simple as it is, this is a gut-check recipe - no actual technique, just meat pride, soul and watchfulness.
You WILL need that heavy, flat-bottomed pot and a sturdy metal spatula with a reasonably sharp edge so you can flip and brown the pork bits at the end.
You will let yourself down if you don't make some fresh salsa for those tacos. The explosively savory pork wants something a little sweet and hot. Very ripe plum tomatoes, onion, finely diced serrano or jalapeno peppers and cilantro is all you need, but don't use a blender. Chop it up by hand, and add a little mango or pineapple. I actually have some ground cherries here, which have a fragrant, grape-y sweetness and look like tiny tomatillos.
Don't forget to add too much salt, for authenticity.
