For Maggie Eubank, the formula to retiring to a life of leisure would be as simple as expanding her inventory of pork chops at her Saturday booth at the Pearl Farmers Market in San Antonio.
“If we had an endless supply of pork chops and pork belly, I would be talking to you on a yacht right now,” said Eubank, owner of Pure Pastures, based out of Canyon Lake. “Chops are consistently the first thing that we sell out of on a weekly basis, no doubt about it.”
Every week, she brings about 20 pounds of chops to the market and they are usually gone before the first pieces of ice inside the cooler have a chance to melt. That’s because pork chops, which have the consistency of steak but are priced at about half the cost, are in constant demand.
“It’s one of those cuts that everybody knows what it is, and what they want to do with it,” Eubank said. “A lot of people prefer it to steak, and I totally get that.”
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The almighty pork chop carries with it an endless amount of interpretation. Unlike beef that has specific regions allocated to the cuts, pork chops are traditionally cut from the loin, but can be packaged and labeled from many different areas of the pig from the shoulders to the ribs, and can be packaged with bones or sold boneless. They are usually labeled accordingly.
As a standalone chop, I always gravitate to the bone-in varieties, sliced so thick that they might even contain a second bone. Most meat markets have the ability to cut them to whatever your preference may be. In my native Iowa, they have a cut called the “Iowa Chop” that is sold with a depth that’s as thick as a brick.
There are plenty of myths in the culinary world, but I am a card-carrying believer that the marrow from the bone makes everything taste better. I like to start them off with a good sear after seasoning, either on the grill in a cast iron pan on the stovetop, and then decide what to do next. It could be as simple as a quick dousing of barbecue sauce, or nothing at all.
But it would be a mistake to dismiss the boneless chops.
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Boneless chops work fantastic when butterflied, cut through the middle to create a pocket that can hold additional ingredients to add to the flavor profile. I have done variants stuffed with chunks of apple and cinnamon, as well as a Greek recipe that loads them with sliced Kalamata olives, or an olive salad with feta cheese held together with a few toothpicks. On a hot grill, they can be finished in about 15 minutes.
Only a few Texas barbecue outlets, such as Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, which started in Llano and now has multiple locations, have bone-in pork chops on the menu. That’s a shame because they beg to be smoked. It takes about two hours at the standard pit temperature of 225 degrees to get a chop to the 140-145 degrees finished internal temperature, and they pick up the signature pink smoke ring like a brisket.
And then there is the way my late grandmother made them; she preferred to slowly cook them on the stovetop at the lowest temperature possible, regularly dousing them in a flavorful mushroom brown gravy. That was Sunday supper about once per month.
The best part about pork chops is that there is no single way to prepare them. Just make them your way.
Recipe: Grilled Greek-style pork chops
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The Link LonkDecember 29, 2020 at 02:00AM
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Chuck’s Food Shack: Pork chops are versatile, budget friendly - San Antonio Express-News
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