Porky

I am tired.

So today I had a request to make pork chops using "Shake-N-Bake".  I was thinking to myself "self, you like to cook when there are folks to cook for, not use boxed meals."  "Oh, and self, you are tired..."

The last weeks have been sort of non-stop, in a way.  Animal sitting, running here and there with music events, gardening in my little raised garden beds, being the sole emotional support system for a loved one....

Why am I writing those vague little daily details?  As an explanation concerning why I agreed to do someone else's grocery shopping and use "Shake-N-Bake" pork chops today...

As much as I like to cook, and mostly CAN cook, I am baffled by the simplest instructions on boxed meal kits such as "Shake-N-Bake".  The concept of 'easy meals' is hard for me to grasp for some reason.  Now, does this mean I am incapable of nuking a TV dinner for myself?  Hell no!!!  I will nuke and eat a TV dinner at the drop of a hat if I am sitting around alone and in a 'mood' as I will not waste energy going out or whipping up meals every day.  Of course I add finishing salt, fresh ground pepper, Amish butter......  

I am a social cook.  I need the approval of the foods I cook by friends and family to make the effort worth while.

Anyhow, no, I cannot do anything the easy way it seems (see TV dinner nuking above...).  What makes pork chops better? BRINING! Yes! Let's brine the pork chops for a few hours THEN use "Shake-N-Bake" on them! 

Who does this?

Me...

Salt bath anyone?

Today's brining solution for 4 bone-in pork chops was 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons table salt, 1 tablespoon honey, and a 1/2 teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder.  I mixed up the solution, rinsed off my 4 chops, put the chops and the solution in a large Ziploc bag and placed in the fridge for 6 hours.  I would 'agitate' the bag periodically (meaning as I remembered) during those 6 hours.

I preheated the oven when I got hungry, read the box directions (which I will not force you to read here) and followed them.  I probably should have rinsed the salty goodness off the chops, but hey, I like salt...

I baked the chops on an old aluminum foil-lined pizza pan and let me just say................

Moist.

Flavorful.

Good stuff.  I served those breaded puppies up with homemade cornbread and black-eyed peas. Nothing healthy to see here folks!  Keep it moving, keep it moving.....

Today, I found a recipe for homemade shake-n-bake a on a blog called Diary of a Recipe Addict. I am so going to try this!  If I make my S&B mixture, then I can be happy!

What I learned from Brine Time in Tennessee… aka, If there is no light in the fridge, is the turkey really brining?

The best plans can go awry – this scenario was slightly complicated by the fact that I had planned on ‘smoking’ the turkey breasts once they were brined for 8 hours. The smoking process is fairly involved for one person to do – as a super novice. Read is “first time smoker alone”.


Here is a blow-by-blow
My Original Plan Was:

• Get off work at 12:30PM because that is when my work traditionally sends us home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
• Feed the dogs so I do not have to do that after dark – thus lessening the chances for screaming “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”.
• Throw all the ingredients together in a pot and bring to a boil so it can be cooling.
• Head out to my mom’s for my family’s traditional “day before Thanksgiving” meal.
• Upon arriving home after Thanksgiving-eve dinner – I would rinse the turkey breasts, toss them into the food grade bucket – pour the brine and ice in and go to bed. Let the dark of night do the work.

I did not get off work until 4:15

New Plan:

• Gather the ingredients together, loaded the water with the cloves, peppercorns, salt and sugar then brought the start of the brine to a boil.  
• Feed and water the dogs without incident. 
• Boil then cool the brine solution.
• Head to mom’s. 

What Happened:
Came back and realized that if I put the turkey in the brine at 9pm, I would have to be up rinsing it by 5AM. NOT happening.

New Plan Part Deux:

• Set my alarm for 2AM thinking I will get up – set the brine bucket up and get up at 9AM to start smoking the meat. 
• Go to eat supper at mom’s. 
• Rinse and start smoking. 

What happened:

• Slept through alarm. 
• Woke up at 8AM, panicked

Plan Part Trois - The Final Destination: 

• Started brining at 8AM 
• Called mom – went to eat lunch instead of supper - allowing brine to work. 
• Came back after 8 hours and rinsed the turkey breasts. 
• Started the smoking process (another blog entry).

Decision on Brining:

DO IT! 

The meat was tasty and moist. I would not say juicy – but definitely not dry.
The best Turkey I have cooked – and I bought CHEAP BREASTS ($1 hooker breasts, not Playboy model breasts) so this is a huge deal – so to speak.

NEXT!

It’s Turkey Brine in Tennessee

So, as I recently discovered (this week actually), brining meats is a fabulous technique for ensuring juicy-tender noms. Now I am obsessing on this practice and simply must try this with a turkey. This will be a first. One of several firsts to occur over this holiday.

1. Brining a turkey
2. Smoking a turkey
3. Smoking anything without assistance
4. Making a Thanksgiving meal that I will probably not share with anyone

I am going to submit this ‘pre-brining’ blog now, so I only have to update how it went after I am done. After all, it is a holiday – and I have my Christmas dress to get sewn together!

Brine for poultry 

As with brining pork, brining chicking, poultry and turkey adds moisture and flavor to meat before cooking so it is juicy, tender and yum after cooking. I figure to smoke a turkey breast, I need to add a lot of moisture. The brining technique will work with a whole turkey, whole chicken or a turkey breast.

   

Brining solutions start with salt dissolved in water. For me, I am going to add sugar and spices as well. I want F L A V O R !

  

Note: Start brine solution itself early enough to boil it, remove from heat and chill prior to submersing turkey in it for soaking. Brine solution needs to be at 40°F degrees or lower otherwise it is a haven for growing bacteria (“Food Temperature Danger Zone” is 41°F and 140°F where bacteria thrives). NEVER start brining in room temperature water.

*When thawing a frozen turkey, the preferred method is to place it (still wrapped) in the refrigerator on a deep platter or pan to catch any liquids that might leak out. Allow 24 hours in the refrigerator for every 5 pounds of turkey. I suggest when you are buying a turkey, you make sure that it will:

a) Fit in your freezer
b) Fit in your refrigerator

Close to the end of the thawing time you can remove the giblets (heart, liver, gizzard, and neck) from the chest cavity to either dispose of - or cook and add to giblet gravy!

Note: You will need to make sure you have a non-reactive container or food grade clean bucket large enough to hold the turkey/poultry and brine solution to cover meat completely.

Time:  Allow 8.5 hours for soaking and prep. Time needed to cool the brine solution prior to adding ice will vary. Yes, this means I have no clue because I have not done this type of brining before. I did not boil the solution for the pork chops...

Ingredients

Fresh or thoroughly thawed turkey*
1 Gallon water (must cover meat)
1.5c sea/Kosher salt
.5c sugar
1T whole black peppercorns
1T whole allspice
8c Ice

Prep:

Combine water, salt, sugar, peppercorns and allspice in large stockpot. Stir to dissolve salt and sugar while heating to a boil over fairly high heat.

Remove from heat and cool the brine solution completely.

Add ice to solution along with turkey, place in the refrigerator and allow to soak 8 hours. Make sure ALL of the meat is under water. Weigh it down if you must.

Makes 1½ gallons (after adding the ice) of brine.

Once you are done soaking/brining the meat – remove it from brine solution, rinse inside and out. Prepare to cook however you wish.

Dispose of brine solution.

For me – this takes me to my smoking adventure.

Puff puff give...

Puff puff give...







 

Brining Pork Chops - or - Taking a Salt Bath

So, for years I made DrY pork chops. I was NOT proud of my ability in cooking them, AT ALL. This weekend I got a wild hair and decided to thaw some pork chops I had frozen and cook them up. Sunday morning I suddenly though – why don’t I brine them and smoke them on the smoker. The upside of smoking pork chops (in my limited experience) is it lends magnificent flavor to the meat. The downside is it dries a dry meat further.

Enter “BRINING” as a tool towards moist, juicy meats.

Brining any meat apparently adds a significant amount of moister/water before the meat is cooked. This gives us a juicier and tenderer end-product. Basically it takes LONGER to cook the water/juices out when there is more water in the meat. Brining adds that water.

Now, as far as it working on “any” meat – I do not know. I have only tried it on pork chops. However, I am feeling rather “special” right now – after my “Porking” success and have decided I WILL brine a small turkey and SMOKE it for Thanksgiving. A nice little treat since I am spending the bulk of the holiday alone again this year. More on that later!

In my reading, the basic brine solution is 1 cup of regular table salt to 1 gallon of water (=1 Tb per 1 cup of water). This is not an overly salt-laden solution so it will be harder to “over-brine” with it. Over brining (adding too much salt to the meat) cannot be undone. The solutions should be salty to taste but not thick. If you use kosher/coarse or sea salt, you will want to go with 1.5 cups per gallon water. The weight by volume is less.

I suggest, for your first try at brining, err on the side of caution and go with less time. Under-brining will not hurt anything. I cannot emphasize enough that over brining (due to longer soaking time or higher salt content) will ruin the meat. There is no way to undo the damage.

• Pork Chops (about 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick) - 12 to 24 hours
• Whole Pork Tenderloin - 12 hours
• Whole Pork Loin - 2 days

Brining times are not only determined by the weight and thickness of meat but also by the grain of the meat. Pork tenderloin takes less time to brine by weight than do pork chops because the long running grain pulls the brine into the meat.

Now, there are many seasoning options to add to the brine solution. A sweetener being a good idea. Sugar (white/brown), molasses, corn syrup, maple syrup, or honey. A good rule of thumb is to add a ½ cup of sweetener per gallon of brine solution.

• When preparing to brine, make sure you pick a container that can handle the meat size and the liquid.
• Make sure you submerge the meat completely. The brining solution only needs to just cover the meat.
• You must refrigerate the meat during brining – OR – pack ice/ice-packs around the meat in a cooler.

Other seasonings can be added from any recipe or for any taste YOU desire. Herbs, peppers, spices garlic and onions will add flavor to pork. Try not to overpower the flavor of the pork. This will take a little practice. Garlic and onions should be minced or chopped to expose the maximum amount of surface area to the brine solution.

***Note: I went with ¼ salt and a ¼ c sugar to 4 cups water, but I will try to go with the 1 Tb salt and 1/2Tb sugar per cup water option next time.