Ok, here I am again talking about birria tacos. But, it’s not what you think. @marsh8 I hope you pay special attention.
I’ve watched a few videos on these. Lot’s of folks making them outside on a flat top or, like me, with a griddle on a backyard grill. Today I decided to make a few of these before putting all the leftover meat up to freeze. So in the interest of being too lazy to fire up the grill, I got out my trusty cast iron skillet and fired up the kitchen stove.
Got the mise en place and everything was ready for my work station. Now if you’ve watched any of the birria taco videos, you’ll know that when you start cooking them in the pan, you lay down some of the rendered fat from the cooking of the meat in the marinade. What you don’t see on these videos is a stern warning NOT to cook this stuff indoors.
My excitement was palpable. Lodge cast iron pan at around 350F. Chunks of beef fat infused with the chili marinade hits the hot pan, and something near the equivalent of a 50 megaton bomb went off in my kitchen. It wasn’t actually an explosion, but judging by the instant cloud of pepper spray hanging in the air, it was apocalyptic nonetheless. Within mere seconds my lungs felt like I had just inhaled molten lava. Eyes burning and nose running, I realized my colossal failure even before placing the first corn tortilla on the hot oil.
Of course, most people would quickly weigh the pros and cons of continuing under these conditions. I’m not most people. Birria is just too damn good, and I’ve waited all day for them. Mise en place was impressive even by Gordon Ramsay standards. In short, I’m invested.
Only cooked 4 of these which took probably less than a minute per. In that short span of time, I had a cloud of death fumes which, by this time, had permeated pretty much my entire house. I threw open the windows which got my wife’s attention, and she came toward the back door. I damn near knocked her over stopping her from coming inside, and as soon as she saw my red, watery eyes, running nose and me hacking up a lung, I think she figured out what I did. Laughter seems obviously inappropriate here, but by shit she was sure enough busting a gut. Meanwhile, mother nature had filled my lungs with mucus which I’m sure was meant to protect them from injury, but it was doing nothing to help me breath. I’ll spare you the disgusting details of the expulsion of said mucus, but suffice it to say, it was epic.
All in all, I would have done this differently and cooked these lovely tacos outside had I known. But now that I’ve had my dinner…it was worth it.