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Birria is one of the most popular culinary buzzwords in the United States today-it's just that Jalisco recipes that are not based on goats have caught people's attention. biria de chivo, the state’s signature dish. Most people, especially the Khaliskans, traditionally believe that birria is made from goats. Hector's version of tatemada includes a final baking of the birria de chivo in the oven to make the skin burnt and crispy.

At eight o'clock in the morning on Saturday morning, Hector Ramirez pulled the wooden handle on the cast iron lid to seal his homemade propane-fueled cylindrical oven and lifted the veil of his brillatatemad.

The Ramirez family is very lively. Hector's wife Marisela cuts fresh limes into quarters at a steady rhythm. Nearby, their young daughter Giselle stood on a burnt baking sheet, heating tortillas one by one. The oval wooden frame of the oven is scribbled with the company name: "El Jaliciense", which is an idiomatic phrase for people born in the state of Jalisco in central western Mexico. The Ramirez family is busy preparing their signature dish, birira de chivo.

Birria comes in countless forms, usually one meat or another slow-cooked meat that is incredibly tender. Most people, especially the Khaliskans, traditionally believe that birria is made from goats. Hector's version of tatemada includes a final baking of the birria de chivo in the oven to make the skin burnt and crispy.

In the Hector's restaurant, the heavy door opened, revealing the golden brown bone-in goat meat on the grill with thighs, ribs, spine and thick muscles. This visceral vision symbolizes something special, even among the many gifts found in the cooking of the rich areas of Los Angeles. This is an unparalleled example of a well-crafted brilla tatemad. This is a labor-intensive preparation that uses a double cooking process, first steaming the meat, and then browning its skin in the oven. This whole goat recipe is suitable for Hector’s small hometown of Belen de Refugio and its surrounding areas, located in the northeastern tip of Jalisco.

"Brilla has been passed down in our family for generations," Hector said, looking at the amazingly rich meat. "An important part of special celebrations. Large parties, weddings and birthdays."

Birria is one of the most popular culinary buzzwords in the United States today-it's just that Jalisco recipes that are not based on goats have caught people's attention. Birria de res, a beef-based form of birria usually attributed to the Tijuana taqueros, began to sweep Los Angeles street food in 2018. Since then, it has swept the country like a locust, in theme parks, food trucks and county supply fairs, from California to the Midwest and East Coast, in novel forms such as birria de res Eggrolls, pizza and ramen. Shortcuts, including canned fruit puree and cheap meat, are rampant.

However, Hector is a Beria form steward connected to his roots. The regional specialty of Jalisco, birria de chivo, is a legendary dish that originated in the Iberian invasion, when Spain imported a large number of fast-breeding goats to graze this vast area of ​​Mexico. Feeling out of fashion for the European elite, this meat was finally accepted by people and turned into a fragrant, slow-cooked tender goat meat.

Its name roughly translates to "a mess," reminiscent of a bowl of clear soup and chopped goat meat that has been soaked in Chilean red broth that has repeatedly appeared in Mexican restaurants around the world. Birria, like Hector's tatemada, is common in Guadalajara and its neighboring areas, and is rare in the United States. Mainly because "It takes a lot of hard work to make a good birria", in the words of the Harrisgar cooking manager. Hector learned the art of birria from his grandfather, uncle, and cousin, although this tradition can be traced further in his family.

The heavy door opened, revealing the golden brown bone-in goat meat on the grill, arranged in a patchwork of body parts—thighs, ribs, and thick muscles. This is an unparalleled example of a well-crafted brilla tatemad.

"Every week, my paisanos [country folks] come up with orders for 5-10 pounds," he said. "For them, it is of great significance to make Beria with discipline and care." Hector goes through this hard work every week. He settles down in the concrete floor courtyard where he works on machine repairs on weekdays. His birria was made not entirely out of necessity, but because he knew how to make it “completed the way it was”, preserving and sharing the multi-generational knowledge and traditions of Jalisco with the city he now calls home.

"It requires a lot of sacrifice and work, and the process is very long," he said. "But we are working with a lot of love, pride and dedication to be able to provide meals that have been made this way for a long time. Sharing it for the enjoyment and harmony of this community means a lot to me."

Starting Thursday night, Hector will go to a slaughterhouse in Chino to select three middle-age goats about 18 months old, considering that any young ones are too tender and any older ones are too hard. When he got home, he cleaned, gushed and butchered meat. In order to remove the smell of blood, he adopted an ancestral method, scrubbing the meat piece by piece with salt, and then hung it to dry overnight. Grate a mixture of garlic, onion, cumin, pepper, cloves, and bay leaf on the meat for seasoning.

On Friday night, Hector started to cook the goat slowly for about six hours in a huge steamer, the meat was covered with marguerite leaves on all sides to keep it moist and give it a delicate flavor. Under the meat, a pan collects dripping juice from the steaming goat. These will be filtered later to remove any fat, and the rest is mixed with tomato-rich broth and added with spices until it meets his strict tastes.

When ordering, one can submerge the meat in a clear broth, or place some meat in a bowl or cup-either as a dip or pour on homemade tacos made from the provided tortillas. The clear soup reflects Hector’s regional cooking as strongly as the meat itself. It is an idyllic delicacy that showcases the tomato flavor common in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes, bordering Hector’s hometown. A similar example is the dishes served on chivo by Birria Calvillo Aguascalientes of El Monte, a nearby restaurant.

After being steamed, Hector's meat was transferred to El Jaliciense's oven of the same name to keep it warm until 45 minutes to an hour before the start of the show. "When things are done the way they should be done, it will be of better quality," he said. "Take embroidery as an example. When it is done by hand, it has a unique quality. If it is done by a machine, it is different." Finally, Hector heated the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and then in the final stage of the process Reduce it to 200 degrees Fahrenheit: make a "tatemad".

El Jalicense's Birria has several different iterations. In addition to choosing the way you want to serve the clear soup, you can also choose whether your order is surtida-a mixture of skinned and boned cuts, including mouth-watering fine ribs and refined fat creeks-or pure maciza muscle. For the complete Tateta experience, we recommend the former.

Soon after the oven was turned on, customers began to appear. hungry. Curious groups rushed to the table, looking forward to their first tasting, and whispered about Hector's reputation as Billiero. They came with Hector’s Khaliskan compatriots. They took a large order and wanted to taste the taste of home. Once the meat is used up, El Jaliciense will be closed until the next Saturday morning, Hector will do it again.

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