Today, I am pleased.
What you see above is a specimen of my successful attempt at smoking meat. Yesiree, the red around the edges of the pork chop is caused by low heat, slow cooking pork.
It is also my first attempt at brining meat.
I soaked the 1″-thick meat in a solution of water containing:
- 5 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- whole peppercorns
For about 4 hours. I was afraid to over-brine the meat as it could cause the meat to become mushy. However, the pork chop had good bite and wasn’t too tough. I think I can go longer on the brining, and shall attempt 5 hours on my next try.
However, I did slightly overcook the pork. What to do? I am so afraid of under cooking pork and causing stomach problems for people.
I finished the pork chops with Famous Dave’s Barbecue Sauce, which was quite good. Overall, it had a salty smoky porky taste.
The pork chops came with a Sweet Potato mash with Balsamic vinegar and a fried rice of tomatoes, garlic, onion and ginger stuffed into a green pepper and grilled till completely soft on open flames.
Then, as we ate these, I threw on some corn on the fire.
We completed our meal with a root beer float with the Daily Scoop’s Salted Mr. Brown on a root beer in a classic all-American frosted A&W mug I lugged back from the US. It is a larger 20 oz specimen which is perfect for the foamy frothy head that is produced when ice cream meets root beer. I only have two of these glasses, which are being sold at A&Ws as part of their 90th anniversary celebrations.
as one of the appreciative consumers of your abovementioned pork, i’d like to say: well done. and thank you. mmmm yum.