My mother fed us pork chops as a child. They were grey and stringy. She used to say that they would make us stronger chewers. We ate them with mint jelly. I think it worked. I can out chew all my friends. One time I had a chew-off with my pal Natasha- we munched on harder and harder things. She’s got some strong jaws, but I ended up winning. I took a bite out of crime by crushing the trigger off a handgun we found in the dumpster. She said she wasn’t putting that into her mouth. I’m the champion.

A friend of mine was ripping on pork.  Specifically, chops.  I told him that they’d be good if people didn’t overcook them all the time and they get a bad rap.  I told him about the pork industry trying to market pork as chicken and making cuts of meat not fatty enough and the FDAs nonsense pork cooking rules.  He said so you’ve tried them ? They’re that much better?

I hadn’t.  Whoops.  We made plans to try them the next day for dinner.

I brined the chops for a little while in about a 3% salt wet brine by taste, time wasn’t on my side in this bet.   Then I took them out and displacement ziploc bagged them.  If you’ve never done it, it’s easy and works pretty well.  I put in a couple apple slices, sage, rosemary, and a bit of apple cider I had around from our crop share.  I separated the herbs with an apple slice to avoid over localized flavoring of the meat.  They went into a 60C bath for about two hours.

Yeah, a bit early. I still held them at temperature long enough to not worry about anything though.  I’ve found that a piece of a bamboo steamer seems to be my go to method to keep foods submerged if I’m worried about them floating.  My circulator is on the floor right now until I can get a stainless table with a shelf to put it on.  Making a kitchen is a lot of money.  I took out the chops and seared them. We plated them with a cheesy apple grain salad. They were very good. Juicy, tender. My friend was impressed. I’d give it a 3/4. I would probably brine them more and cook them at 59c instead for quite a bit longer.