Mamajuana Rum Marinade is great for pork, chicken and other poultry, maybe some fish, potatoes, and sauteed kale or onions and mushrooms. This mamajuana recipe is vegan – er, depending if your mamajuana has penis extract or not. HAHAHAHA… read more to find out what we are talking about.
Ready for some random backstories that all culminated in the existence of this Mamajuana Rum Marinade recipe? Strap in, ’cause here we go!
Mamajuana Rum Marinade
If you follow us on Instagram you know that Holley and I had a deck party recently where we served a 20 lb pork leg. I’ve never cooked a slab of meat that big before and needed to do some research as to how to cook a pork leg (even then, I really just ended up winging it).
Holley and I brainstormed marinade ideas for a while, and the ingredient that we found that we wanted to use was Mamajuana Rum from the Dominican Republic.
You’re probably wondering “How the hell did you land on this?”
Neither Holley or I are big drinkers. Even though Holley’s day job is about selling alcohol, and I have access to a lot of bottles and samples through her, we’re healthier than that. Don’t get me wrong, we both drink occasionally (dude – we live in wine country!), but we’re not plowing through bottle after bottle. Which had resulted in our shared bar getting a little out of hand.
As we were going through the bar, looking for cocktail ideas for the party and for bottles to give away, we found two mickeys of Mamajuana rum from the Dominican Republic. Mamajuana is said to have a whole whack of benefits like promoting pregnancy, getting your heart rate up, improving virility, and making you horny. Oh, yeah… maybe they could cover it all and just say:
Mamajuana causes sex
Never heard of it?
Mamajuana is basically sweet and spicy rum made by marinating rum in a mix of spices, bark and leaves, honey, and red wine. Or so I thought until I started doing some googling…
According to Dominican Cooking doesn’t just “leave you breathless” and “frisky”, it also contains “miembro de carey”… SEA TURTLE PENIS EXTRACT!
😳
I’m just going to give you a second to respond to that in whatever way that is required. It was also just pointed out to me that “isn’t penis extract just…”
…
Most mamajuana rum probably does not contain sea turtle penii. But it still tastes good and should still get you laid.
Dominican Trip + Doppelganger
So why would I use all my mamajuana in this recipe? Because I bought my bottle when I was in the Dominican Republic TWENTY YEARS AGO and haven’t drunk it.
I remember having my first drink of it. I’d gone to the Dominican with my sister. It was the first tropical all inclusive vacation I’d ever done. The resort had a posh restaurant where they served us a shot of mamajuana after dinner as an aperitif. It tasted magical! They probably did mention the benefits with heavy accents, but I don’t remember. As I said, I was there with my sister, so it’s not like I was focusing on the sexual benefits. Also, I was like 20.
Sidenote: People always say I look exactly like my sister, but then also assume she is my wife. Make up your minds! People are weird. Also, you can see some photos of her here.
While we were there we hung out with 2 couples – which again helped people think that we were 3 couple hanging out. We swapped partners so that we could enter a couple’s competition (though Devi and I woulda won for sure if we’d entered as a couple). While they were first presenting us, I was asked to shake my bonbon like my doppelganger, Ricky Martin.
Yeah. Young shy Raj was pretty embarrassed. Even if he did get told he looked like Ricky ALL the time back then. And yes: there are more stories about the Ricky Martin situation. No: I am not telling you today.
How to Cook a 20 lb Pork Leg
Holley found this 20 lb leg of pork at a store on sale. $20!! That’s a buck a pound! CANADIAN! How much do you think that costs per serving? Almost n o t h i n g !
How often people cook a full pork leg? It seems like next to never based on my Google research as to how to do it! Well, eventually I pieced together some instructions which made sounded good: 90 minutes per kilogram at 250 degrees. Which works out to about 13 hours – though I was assuming it would take longer.
I put it in at midnight the night before with a dish of water to add moisture to the air, thinking it would be ready around 4 pm, giving us another hour or 2 to rest the meat before serving, but when Holley woke up in the morning, I heard her check it and I got nervous. I got out of my room and penetrated it with my meat thermometer (sure, I coulda used a different word choice, but why?). It was done! 160+ degrees.
Crap. a) that was already past the temp I wanted to pull it out at, b) what was I gonna do with it for the next few hours before the party?!
I started to panic, thinking how the pork leg would be dried out if I left it in the oven. I reached out to my friend Victor from QB Gelato (if you’re in Kelowna and don’t know about it: WTF?! Get in there right now, and tell them I send you. Maybe they’ll give you some extra stuff… Yeah, it’s not paleo, but it’s really fucking good and made with quality ingredients. Get Victor talking about it. You’ll thanks me later.) who told me to take it out, tent it with aluminum foil, and let it rest.
I started carving it an hour or two later and it was perfect.
Umami Marinade Recipe
Can I tell you something?
I had zero confidence about this marinade going into it. It had taken 3-4 days to defrost the pork leg in the fridge, Holley and I had brainstormed ingredients for the Mamajuana Rum Marinade, and when I was making it and tasting it… well… Let’s just say that I had a vision of what I wanted the pork to taste like.
Umami and salty with a very light sweetness
But the marinade just tasted like… rum. All I could taste was alcohol. I played with it for a while, rebalancing and trying it to the magic I had in my head. Holley wasn’t around so I couldn’t get her opinion. I finally decided that I was in the ballpark and that after a few days of soaking into the pork leg that the flavors I wanted to stand out would be there. I rubbed the pork, which I’d sliced the skin of, with the marinade, locked it all into a vacuum-sealed bag, put it in the fridge and said a prayer to the culinary gods that it would work out.
Win! It was everything I wanted it to be!
And yes: that is cacao in there! Don’t question the addition of chocolate. I already told you: it was everything I had pictured in my head (…tasted in my head?).
As for the mamajuana affect? I haven’t polled the guests yet, but I’ve been eating leftovers for days and let me tell you… I think it’s working!
This mamajuana recipe is great for pork, chicken and other poultry, maybe some fish, potatoes, and sauteed kale or onions and mushrooms (which I put on an omelet) – this is vegan – er, depending on if your mamajuana has sea turtle penis extract or not.
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Mamajuana Rum Marinade
- Total Time: 2 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Description
Ultimate umami marinade recipe yo! And yeah, there is cacao in there!
I doubled this recipe to marinate a 20 lb leg of pork.
Ingredients
- 100 ml mamajuana or spiced rum
- 1 Tbsp cacao
- 1/2 Tbsp onion powder
- 1/2 Tbsp ground ginger
- 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1 1/2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 1/2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1 Tbsp ancho paste or this substitute combination
- 1 Tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 Tbsp coconut aminos
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Pour mixture over meat (or vegetables) in a large bag ziplock. Remove as much air from the bag as you can, and seal. Allow to marinate in the fridge for 1-2 days.
- Cook as needed with the marinade. Add enough water to make it more watery than pasty (less chance of burning on the bottom of the pan, plus it’ll add moisture to the meat).
- Lastly, once finished cooking, pour marinade and drippings into a pot. I put the pot into the freezer for 5-10 minutes to have the oil on top solidify, then scooped it off. Cook the remaining liquid down over medium, reducing it to a desired sauce consistency. Serve with meat (or veg. Or eggs. Or whatever).
- Prep Time: 2 min
- Category: Marinade
- Method: Grill, Oven
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