If you follow this blog on a regular basis and can remember back to January, I went on a home curing and smoking kick. Ham, bacon, and pork chops. The ham and pork chops were vacuum packed and frozen for later use. Well, we grilled up some of the cured and smoked pork chops last week. Here is how they turned out.
Thawed and ready to do. I was really happy at how the color developed over the 7 months in the freezer. The chops had a very nice hickory flavor right out of the package.
On a screaming hot grill. About 5 minutes a side. The smoke rolling out of the stack had an enticing, smokehouse hickory scent.
Done and ready for devouring. How were they? The crispy fat was especially nice. Pork fat is always good. But this fat and the meat around the fat had a nice bacon flavor. It was a nice surprise. The rest of the meat had a subtle had a nice subtle hickory flavor mixed in with hammy overtones. I will be making this again for sure.
One issue was that some of the chops were a tad too salty. I will rectify that in the future by soaking in ice water longer, perhaps overnight, to ensure that all of the salt is removed before smoking. Other than than, these chops were better than any store bought smoked pork chop I have ever prepared.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
That is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI did shed a tear when I tasted the bacony pork fat...
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