Slow-cooked changes (and carnitas)
Cooking in a slow cooker is a little like slowly opening a present – unfurling ribbon curl by curl, feeling the weight and sensing the general shape of the package, and gingerly lifting paper away until you get to enjoy whatever it is inside. Or perhaps like waiting for the vegetables in your garden to ripen – watching color creep across the surface and feeling the flesh soften.
Because an hour or two into the slow cooking process you begin to sense the flavors coming together by the scents that seep out. These scents grow and begin to piece together what is to come, but it isn’t until you lift the lid at the end that you get the full picture, bombarded by a cloud of intense flavor and the scent of food that has slowly come together all day.
