Barbacoa

 So we just took our two steers in to get butchered about 2 weeks ago and we just got our meat back 2 days ago.  My little chica wanted to make barbacoa so we kept both of the heads.  This is both myself and my chica's first experience making barbacoa.  Let's just say this is an interesting experience and at times gross.

Doing barbacoa is a lot of work and it was really messy.  First thing we did was to soak the heads in water for a few hours.

Then we washed the heads super good (when I say we, that means chica, chica's hubby, and my hubby, I helped occasionally without really getting my hands dirty).  We scrubbed, sprayed, rinsed, and even pulled the brains out of the heads.  Afterward, we soaked the heads in salt water over night.

Next thing we did was rub seasoning on the heads/meat then put them in the pot and steam with some garlic and onions.  The heads were big enough to where we had to use 2 separate 32 qts pots to cook both of them at the same time.

After about 8 hours of steaming, the meat just fell off the bones.  Meat was nice and tender.

This is what 8 hours of steaming did to the cow head.

The eyeballs kind of melted too after being steamed for so long.  No one dared to eat the eyeballs so we just pulled them off the heads and tossed them.

   

I'm actually surprised at how much meat actually came off the two skulls.  It was enough to feed 2 fairly large families and we still got leftovers.  My chica cooked the tongues as well in a pressure cooker separate from the skulls.  The pan of meat has a mix of the meat from the skull, tongue and even the brain.  The meat in the top upper corner was the brain, the top left was the tongue and the rest was all from the rest of the head.  Interesting thing is that I didn't think the meat from the head would be so fatty.  The tongue meat actually tasted pretty good too.  I didn't try the brain...but those who tried it last night said it was really really fatty and greasy.  

In conclusion, this stuff tasted good.  But would I do it again?  No, a big heck no!  From start to finish it was so much work and messy.  If I ever crave for a barbacoa taco, I'll just go straight to a taco truck and get me some.