Brine Whine

According to Cooking For Engineers (interesting and informative site for food geeks):

Brining is the soaking of meat in a solution of water and salt. Additional flavorings like sugar and spices can also me added, but salt is what makes a brine a brine (just like acid makes a marinade a marinade). This soaking causes the meat to gain some saltiness and flavoring while plumping it up with water so that after cooking it still contains a lot of juices.

I use brining for several things (smoked salmon, chicken, turkey just to name a few), but my favourite is brining pork chops for the BBQ.  In our quest to look like skeletal supermodels, consumers in the West began demanding leaner cuts of pork.  The pork industrial machine obliged, but in the processes of cutting fat, they sacrificed flavour.  Grill your average pork chop now, and it will taste like a piece of discarded foreskin after a bris.

Brining is a simple way to put flavour and moisture back into that slab of pig.  Brined pork chops are one of my favourite things to que, and after you try this I hope you will agree.

Bourbon-Brined Pork Chops:

4 loin chops (each 1” thick)

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 or 4 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

10 or so black peppercorns

1 tsp ground allspice

3 cloves

3 Tbs brown sugar

3 Tbs coarse salt or sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup hot water

2 cups cold water

3 Tbs bourbon (good thing Karen loves Jim Beam)

2 Tbs vegetable oil, plus 1-2 Tbs for basting

Rinse the pork chops under cold running water and blot dry with a paper towel.  Arrange the pork chops in a baking dish just large enough to hold them or in a re-sealable plastic bag.  Arrange the onion, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, allspice, and cloves over the meat

Make the brine:  Combine the brown sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add the hot water and whisk until the brown sugar and salt are dissolved.  Stir in the cold water, bourbon, and 2 tablespoons of oil.  Pour this mixture over the chops, turning the chops a couple of times to coat evenly.  Brine the chops, covered, in the fridge for 2 to 4 hours, turning once or twice to ensure even brining.

Set up your grill for indirect grilling and preheat to high.  When you are ready to cook, put on your bikini babe apron, then brush and oil your grill grate.  Drain the pork chops and blot dry with paper towels (as you probably noticed I have stock in Bounty…”the quicker-picker-upper”).  Note that the peppercorns tend to embed themselves into the pork, kind of like Oprah on a baked-ham.  So you should probably look for and remove these bastards. 

Toss your favourite wood chips (apple is the obvious choice here, but mesquite is nice too) onto your coals, and arrange the chops in the center of the hot grate away from the heat.   Cover the grill and smoke your chops for 20 minutes.  Place 2 chops on each side over the mounds of coals.  Grill the chops uncovered until cooked through 4 to 7 minutes per side, rotating the chops 90 degrees after 2 minutes to create an attractive crosshatch of grill marks (you eat with your eyes too!).  Transfer the chops to plates or a platter and let rest for 3 minutes to redistribute the juices.

Serve with some home-made applesauce (add some fresh horse radish to it to give it a bit of bite) and baked beans.

L8er

Verno