The local Chinese grocery store had a sale on pork chops. Since we have never been big meat eaters, it was with some trepidation that I bought some to try, then went home to research the best way to cook it. Little did I know that there are different types of pork chop, and not all are equal. We also did not have them cut it into slices, so I brought home a somewhat square cut of meat. The result was pretty delicious but way too much meat for our family.
Pork loin chop, the one with the t-bone. It has a mild taste but is easy to cook. We grilled ours.
It turns out that there are many different types of pork chops. We happen to buy the one with the t-bone in it, from the ribs of the pig, on the back of the pig, called pork loin chop. The grocery stores really do not make it easy for consumers to understand the different cuts of meat.
The hunk of meat we brought home was not cut into slices, so it was relatively squareish. It had about 4 vertebra put together. As I did not know how we were going to cook the meat I was pretty certain we would not cut it into slices and grill it. It turned out that was exactly what we did.
We usually cube our meat, sear and then stew it in a pot, crock pot or more recently, pressure cooker. Upon reading more about this pork loin chop it turns out that the cut is a relatively tender one best suited to grilling, stir or pan frying. My slow cook methods were not required and would probably destroy the meat. As I thought it was a cheap cut, and at the sale price it was, I was unsure we could stir fry it and satisfactory results. It turns out you can.
I took a large chef’s knife and cut out the 4 vertebra. This turned out to be pretty easy, as they were all of consistent height and shape, accounting for the protruding processes. The bone came out relatively easily. Once out I was also able to separate them by cutting between the vertebra, through the disks. With my hands I was able to crack them enough to open them up and get my knife in there. The vertebra lock together pretty well when straightened. I’ll save these 4 vertebra for when we will need pork bone, like for a stock or soup.
This left a rectangular cut of meat about 3″ high, with a good fat cap. Now what? There were many recommendations to brine the pork. This would supposedly moisten and flavour the meat, all without making the meat salty. Not having done this before I was skeptical. It turns out they were right. The pork chop is a relatively soft cut. When pan frying it is prone to drying out and turning into shoe leather, tasteless and near inedible. The brine is really easy to do: warm 1 cup of water, add 2 tbs of table salt, cracked pepper corns and any other spices, then pour over the pork chop. You then add enough cold water to cover the meat. Let sit for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. We did the overnight amount.
You would think that the pork would come out salty but it did not. We removed the pork from the brine and made slices. The slices were dried with paper towels. You need to dry the pork so that you get a good sear. Wet meat will first steam and not sear. We chose a skillet that had raised grill marks, which we oiled. In general, we grilled the pork for 3 mins, then turned 90ᐤ for a second 3 mins, then flipped and did the same on the other side. An instant thermometer stick into the thickest part showed over 140ᐤF, and the pork chop is done. We tented with aluminum foil for 5 mins. The chops came out a light white, some parts with a tinge of pink.
The taste of the pork chop was light but not dry. The dreaded fat cap provided a lot of flavour. The chop came out with cross hatch marks that were pleasing. We found that one person could really eat single slice, and our pork chop yielded 6 slices. This was a lot of meat for us, but a pretty different meal. It will take us a long time to want to do this much meat again.
