This last weekend has to have been one of the most exciting weekends in quite some time. Both Saturday & Sunday was filled with shopping, preparing, experimenting & cooking/smoking/roasting meat. There will be a lot of information both informative & fun over the next few days, so please keep yourself propped upright long enough to get through it, K?
The catalyst for the last few days was the arrival of the La Caja China Roasting Box. I purchased it a few weeks ago, maybe 3. I had planned on roasting a pig for my birthday party that’s coming up, but realized it was too much too late. I attempted to cancel the order, but it showed up anyway. Fine, I’ll find a use for it.
I figure I can do up some turkeys, that’s straight forward enough. One of my first rules about cooking for a party is to not do something for the first time that day. This means I have to learn how to inject meat with a marinade (no, I haven’t been through that yet) and make a few runs through the roasting box before the following weekend. I can do that. But first I wanted to try out my personal injection technique & recipes before ruining 2 14lb natural turkeys. Which means today we’re going to figger out how to inject a marinade in to a Boston Butt Pork Roast. Baby Steps.
I spent some time online searching for marinades to inject & techniques with the same. Turns out everyone has an opinion as to whether injecting works. Whether cheap syringes work as well as the 35 dollar rigs, whether to use butter or a more saline related juice or a brining solution.
First off, injection works and if you haven’t tried it, do. Second, the solution MUST not contain bits of any size. The needle gets clogged quite easily, so run the liquid you use through a fine sieve first.
Since I’m a fan of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I used this as my base. Instead of torturing myself over the spice/herb concoction I used a few tablespoons of Tony Chacere’s Creole Seasoning in the half cup of oil. Warm ever so slightly and dissolve as best you can. I then tossed in a few galooshes of cider vinegar, what the heck eh? Sounds like a spicey salad dressing, don’t it?
Or buy a marinade made for injection. I found the syringe included in this package very satisfactory, it had holes on the right & left of the needle tip. Whereas the syringe included in the China Roasting Box seemed cheaper and a more standard tipped needle. I found both types of tips worked well, although the one with holes on either side tended to inject more solution and make the meat puff up, neat. If your solution tends to be a little thick, warm it a bit. Not hot, but nicely warm, it’ll flow a bit easier.
I found Tony Chacere’s Butter Injectable Marinade really nasty. I don’t appreciate fake butter flavorings, period. Keep in mind though, the other 3 tasters liked it just fine. You decide.
One wants to inject along with the grain of the meat, parallel with the muscle. Stick the needle down in far, apply pressure to the plunger and remove slowly leaving marinade all along the injection route. Attempt to slow plunger pressure as you come to the surface so the meat can close up behind the needle leaving the marinade inside the meat. My marinade was too damned thick and it was spewing constantly, so I just poked and poked and poked and poked. See if you can do this ahead of time about an hour or so and let the roast come to room temperature before you smoke/roast/grill the beast.
This roast you see was smoked in hickory for maybe 5 hours or so. It was crazy tender juicy. I can see after doing this a few times, you really want a marinade that is higly salty, saltier than normal I would go for.
Okay okay, here is a little preview of the China box …
Xo Xo
Yum! Roast four year old. You don’t to inject those with anything ’cause they’re already tender/tasty!
He’s tender all right, but he smells like Otter Pops, and I can’t get over that peanut butter aftertaste.
I was wondering how a person can buy one of these
chinese boxes?my husband would like to get one.
can you help us out,we would really be thankful.
Sincerly,
Cindy
I’m wanting to make a caja china. I’m originally from Miami but unfortunately had to leave when I joined the Army. While deployed in Iraq, I constantly found myself talking to my friends about the great times I had in Miami with the entire family roasting a pig for Christmas. I attempted to make one about a week after I got back from Iraq in a huge smoker grill but it just wasn’t the same. Can you please send me instructions on how to make La Caja China. Thank You.
Hey Ed,
I don’t have any plans for making their product. And I don’t believe I’d try making my own, the raw materials cost would be more money than just buying theirs.
I would suggest saving your pennies and buying one directly from them. They know how to do it right, you bet.
Biggles
What is it exaxtly the caja china?
Actually, I am looking for a charcoal smoker.
if you have more information about the caja china or how it works. Please feel free to email me.
Any infos on charcoal smoker. please email me
M_tshilombo@hotmail.com
Thank you.
The Turkey and the meat look very hum mia!
Hi,
You said that the roast was smoked in hickory. How did you do that with the China box? Did you place hickory chips in the box? Or did you not use that for the roast?
Thanks.
Hi,
You said that the roast was smoked in hickory. How did you do that with the China box? Did you place hickory chips in the box? Or did you not use that for the roast?
Thanks.
Hey Michelle,
Yeah, no. I never received any smoky love from the caja. That roast was smoked in my regular old smoker. Sorry about that.
Biggles
I saw a caja china box on the Food tv show Boy Meets Grill. He grilled a pork shoulder. I started looking for one on the internet and I am glad I found this site. I can’t wait until I purchase one.
what is the difference between a caja china and a large pit which is filled with coal or firewood?what kind of difference is there in how the meat is cooked?
Hey Oscar,
I’d need more information than ” large pit which is filled with coal or firewood”
If I had to guess, the difference would be time. The box will cook an 80 pound pig in only a few hours.
Biggles
you guys know that they sell a smoke gun that attaches to the outside of the box, right? I got it just so that I could try cold smoking bacon and pastrami, though Im sure that the hot applications are fabulous too.
When using any herbs or spices in an syringe for injecting, or even a salad dressing dissolve them in the water-based ingredient first (e.g vinegar, cider, wine). Otherwise they become coated with oil and cannot release all their flavor. After they macerate for at least 30 minutes (a little trip to the stove to warm up would not hurt either), then strain through cheesecloth or a tea strainer and add the appropriate amount of oil.
Hey Mark,
Thank you! Funny you stop by, I was mentioning my trials the other day to a friend. I could have spent more time researching it, but got distracted by something shiny. Thank you so much for your input.
Biggles
I’m looking to rent a Caja China box before I buy. Is there any place in So.Cal to rent? I’ve had a difficult time finding anyone who knows what I’m talking about.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You!
Brett