A couple of nights ago I brined some pork chops and cooked them in a pan on the stove, steak-style. They were boneless loin chops, minimal marbling, and my hope was that brining would alleviate the almost inevitable dryness from such a cut.
They were at most 1" thick. The brine was 4c water (because I didn't have the forethought to purchase apple juice/cider), about 1/4c salt and 1/4c sugar. I added a few peppercorns, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, a bay leaf, and a splash each of soy sauce and Worcestershire.
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| This looks like a medical experiment. |
Captain's Log Follow-Up
The brine was unsuccessful. Chops chewy, but not dry? I don't think I overcooked them, but I do suspect either the brine wasn't potent enough, they didn't soak for long enough, or, most likely: It's just a crappy cut of meat.
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| This is from the next night. Microwaving tough pork chops was... not an improvement. The broccoli was roasted to order, though, and it was awesome. |
That looks really good! Cooks Illustrated recommends cooking pork chops beginning in a fully cold pan (letting them warm up to medium/high, i think, as the pan heats). They had very convincing diagrams of what this did to the meat vs. what a hot pan does. We tried it once--it was amazing. You'll have to google for cooking time/temps... I suspect CI gave their recommendation in temps but i bet you could fake it with texture testing. (That is, poke it.) :)
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