Caja China

De Caja China Peru:

RESPUESTAS

1. ¿Qué es una Caja China?

Una Caja China es una parrilla portátil a leña o carbón en forma de horno en la cual se pueden asar todo tipo de carnes en menos tiempo de lo normal.

2. ¿Cómo se usa una Caja China?

Muy sencillo, solo coloque la leña o carbón en la tapa o bandeja superior, una vez prendido levante la tapa e introduzca la carne que va a asar. Vuelva a colocar la tapa y espere a que se cocine. Pasado el tiempo indicado en las instrucciones o en la receta, dele vuelta a la carne y continúe hasta que quede de su agrado.

3. ¿Qué tipo de carnes se pueden preparar en una Caja China?

Todas las que usted desee. En una Caja China no hay límites, se puede preparar desde unos cuyes (salen doraditos y crocantes) hasta un cerdo entero. También puede asar pollo, pato, pavo, cabrito, conejo, lechón, piernas de cerdo, costillitas, paletas, perniles, solomillos, enrollados, pescados, etcétera.

4. ¿En cuánto tiempo se prepara un lechón entero en una Caja China?

Usando la cantidad indicada de carbón un lechón queda listo en 3 horas 40 minutos. Mucho menos tiempo que un “chancho al palo” que toma más de 8 horas.

5. ¿Qué cantidad de carbón necesito para preparar un lechón en una Caja China?

Depende del tamaño de su Caja China y del tamaño del lechón, pero en promedio se pueden usar 8 kilos de carbón.

6. ¿De dónde viene el nombre de Caja China? ¿Es un invento de la China?

A diferencia de lo que podría parecer, la Caja China es originaria de Cuba, fue inventada por un Cubano residente en Miami, USA, quien al querer continuar con una tradición cubana de asar cerdos enteros en una caja hecha con ladrillos y metal, inventó el modelo portátil que utiliza metal y madera. El nombre de “China” se debe a que en Cuba, como en el resto del Caribe suelen llamar “Chino” o “China” a las cosas que les parecen mágicas, misteriosas, diferentes, difíciles de entender o explicar. De la misma forma que los peruanos decimos “está en chino” cuando no entendemos algo.



Historia de la Caja China
VARIANDO LA FORMA DE HACER UNA PARRILLADA
Por Edson De Souza

Con la Caja China se puede asar un cerdo entero debajo del fuego. Para aquellos que no sepan nada sobre este tema, aquí les va un poco de historia acerca de esta maravillosa invención, en la cual se puede asar un cerdo de 22 kilos en cuatro horas.

Existen muchas formas de asar un cerdo entero. Uno de estos métodos consiste en colocar el animal en un armazón o rostizador encima del fuego y girarlo lentamente por varias horas (al estilo Pollo a la Brasa). Los Griegos hacen algo similar con el cordero. Lo malo de esta técnica conocida como “al palo” es que además de necesitar el armazón especial se requiere de al menos dos personas para su preparación, además toma mucho tiempo para que la carne quede en un punto exacto. Otra técnica es la de hacer un hoyo en la tierra, colocar piedras adentro que han sido previamente calentadas en una fogata y colocar al cerdo encima de estas para luego cubrirlo con una lona húmeda o con hojas de plátano y taparlo todo con arena o tierra (al estilo de una Pachamanca). Otra forma es colocar el cerdo dentro de una parrilla tapada y cocinarlo a las brasas, pero este método requiere de una parrilla extremadamente grande y es muy probable que se necesite usar un overol o ropa especial.

Ninguno de estos métodos le tomará menos de ocho o nueve horas.

Una Caja China (www.cajachinaperu.com) - es una caja rectangular de fmetal cubierto con madera (triplay) y una tapa de metal con asas, encima de la cual se encenderán carbones o leños para cocinar cualquier tipo de carne (en especial cerdo) adentro. Hay tres tamaños disponibles, y la más grande cuesta US$ 250. (Se pueden preparar cajas de cualquier tamaño, solicite una cotización)

¿ De dónde vienen ?

Aunque parezca mentira, las cajas chinas no las inventaron los chinos, sino los cubanos. Hay una historia acerca de cómo los chinos torturaban a sus prisioneros de guerra, al parecer esto llegó a oídos de los cubanos y fue así como desarrollaron una forma similar de cocinar, lo que a la postre significó la invención de la Caja China.

Sidney Mintz, el gran antropólogo culinario de la Universidad Johns Hopkins y autor de "Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom" cuenta que cuando oyó hablar de la Caja China, inmediatamente se puso a indagar acerca de los orígenes chinos de la caja, al principio, comenta que se vio frustrado al no encontrar respuestas, pero que luego de investigar en el internet encontró que 150,000 trabajadores chinos fueron llevados a Cuba en la década del 50. Dice que fueron solo hombres, sin familia ni esposas por lo que no se dio un intercambio cultural en la manera de cocinar. Prueba de esto es que los chinos nacidos en Cuba que posteriormente dejaron la isla y abrieron restaurantes en América, o cocinaban comida china, o comidad cubana, o ambas, pero no se dio una mezcla de ambas cocinas - no hay arroz frito con plátanos y sillau, ni hay almejas Shanghai en sopa de frijoles negros, por ejemplo - lo que lleva a concluir que no hay una base sólida para afirmar que la Caja China, de origen cubano, fue inventada por los chinos.

Si a esto le sumamos la costumbre caribeña por llamar a todo lo que es desconocido, raro, exótico, extraño, como “Chino” o “China”, así como los peruanos decimos “está en chino” cuando no entendemos algo, entonces se explica el porqué del nombre. Esto lo confirma la chef cubana Maricel Presilla, del restaurante “Zafra” en Hoboken, New Jersey.

Sin embargo, no solo en el Caribe se prepara el cerdo en una caja. En los Estados Unidos, exactamente en la zona de Louisiana, existe la misma costumbre de asar cerdos en cajas. Lo llaman el “Cajun Microwave” y los hay en una gran variedad de diseños y tamaños. Incluso los hay muy sofisticados, con elaborados sistemas mecánicos que permiten mover al cerdo dentro y fuera de la caja.
Pero la idea básica es la misma que la Caja China: colocar un cerdo en un ambiente cerrado debajo de la fuente de calor en lugar de encima. Estas cajas “Cajun” las venden en internet y las hay desde $450, mas $150 de envío dentro de los Estados Unidos. Bastante más caras.

Testimonios de famosos

John Willoughby, el editor de la revista norteamericana “Gourmet” (www.gourmet.com) se manifiesta extasiado con los resultados obtenidos con la Caja China. Comenta que preparó un cerdo en Caja China y lo calificó como “caramelo de cerdo”.

El reconocido chef norteamericano Bobby Flay (www.starchefs.com/chefs/BFlay/html/start.shtml), quien empezó como lavaplatos del famoso restaurante de parrilladas “Joe Allen” de New York, y ahora es dueño y chef del “Bolo and Mesa Grill” de Manhattan, también se confiesa gratamente sorprendido por la Caja China. Es lo mejor que he visto, dice, añade además que su favorita es la caja CHICA, la cual utiliza cada que puede en su casa de Long Island.

El distinguido y a la vez obsesivo gastrónomo Jeffrey Steingarten, quien escribe la sección culinaria de la revista “Vogue”, intrigado por la Caja China, terminó comprando una GRANDE y le encargó al Chef Paul Bertolli, del restaurant “Oliveto” en Oakland, California, que le consiguiera un cerdo del matadero del Valle de Napa para que se lo prepare en la Caja China que compró. Demás está decir que el resultado obtenido sobrepasó las expectativas del crítico.

Adaptado de “Roasting a Pig Inside an Enigma” por Sam Sifton, NY Times, 7/01/04

Abajo pueden encontrar la versión original:

Roasting a Pig Inside an Enigma
By SAM SIFTON
Published: January 7, 2004 in the New York Times

THE note came from a friend. It was brief and irresistible. "Have you
heard about this item?" it asked. "It can roast a 50-pound pig in
four hours."

There are a number of ways to cook a whole pig. One method is to
place the carcass on a rotisserie above a heat source and spin it
slowly into the night. Greeks do a similar thing with lamb. Another
technique is to dig a shallow trench in the ground, line it with
rocks, build a fire to heat the rocks and place a pig above them,
then cover the whole with wet canvas and sand, the way New Englanders
do for clambakes on the beach. Southern barbecue cooks will slide a
butterflied pig onto a covered grill and cook it slowly in a smoky
braise. This method takes an extremely large grill and, really, if
you want to do it properly, you need to wear overalls.
Advertisement

None of these methods take less than eight or nine hours. None work
well during a Northeastern winter.

The message, which had come via e-mail, had a link to a Web site run
by a Cuban-American named Roberto Guerra, www.lacajachina.com. The
item described on Mr. Guerra's site was called La Caja China - a
Chinese roasting box. This turned out to be a rectangular plywood
wheelbarrow lined with marine-grade aluminum, with a steel top upon
which you could build a fire and under which you could cook a pig, or
a great number of chickens. There were three sizes available, with
the largest priced at $250.

I wanted it immediately, the way a child would a model airplane, or a
trip to the moon. I bookmarked the site and came back to it nearly
hourly for the next few days, daydreaming about roast pig.

I also began to shoot off e-mail notes and to make phone calls,
inquiring about La Caja China in particular and so-called Chinese
roasting boxes in general. That they are Cuban seemed self-evident.
They are made by Cubans. But what makes them Chinese?

Mr. Guerra, who was born in Cuba and who lives and works in Miami,
related a story about how the Chinese Army tortured its prisoners
with heat and how somehow this had led Cubans to develop a sort of
cooking that in turn resulted in the invention of the box, by his
father, in the early 1980's. This yarn seemed apocryphal at best. Mr.
Guerra and I were talking on the phone, but it did not seem
impossible that he shrugged his shoulders in agreement.

John Willoughby, the executive editor of Gourmet magazine, also had
no answers. But he was ecstatic about what the box could accomplish.
He'd had, he said, some pig cooked in one that very weekend, prepared
by a fellow named Jesus Lima, of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in
Boston. "It was like pig candy," he said. Mr. Lima, he said, had
called the device "a chinee box."

I called Mr. Lima. His box, which he built 12 years ago after seeing
similar versions in South Florida, is stainless steel, with a plywood
exterior and a stainless-steel top on which he places coals. He has
cooked more than 80 pigs in it, he said, and has always called it a
chinee box. I asked him why. "That's its name," he said.

Bobby Flay, the television personality and former Joe Allen
dishwasher who is the chef and an owner of Bolo and Mesa Grill in
Manhattan, said he had tried pig from one of the devices in Miami,
cooked by the chef Douglas Rodriguez. "The coolest," he declared,
adding that he had purchased a small version, La Cajita China, for
his weekend home on Long Island. "It is just awesome," he said.

And Jeffrey Steingarten, the courtly and obsessive gastronomic
enthusiast who writes about food for Vogue, was intrigued by La Caja
China to the point of distraction, sending what seemed like daily
e-mail messages on the subject. "Semper Pigatus" was the heading on
one of his messages. (Mr. Steingarten ended up buying the largest box
and engaging Paul Bertolli, the chef at Oliveto in Oakland, Calif.,
to have a pig from the Napa Valley Lamb Company slaughtered for him
to cook in it. "The pig was actually eviscerated in Yuba City," Mr.
Steingarten added in what he said was the interest of full accuracy.)
But he had no idea, at least at that juncture, why the boxes, whether
sold commercially or made at home, were called Chinese.

Sidney Mintz, the great food anthropologist at Johns Hopkins
University and author of "Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom," was
similarly stymied at first. But in a later e-mail message, casting
about for ideas, he told me that 150,000 male Chinese contract
laborers were brought to Cuba in the 1850's. They came alone, he
said, without family or wives. "As should be clear to all," he added,
"without women, culture is mostly not perpetuated." Chinese Cubans
who later left the island and opened restaurants in America cooked
Cuban food, or Chinese food, or both. But, he said, there was no real
mixing of the cuisines - no plantain fried rice, no Shanghai clams in
Cuban black bean soup - and to his knowledge there was no real basis
in fact for saying that the Chinese roasting box, of Cuban origin,
was of Chinese descent.
Advertisement

That said, Mr. Mintz added, "My Caribbean experience tells me that
calling something 'chino' or 'China' is a way, perhaps especially in
the Hispanophone places, of saying it is clever, exotic, a
contrivance, desirable. I could hazard only a bum guess why."

This last echoed something I had heard from a Cuban chef of some
standing, Maricel Presilla, of the restaurant Zafra in Hoboken, N.J.
"Cubans like to call anything that is unusual or clever Chinese," she
said. "And this is true all over the Caribbean. Pretty much any
culture there, whether Cuban or Puerto Rican or Dominican, they have
somewhere some kind of thing like this - a caja China."

As it turns out, it is not just in the Caribbean that pig roasting
boxes abound. John Laudun, a folklorist and assistant professor of
English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, had a great deal
to say about cooking pigs in boxes. Cajun microwaves, he called the
ovens, and said they were greatly varied in design and size.

"There is more ingenuity in the sheet-metal shops of South
Louisiana," Mr. Laudun said, "than in all the fashion houses in New
York City."

The Cajun microwave, he continued, was but one example of this
creativity. "Some of these things are very high-tech affairs," he
explained, with elaborate winch systems for moving the pig in and out
of the heat.

But the basic technique was the same as with La Caja China: place a
pig in a closed environment beneath rather than on top of a heat
source. Mr. Laudun said Cajun microwaves could be found for sale on
the Internet. One site offered them for $450, plus $150 for shipping.

I bought La Caja China for just over $300 including shipping, and had
it sent to my home. It came in two heavy boxes and took an hour to
assemble. When it was complete I gave it a pat and headed off to the
supermarket for practice materials.

In Miami, Mr. Guerra had told me, whole pigs are readily available at
grocery chains like Publix. In and around New York City, this is not
the case. I settled for two picnic hams weighing 15 pounds apiece and
ordered a whole pig for a following weekend. "You want that heavy?"
asked the butcher at the IGA. Both Mr. Lima and Ms. Presilla had said
that a 70-pound pig was ideal for a family roast. I asked for a pig
of that weight. "That's a little pig," the butcher said. "You'll have
fun with that."

An afternoon of largely unattended cooking followed. There is a kind
of rack within the roasting box into which you can load the meat and,
in fact, strap it into place; it keeps the flesh off the bottom of
the oven and allows the heat to surround the pork completely. I
placed my hams into it, unadorned and skin side down, then put the
cover on the oven and unceremoniously dumped a little more than 15
pounds of charcoal onto the top, in accordance with the instructions
stenciled on the side of the box. The charcoal rested there in the
manner of road salt at a highway department depot. It was a large
pile. I divided it into two piles at either end of the grate, again
in accordance with Mr. Guerra's instructions, and lighted them with a
huge whoosh of accelerant. No smoke would ever touch these hams, so
the chemical tang of the burning lighter fluid would bother no one
but my neighbors.

A quarter-hour later, when the fires were raging, I used a garden
rake to spread the coals across the top of La Caja China. They
smoldered malevolently but looked a little lonely. I added another 10
pounds of charcoal, then went inside the house and sat on the couch.

When I awoke an hour later, I added more charcoal to the pile, and an
hour and a half after that I moved the top of the oven to a resting
place on the long arms affixed to the front of La Caja China. The
hams inside the box were golden and sweating and soft, and smelled
divine. I turned them over, replaced the top, added some charcoal,
and returned to the couch.

And so it went, both with the hams and, a few weeks later with the
whole animal, which the butcher sold for $130 and carried to the
trunk of my car for no charge: periods of rest, punctuated by periods
of fire making. When I cooked the whole pig, I burned through 40
pounds of Kingsford charcoal in about four hours, then moved to oak
logs, which burned bright in the gathering gloom of a thunderstorm.
(It took about five and a half hours to cook the animal; it was cold
outside, and this dissipated some of the heat. There was also some
rain.) In both cases, the results were splendid, particularly in the
case of the whole pig, whose skin caramelized beautifully in the last
hour of cooking, after I'd turned it over, under the searing heat of
the coals.

Pig candy, Mr. Willoughby of Gourmet had said of the result. He was
right. Before cooking my whole hog, I used a large veterinarian's
needle to inject the animal with a kind of Cuban mojo brine, from a
recipe Mr. Guerra thoughtfully sent me when I told him I needed one.
The brine was salt, sugar and water, plus lime and orange juice used
in place of sour orange, and it left the meat with a delightful top
note, a citrus melody above the pork. The meat, served with garlicky
black beans and white rice, along with plenty of rum and cold bottles
of Coca-Cola, served as a kind of gastronomic vacation - a trip to
Cuba on a plate.

That's my New Year's resolution exactly: more Cuba on a plate.




Tambien existe una versión diferente de Caja China, a la cual su creador llama la KAJA CUBANA en ella la fuente de calor viene de abajo hacia arriba y la caja va tapada con una tapa de metal cubierta de madera por encima y el animal va atado entre rejillas y queda como colgando. No la he probado ni la he visto en vivo, solo en la pagina web donde hay fotos y descripcion de su uso. Las venden en Miami en www.lakajacubana.com. Una buena opción definitivamente.



Existe un Blog donde se puede comentar acerca del tema de la Caja China, la dirección es HTTP://cajachinaperu.blogspot.com
Esperamos sus comentarios.