Pork Chops

On a good day, pork chops are a delightful little platter of sweet meat on which all kinds of delicious flavors can be served.  On a bad day, pork chops have all the appeal of chewing on a piece of Humvee tire tread.  Why this dichotomy?  Its all about technique.

Pork chops have the versatility of chicken breasts without the ubiquity.  They have a rich flavor that takes so well to a wide variety of sauces, seasonings and cooking techniques.  Pork chops are nonetheless cursed with a propensity to dry out when not cooked properly. There are two primary reasons for this.  First, our pigs are being raised to be leaner.  Second, we are totally freaked about trichinosis so we cook the hell out of our pork.  We’ll talk more about properly cooking pork, but be reassured that, according to the CDC, the rate of trichinosis infection in the United States is about 12 infections per year – mostly from the consumption of wild animals (including bear, cougar and walrus!  Yum.).  This risk is lessened further if the meat you’re consuming has been previously frozen.  Bottom line:  You’d be smarter to steer clear of your poor innocent-looking bathtub, which claims 300 lives a year in the U.S. from slips and falls.

Secrets of Success

Brine:  Brine is simply a solution of water and salt.  I always brine my chops because it so enhances the flavor and tenderness of the meat.  It also adds a bit of insurance against dryness.

Brine has roughly the salinity of seawater.  As a scuba diver, I’ve involuntarily swallowed enough seawater to know the taste well.   I just add kosher salt until it tastes right.  For those of you who like precision the amount is about 1/3 C kosher salt to 8 cups of water.   Many add a tablespoon or two of sugar to balance the flavor.  You can also flavor this brine by bringing it to a boil and adding spices (preferably whole seeds or bark such as cinnamon stick, peppercorns, juniper berries, cumin or coriander seeds, etc.) then allowing it to cool completely before adding the meat to be brined.

Brine the chops in the fridge for as little as an hour or as much as a day.  You may even choose to speed thaw the frozen chops in the brine.  When you remove them from the brine, pat them very dry with a paper towel before cooking. Damp chops won’t brown properly, which will compromise their finished flavor.  Chops love the Maillard reaction.

Scoring the fat: Ever been served a pork chop that is all curled up on the edges?  Aside from being visually unappealing, this prevents the even browning of the meat.  That’s a bummer because the brown stuff tastes good.  Solve this problem by making gentle slashes through the fat on the edges of the pork about 1 inch apart.  You want to go through the fat only- not into the meat.

Resting:  Your pork will be dry if you do not rest it after you take it off the heat.  Period.  Think of this as part of the cooking time.  Remove it from the heat, tent it loosely with aluminum foil and leave it for about 15 minutes.  Resting finishes the cooking process (the internal temperature of the meat will still rise five to ten degrees) and allows the juices to distribute themselves throughout the meat, significantly mitigating the amount of moisture loss when the meat is sliced.  Because the temperature of the meat will continue to rise while resting, remove it from the heat when it is about five- to ten-degrees shy of done.

Poked pork: This is a great technique for testing the doneness of any meat while preserving its juices.  When you first throw the meat onto the heat, poke it with your index finger.  Keep poking at it and notice how its “give” changes.  The pork is generally done as soon as the poke is firm (but not hard).  Test with a meat thermometer (a bit difficult with something as thin as a chop, but reliable enough) or confirm with a cut to the center.  Over time, you’ll learn the feel of different donenesses for beef, chicken and other meats as well.

Cooking technique

I favor two techniques for cooking pork: grilling and pan-searing.  I love ¾” thick chops because they enable me to easily cook them through at high heat before over-cooking the exterior.  Any chop thicker than this will likely need to be finished in a 400-degree oven.

Grilling: Just dry off the pork chops and toss them onto a hot grill for two to three minutes per side.  Only one turn please- the chops don’

Pan searing: In a cast-iron skillet (a steel /aluminum clad pan is acceptable, but will fail to yield the wonderful crusty exterior you can only get with a screamingly hot cast-iron pan) add vegetable or grapeseed oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Don’t use olive oil because its smoke point is too low.  Heat the pan until as hot as possible without smoking.  Place the pork chops in the pan without crowding.  DO NOT MOVE THEM ONCE THEY MAKE CONTACT WITH THE BOTTOM OF THE PAN.    Leave them for two to three minutes.  Flip them over.    The second side will likely only need one to two minutes to complete cooking.

Doneness

I consider my pork cooked perfectly when it is the lightest shade of pink just in the very center.  I don’t cook pork for guests anymore because they tend to freak when they see that and I refuse to serve overcooked pork.  By the time it’s totally white in the middle, it’s usually pretty well overcooked.  The CDC recommends 160-degrees for food safety reasons.  I’ll take my chances and eat mine at closer to 150-degrees- which is still hot enough to kill trichina.  That means I take my pork off the heat at between 140- and 145- degrees.

The Finishing Touch

Now that you’ve got the basic technique down, let’s talk flavor.  There are endless marinades one could use.  If you marinate a chop, skip the brine.  However, I personally love a simple chop with a great finish:

• Compound Butters: That’s just butter that has a little flavor thoroughly mixed in with it.  How much?  Taste it.  Try chopped chipotles chilies in adobo, dried porcini mushroom powder (grind dried porcinis in a coffee grinder), herbs, spices, orange zest or roasted garlic.  Using a fork, stir the ingredient into softened butter.  Serve pork chops with a dollop of compound butter.  Freeze remaining butter or keep in fridge for about a week.
• Caramelized Red Onions with Sage: Slice a large red onion into rounds.  In a skillet over medium heat, add butter or oil to the pan, add the onions, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally until onions are very soft and brown, about 18 minutes.  Finish with a bit of chopped fresh sage and serve over chops.
• Riesling Pan Sauce: While your chops are resting, sauté one large chopped shallot over medium heat in the same pan in which you cooked the chops.  Add ½ cup each Riesling and chicken broth or stock.  Bring to a boil and reduce to about ½ cup, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan (the fond).  Finish by adding the juices that have accumulated in the foil while the chops are resting and a bit of fresh thyme or tarragon.
• Salsa: A fresh dollop of fresh salsa on top of a grilled chop is heavenly.
• Fruit Sauce: Sauté 1 small minced shallot over medium heat in the pan in which the pork was cooked until softened.  Add 1 ½ cups fruit of your choice to the pan:  fresh or frozen cherries, peaches, apples, or pineapple (possibly canned).  Cover the pan and cook for a few minutes until the fruit is soft and has given up some liquid to the pan.  Add a bit of wine, juice or vinegar to create necessary liquidity and balance.  Finish with a bit of chopped herbs.  Some combinations:
  • Cherries, port, thyme
  • Apple, chardonnay, sage
  • Peaches, balsamic vinegar, tarragon
  • Pineapple, lime zest (pineapples give off enough of their own juice), cilantro

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