Acidic Citrus Marinades With Pork / Improving The Process

I've been doing my Lechon Asado for the past 40+ years pretty much the same way and don't have any complaints with the mojo that I make up from scratch using sour oranges. Same way I've been doing it since I learned as a teen.

What I've been giving some thought to is the mojo as I've been making it causing the pork to become tough. My typical marinade was put up the night before and then cooked about 18-20 hours later. Only thing that's changed since is using a zip lock bag and no longer toast my cumin and use powdered cumin,oregano, and bay leaf. Times have changed as well as availability of spices in different forms since I learned to cook.

I think that using the powdered spices seem to impart greater flavor then using the full leaf products then rubbing or crushing them. I've been trying to find ways to improve the Lechon starting with a brine with essential spices. That didn't really change much or improve the moisture content like chicken or chops as Cooking Illustrated suggested.

I've been giving some thought to seperating the mojo into spice and acid phases to see if a shoulder or leg can cook up with a bit more moisture. Mixing up the garlic,oil,salt,pepper, and spices and rubbing the meat that's been pierced all over and working in the paste in the holes with fine sliced onions in the bag rather then a complete marinade. Allowing that to sit like a rub with the spice paste overnight.

Then adding the sour orange an hour or two before cooking to prevent the acid from toughening the pork.

I'm not going to be doing Lechon for a while, but wonder if any of you have any suggestions doing this more scientifically and optimizing the process rather then sticking to tradition to achieve a better result. Perhaps even using sour orange zest in the rub as a possible addition to the paste to get the citrus oils to infuse rather then the juice to toughen the meat might even be a better tweek initially.

Nobody here does it this way and uses the traditional methods. I do mine at two temps. 165 for sandwiches and slices and take it to about 185 for the more traditional, falling off the bone texture. Not much to do about the last, but the first, lower temp sliced meat

That can probably be improved.