Pibil - A Pit Cooking

Technique from
Mexicos Yucatan
Peninsula

By James P Knell
A longtime real estate executive based in Santa Barbara,
California, James P. Knell leads SIMA Corporation and its
affiliated enterprises. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling
to destinations that allow him to indulge his love of surfing,
including French Polynesia and Mexico. Mexico has more
to offer than beaches, however, and James P. Knell is also
drawn to the countrys cuisine. Mexico is home to a
diverse array of cooking styles, with the Yucatan peninsula
in the south offering a distinctive regional flavor due to a

Mayan influence.
One of the most characteristic local dishes in the region is
pibil, which combines the pit smoke and spice rub
techniques of preparing meat. Typically made from
suckling pig, pibil involves first rubbing the meat with
achiote paste and then marinating it overnight in sour
orange juice, which takes the place of vinegar. The meat is
then wrapped in banana leaves and set in the pib, or
earthen pit, to slowly cook. Sealed airtight, the pib gives
pibil its distinctively smoky taste. Pibil may also be made
with chicken, although this isnt as common as pibil made
with pork.