![]() ![]() ![]() I decided to simply season the meat just prior to cooking. As it turned out, salting the meat also interfered with developing a rich crust since it brought some of the meat’s moisture to the surface. But since the moisture added by brining would impede browning, I dismissed it-I didn’t want to wait 45 minutes for the surface to dry out. We typically brine or salt pork to season it and enhance or maintain the meat’s juiciness. The thickness of the chops varied slightly depending on the diameter of the loin, but I found that starting with a 2½-pound roast guaranteed chops at least 1½ inches thick. I cut my center-cut pork loin roast crosswise into four even pieces. What’s more, it’s readily available in most supermarkets. On the other hand, a center-cut roast, which comes from the pig’s back, is compact, cylindrical, and lean from end to end, making it ideal for home-cut chops. This roast also tends to widen toward the blade end, making it impossible to cut chops of equal thickness and weight. But that wasn’t enough to overcome the cut’s drawbacks: For one thing, the fattier parts are found only at the very end of the roast, meaning that you can’t cut four identical chops. Blade-end roasts come from near the shoulder of the animal and contain more fat, which made for slightly juicier chops. But in order to develop a rich, golden crust before drying out the meat, we needed to start with boneless chops that were at least 1½ inches thick.Īs for the type of roast, I considered both blade-end and center-cut loin roasts. Lean pork’s quick cooking time makes it perfect for a weeknight meal. Starting with a boneless roast would make it possible to fashion chops of any thickness. Second, you don’t get to decide how thick to make the chops, since that is dictated by the spacing between the ribs (usually about an inch). First, the rib bones can be a challenge to slice through. Chop ChopĪlthough rib bones insulate meat from heat, helping prevent overcooking, I decided right off the bat that I’d cut boneless chops for two reasons. But after looking for thick-cut (1½ inches or thicker) chops at a number of supermarkets and coming up short, I realized that if I wanted a juicy interior and a substantial crust, I was going to have to butcher a pork roast into chops myself. Thicker chops-which require more time to cook through-give you a wider window of time to build up a solid sear before the interiors are overdone. But since most pork is pretty lean, chops are easy to overcook, resulting in leathery, dried-out meat. Pork chops seem like a good candidate for a weeknight meal: They’re quick to cook and, when given a nice crusty sear, are flavorful. ![]()
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