High on the hog Pork chops take center stage

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 16, 1998 by Sarah Minasian

Typical pork chop entrees ran between $6 and $10 20 years ago and would have either been broiled, grilled or pan-fried and served with a side of applesauce. And if you really wanted a stylish dish, you would have served baked pork chops stuffed with cornbread and applesauce.

In 1992 Fog City Diner offered a pork chop with ginger applesauce and glazed carrots for $10.95, Cafe Annie offered a grilled pork loin chop with pecan-and-maple steak sauce for $15.50, and The Rattlesnake Club offered a broiled pork chop with roasted peanuts and jicama for $15.95. Roasted peanuts and jicama? Is this the beginning of the pork chop revolution?

Chef Jim McKinney of Club Grotto, an American Bistro in Louisville, Ky., started thinking about the concept of pork chops and applesauce and said, "Nah, I can't do that." With the help of his staff, after a night of brainstorming, the ubiquitous pork-chop-and-applesauce combination gracefully evolved into a 12-ounce porterhouse chop served with an Anjou pear compote, sour cream smashed potatoes and bleu cheese-Cabernet reduction sauce.

"This is the hottest-selling meat dish on the menu next to the filet mignon, and the only reason I sell more filets is on account of all the catering. It's comfort food; I've got customers who eat here two to three times a week, and this is the only thing they'll order," McKinney says. Since February, he has sold more than 4,000 chops.

In the early 1950s the U.S. pork producers concentrated their efforts on developing a leaner type of hog that would meet the demands for leaner meat. As a result of their efforts, today's market hogs are 50-percent leaner than those of the '60s.

Because today's pork is so lean, many chefs are tenderizing their chops in either a wet or dry cure. McKinney brine-cures his chops in Kosher salt, juniper berries, water, rosemary and brown sugar for 24 hours. McKinney adds, "When chops are brine cured, they still hold their moisture so that even when cooked to a medium-well, they're still moist."

According to the National Pork Producers Council, cooking pork to an internal temperature of 137 degrees kills Trichinella spiralis. It advises cooks to "think slightly pink." For a medium-done chop, cook to an internal temperature of 160.

Chef McKinney says his grill chef checks every single chop, looking for about 145 degrees, before it goes out.

Chef Karin Trouyet of newly opened Coup in New York says her $14 grilled double pork chop with pickled onions and glazed sweet potatoes was "inspired by a dish from the Yucatan called cochinita pibil, cochinita translating to 'little female pig,' and pibil translating to the type of rub and underground cooking method." Trouyet's rub consists of oregano, cumin, allspice, orange zest, garlic and white vinegar. Her red-onion pickling brine includes beer, white-wine vinegar, garlic, cloves, cinnamon and blonde chili peppers. Making sure all the onions are covered equally with a weight, Trouyet lets them stand for two weeks. Her plate is finished off with a sauce created from reduced pork stock, mounted with butter and sprinkled with chopped rosemary.

Chef Kevin Rathbun of Nava in Atlanta not only marinates his chops in a red wine, brown sugar, garlic, salt and water brine for 24 hours but also applies a rub of pureed Mexican red chili powder, roasted garlic and onion, oregano and corn oil before grilling it over hickory.

Rathbun serves his 14- to 16-ounce chop with smoked tomato grits and sauces it with a natural reduction veal stock infused with ancho and pasilla chilies. When it is garnished with a smoked tomato Pico de Gallo, Rathbun says, "it has a really nice smoky grill, camp-fire flavor." He describes the dish as kind of like the meat and potatoes of the South; combining pork chops and grits go together real well."

Rathbun is not alone in his smoke and chop pairing. Out in Portland, Ore., chef Cory Schreiber of Wildwood Restaurant and Bar buys the whole pork loin with the rib blade in, roasts it a quarter of the way through in a brick oven and then breaks it down into 14-ounce chops, which are roasted in a tandoori oven over mesquite charcoal.

Schreiber serves his $20 Yam Hill County pork chops with smoky bacon spoon bread, sauteed Swiss chard and applesauce that is made in house with locally grown apples. He says he "was inspired through the classical preparation of pairing fruit with pork. The dish has been on our menu since day one, May 17, 1994. It is obviously very popular."

New Orleans chef Michelle McRancy of Mr. B's Bistro "always has pork chops on the menu." Changing the menu three times a year, she's currently offering a 12-ounce double-cut chop served with a vegetable-jasmine rice and gingergarlic sauce.

After curing the chops in a sugar and salt brine, she marks them on the grill and then throws them in a cold smoker for 30 minutes, finishing them in the oven. McRaney explains that "the cold smoke is just to infuse the flavor, but the actual cooking is done in the oven." She adds, "We were looking for an Asian influence, going toward barbecued pork."