How To Cook Supermarket Pork Chops
The sauce can be changed to fit your menu: less sweet: capers, pimientos, and rice vinegar; or sweeter: white raisins (or dates, dried cranberries, candied ginger or orange peel) and sherry or spirits. The key to this method is to begin with a cold pan.
I know no easier way to make commodity pork chops edible.
Edible, but not really all that desirable. And not just in terms of taste. The food conglomerates contribute enormously to deforestation and global warming. Even if they got the message that consumers want them to employ humane and organic practices, it would mean dramatically less profit for them. Animal welfare and human health? Nothing personal, but it’s really about the money.
Regardless, commodity factory-farmed meats, for Americans of small-to-moderate means, are the only cheap, easily available, easily cooked, flavorful proteins — for the time being.
As I savor my marvelous pork chop, I realize that we are fortunate to be among the last generations of Homo sapiens who are full-time carnivores. Those that follow will face a rapidly diminishing food supply for a rapidly growing world population. That may not mean total absence of meat as a staple of our diets — it’s too culturally ingrained. Sooner or later, there will be a crunch, but I predict that food science will evolve to meet that problem.
Meanwhile, cook and eat a really good pork chop. Tomorrow you could be hit by a tofu delivery truck.
*Joseph Byrd (write him at eat.your.spinach@gmail.com) is currently a fan of the 12-hour-roasted pulled pork at Murphy’s Sunnybrae Market, just $6/lb.*
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