Chef Bruce Aidells shares a trick for making lean, dry pork chops more juicy.
Brining pork before cooking is a definite way to give flavor and juiciness to the meat. The process involves combining salt with flavorful ingredients, then letting the meat sit in the solution for a few hours. The number of hours depends on the cut of the meat.
Ingredients:
7 cups hot water
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 cups apple cider
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 Tbs. coarse ground black pepper
Preparation:
Dissolve salt into hot water and stir. Add cider, syrup and black pepper, then cool the mixture to below 45 degrees in the refrigerator. Trim any excess fat from the meat and submerge the pork in the brine (refrigerated) for four to six hours. Cook marinated chops until done. One option is to pan-sear them.
Resources Real Beer and Good Eats: The Rebirth of America's Beer and Food Traditions
by Bruce Aidells
Knopf (Random House), 1992
Order this title from Amazon.com.
The Complete Meat Cookbook
by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998
Order this title from Amazon.com.
The full title of this book is
The Complete Meat Cookbook: A Juicy and Authoritative Guide to Selecting, Seasoning and Cooking Today's Beef, Pork, Lamb and Veal. Guests Bruce Aidells
Author / Chef / Owner, Aidells Sausage Company
1625 Alvarado St.
San Leandro, CA 94577
Phone: 510-614-5450
Toll-free: 800-546-5795
Fax: 510-614-2287
E-mail:
info@aidells.com
Website:
www.aidells.com
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