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Preserve

Cuchifrito

A Puerto Rican pork dish with stomach, ears, tongue, blood sausage, green bananas, and a tomato-based sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,164 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven325°F
Time35 to 40 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meats

  1. Rinse the pig stomach under cold water, scrubbing thoroughly inside and out.

  2. Remove any stringy fibers and place the stomach in a pot with lemon juice and cold water, ensuring it is completely covered; set aside.

  3. Wash the pig ears in cold water; place them in a pot with cold water and set aside.

  4. Wash the pig tongue under cold water, scrub and scrape thoroughly, then place it in another pot with cold water and set aside.

  5. After at least one hour, drain the water from the pot containing the pig stomach, rinse and scrub the stomach again, then place it in a large pot that can hold the stomach, ears, and tongue.

Simmer the meats

  1. Add enough cold water to cover the stomach, place the pot on the stove over high heat, add sofrito, salt, pepper, and adobo, and bring to a boil.

  2. Lower the heat and simmer for about one hour.

  3. After the stomach has simmered for an hour, add the ears and tongue; raise the heat until it boils, then lower to a simmer again and cook for another two hours.

  4. Once all of the above has simmered and the meat is tender, remove from heat, set aside, and allow to cool; save the broth.

Make the sauce

  1. Pour olive oil into a saucepan and heat.

  2. Stir in sofrito until it starts to bubble, then add tomato paste and stir; lower heat to prevent burning.

  3. Add tomato sauce and stir; when the sauce boils, add a little of the saved broth, enough to keep a medium to light texture; taste for salt and add hot sauce or cayenne if desired.

  4. Allow the sauce to simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Slice and roast

  1. Once the cuchifrito has cooled, slice the stomach into strips about 3/4 to 1 inch wide.

  2. Slice the ears similarly.

  3. Slice the tongue into medallions about 1/2 inch thick.

  4. Place all sliced meats in a large bowl or pot, sprinkle a little mojo, and mix well by hand.

  5. Lightly oil a baking pan and place the cuchifrito in it.

  6. Roast in a preheated 325°F oven for about 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown, stirring and rotating to cook evenly.

  7. In a separate pan or cast-iron skillet, place the morcilla and roast it in the oven alongside the other meats.

Cook the green bananas

  1. For the green bananas: rinse them under cold water, cut off the ends, and place them in a pot with cold salted water; bring to a boil.

  2. Lower the heat and simmer for about 1/2 to 1 hour or until tender; when done, turn off the heat and leave in the pot.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Oregano + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + oreganotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together784 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Oregano + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pig stomach
Becomes tender and chewy-firm after long simmering, giving the cuchifrito its main body.
Pig ears
Gelatinous connective tissue softens during simmering, adding richness and a tender bite.
Pig tongue
Rich, tender meat that browns well when roasted after simmering.
Blood sausage
Morcilla adds dense, savory flavor and fat that enriches the roasted meats.
Tomato paste
Concentrated tomato adds depth, color, and mild acidity to the sauce.
Olive oil
Carries the sofrito flavors and helps the sauce brown lightly without sticking.

The step that matters

Roasting the sliced meats. Sugars and proteins brown together only when the surface is dry and hot enough; stirring and rotating helps even browning and keeps the meat from drying out or scorching.

Flavor stand-ins for the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, lemon, oregano, pepper, olive, tomato, sauce):

  1. Limebetter flavor fit
  2. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  3. Orangebetter flavor fit
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, lemon, oregano, pepper, olive, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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