al pastor
{{Short description|Mexican spit-grilled pork seasoned with adobada}}
{{Infobox food
| name = Al pastor
| name_lang = es
| name_italics = true
| image = Tacos-al-Pastor.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Carne al pastor (al pastor meat) on a trompo
| alternate_name =
| country = Mexico
| region = Mexico City
| national_cuisine = Mexican
| creator = Lebanese Mexicans
| course = Main course
| type =
| served = Warm
| main_ingredient = Marinated pork meat
| minor_ingredient = {{plainlist|
}}
| variations = Gringas
| similar_dish =
| calories =
| other =
| no_recipes = true
| no_commons =
}}
{{lang|es|Al pastor}} (from Spanish, "herdsman style"), tacos al pastor, or tacos de trompo is a preparation of spit-grilled slices of meat, usually pork originating in the Central Mexican region of Puebla and Mexico City, where they remain most prominent; today, though, it is a common menu item found in {{lang|es|taquerías}} throughout Mexico. The method of preparing and cooking {{lang|es|al pastor}} is based on the lamb shawarma brought by Lebanese immigrants to the region.{{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Katy |date=2 September 2015 |title=Sharwarma: Taco al pastor's culinary ancestor |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33993719 |access-date=4 August 2022 |website=BBC}}{{cite book |first=David |last=Sterling |title= Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition |year= 2014| isbn=978-0292735811 |pages= 333, 358–363|publisher=University of Texas Press }}{{cite web |first=David |last=Sterling |title= The Lebanese Connection, Yucatan: A Culinary Expedition |url= http://los-dos.com/culinary-expedition/verarticulo.php?IdArticulo=258 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160426091335/http://los-dos.com/culinary-expedition/verarticulo.php?IdArticulo=258 |archive-date=26 April 2016 |date=26 April 2016|access-date=12 July 2022 }} {{lang|es|Al pastor}} features a flavor palate that uses traditional Mexican adobada (marinade). It is a popular street food that has spread to the United States. In some places of northern Mexico and coastal Mexico, such as in Baja California, {{lang|es|taco al pastor}} is known as {{lang|es|taco de trompo}} or {{lang|es|taco de adobada}}.
A variety of the dish uses a combination of Middle Eastern spices and indigenous central Mexican ingredients and is called {{lang|es|tacos árabes}}.{{Cite web |url=https://la.eater.com/2015/3/26/8294151/tacos-arabes-boyle-heights-taco-truck-review-photos |title=These Massive Tacos Árabes in Boyle Heights Pack a Punch |last=Peterson |first=Lucas |date=26 March 2015 |website=Eater.com LA |access-date=10 March 2018}}
Name
File:Receta de Asado al Pastor (1888) - Al Pastor Asado (barbecue) recipe (1888).jpg
The name “al pastor”, which literally translates to “herdsman”,{{cite web |title=Herdsman |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/herdsman |website=English-Spanish Dictionary |publisher=Cambridge Dictionary |access-date=22 June 2024}} “cowherd” or “shepherd”{{cite web |title=Pastor |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/spanish-english/pastor |website=Spanish-English Dictionary |publisher=Cambridge Dictionary}} style, comes from «Asado al Pastor», which can be translated as “spit roast” or “spit barbecue” over an open fire.{{cite book |title=El Unico y Mas Extenso Cocinero Poblano |date=1888 |publisher=M. Corona |location=Puebla |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcVQAQAAIAAJ&q=+pastor&pg=PA139 |access-date=20 June 2024}} The Asado al Pastor, also known as “asado del pastor”, “carbonada” and “asado a la estaca”, was one of the styles for roasting or “barbecuing” meats in the Mexican countryside, the other one being barbacoa. Whole animals, commonly veal, bull, cow, or mutton, or pieces of meat, were skewered with a “spit” or “estaca” (stake) and placed over an open fire to be roasted.
In the Mexican cookbook Diccionario de Cocina o El Nuevo Cocinero Mexicano en Forma de Diccionario (1845), Manuel Galvan Rivera explains that there are different classes or types of asados (roasts or barbecues) in Mexican cuisine:{{cite book |last1=Galvan Rivera |first1=Manuel |title='Diccionario de Cocina o El Nuevo Cocinero Mexicano en Forma de Diccionario |date=1845 |publisher=Imprenta de I. Cumplido |location=Mexico City |page=48 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NdQqAAAAYAAJ/page/48/mode/2up?q=Asado+pastor&view=theater |access-date=20 June 2024}}
{{quote|“ASADO: There are different types of asados: over fire or del pastor; on a gridiron or over a grill; in an oven or fried with lard, butter or oil.”}}
Galvan Rivera also explains that “carbonada” (which can be translated as “over coal”) was another name for an “Asado del Pastor”:{{cite book |last1=Galvan Rivera |first1=Manuel |title=Diccionario de Cocina o El Nuevo Cocinero Mexicano en Forma de Diccionario |date=1845 |publisher=Imprenta de I. Cumplido |location=Mexico City |page=143 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NdQqAAAAYAAJ/page/142/mode/2up?q=Carbonada&view=theater |access-date=20 June 2024}}
{{quote|“CARBONADA: this name is given to lean slices of bull, pork, cow, etc., roasted after being cooked or raw, over embers or on the grill. Meats roasted like this are also often called asado del pastor.”}}
The asado al pastor was widely prepared in Mexico at countryside festivities, such as rodeos (cattle roundups), herraderos (cattle branding celebrations), jaripeos and bull-fights, patron saint festivities of the hacienda, or family picnics.{{cite book |last1=Busto |first1=Emiliano |title=Diccionario enciclopédico-mejicano del idioma español |date=1883 |publisher=Antonio B. de Lara |location=Mexico |page=303 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALDNAAAAMAAJ&q=Barbacoa |access-date=8 May 2024}} 19th century Mexican writer Domingo Revilla wrote in 1844 and 1845, respectively, that the “banquet” at the herraderos was reduced to asados al pastor and barbacoa of whole calves (veal), bull or mutton,{{cite journal |last1=Revilla |first1=Domingo |title=Escenas del Campo: Los Herraderos |journal=Revista Científica y Literaria de Méjico |date=1845 |volume=1 |page=250 |url=https://hndm.iib.unam.mx/consulta/publicacion/visualizar/558075be7d1e63c9fea1a40c?pagina=558a32ad7d1ed64f1688f971&coleccion=#bajar |access-date=8 May 2024}} and explained that asados al pastor were more common in Tierra Adentro or the Bajío region, western Mexico, and beyond, while barbacoa was more common in the Mezquital and Apan valleys and surrounding areas in central Mexico.{{cite journal |last1=Revilla |first1=Domingo |title=Costumbres y Trajes Nacionales: Los Rancheros |journal=El Museo Mexicano |date=1844 |volume=3 |page=555 |url=https://hemerotecadigital.bne.es/hd/es/viewer?id=39cc1f0b-5443-4072-adbc-e57867022d48&page=587 |access-date=8 May 2024}}
An anecdote collected by Victoriano Salado Álvarez tells that, as part of a Mexican Independence celebration in 1856, a whole bull was roasted al pastor style in the middle of the Alameda Central in Mexico City, and that among the guests was President Ignacio Comonfort: {{quote|“If we were to ask now for a whole bull, roasted al pastor, to be served on a table set in the Alameda, so that all citizens would have the right to a slice of the meat, and for the shoemaker, the pot-painter, and the tinsmith to immediately fraternize with the President of the Republic, greeting him with hands full of the noblest calluses and grease from the beef, the people would laugh at us and want to send us to the asylum. Well, that, and nothing less, happened on September 16th, in the unfortunate year of 1856; I saw it, took part in it, and enjoyed it immensely. The banquet was well-timed; the crowd was enormous; the pleasure and good humor were enormous. As always, it had been announced that Comonfort would be killed in the middle of the feast; but, as always, he had laughed at the warnings.”{{cite book |last1=Salado Álvarez |first1=Victoriano |title=De Santa Anna á la reforma, Volumen 2 |date=1903 |publisher=J. Ballescá |location=México |page=75 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89101758969&seq=87&q1=Asado+al+pastor |access-date=16 April 2025}}}}
History
During the 19th century, variations of a vertically grilled meat dish doner, now known by several names, started to spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. The Levantine version of doner, called shawarma, was brought to Mexico in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by a wave of Lebanese immigrants, mainly Christians who have no religious dietary restrictions on eating pork.{{Cite news |date=2015-09-02 |title=Sharwarma: Taco al pastor's culinary ancestor |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33993719 |access-date=2023-02-02|last1=Watson|first1=Katy}}
In the 1920s in the state of Puebla, lamb meat was replaced by pork. The Mexican-born progeny of Lebanese immigrants also began opening their own restaurants.
Later, in Mexico City, they began to marinate with adobo and use corn tortillas, which resulted in the al pastor taco. It is unknown when they began to be prepared as we know them today; however, some agree that it was in the 1960s when they became popular.{{cite web|last1=Prichep|first1=Deena|last2=Estrin|first2=Daniel|url=https://theworld.org/stories/2015-05-07/thank-ottoman-empire-taco-youre-eating|title=Thank the Ottoman Empire for the taco al pastor|publisher=TheWorld.org|access-date=12 July 2022}}
Preparation
Pork is marinated in a combination of dried chilies, spices, pineapple, and typically achiote paste, then slowly cooked with charcoal or gas flame on a vertical rotisserie called a {{lang|es|trompo}} ({{Lit|spinning top}}), the meat is shaved off as the outside is browned, and made into tacos. Guajillo chile, garlic, cumin, clove, bay leaf, and vinegar are common ingredients, with cinnamon, dried Mexican oregano, coriander, and black peppercorns found in many variants.{{cite web|author1=Hursh Graber|first=Karen|date=2006|title=Wrap It Up: A Guide to Mexican Street Tacos Part II: Nighttime Tacos|url=https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2091-wrap-it-up-a-guide-to-mexican-street-tacos-part-2-nighttime-tacos/|url-status=live|access-date=29 January 2022|website=mexconnect.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529171519/http://www.mexconnect.com:80/articles/2091-wrap-it-up-a-guide-to-mexican-street-tacos-part-2-nighttime-tacos |archive-date=2009-05-29 }} Meat is thinly sliced off the spit with a large knife into a small corn tortilla and served with finely chopped onions, cilantro, and diced pineapple. A wedge of lemon or lime and a salsa are optional condiments. This meat is also a common ingredient in gringas, alambres, huaraches, tortas, burritos, and pizza.
Varieties
In some places of northern Mexico, such as Nuevo León, Durango and Chihuahua, these are usually called {{lang|es|tacos de trompo}} if served on corn tortillas, and {{lang|es|gringas}} if they are served with cheese on flour tortillas.
A similar dish is called {{lang|es|tacos árabes}} ({{lit|Arabic tacos}}), which originated in Puebla in the 1930s from Arab-Mexican cuisine. {{lang|es|Tacos árabes}} use shawarma-style meat carved from a spit, but are served in a pita-style bread called {{lang|es|pan árabe}} ({{Lit|Arabic bread}}). These tacos have been brought by Mexican immigrants to the United States in the past few years and have become popular in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, two of the largest Mexican/Mexican-American population centers in the United States.{{Cite web |last=Hammond |first=David |date=8 November 2007 |title=Perfection on a Spit |url=http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/restaurants/071108/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110210511/http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/restaurants/071108/ |archive-date=10 November 2007 |access-date=4 August 2022 |website=chicagoreader.com}}
A chicken version marinated in the {{lang|es|al pastor}} style was brought back to the Middle East in the early 2000s, and sold as "shawarma mexici". It is typically served in the Middle Eastern style, wrapped with garlic mayonnaise, dill pickle, and french fries in a thin flatbread.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
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See also
{{Portal|Mexico|food}}