Brined Pork Chop

TomM24

I thought I try a brined pork chop. So it mixed up the simple brine #2 on Thirdeyes page and soaked the chop for 2 hours. My wife came home and questioned why I did it as we tried it before and didn't like it. But I am thinking it wasn't on the egg. Luckily I had another unbrined chop for her. Rinsed and patted dry the brined chop added a Salt free Penezey rub and did both at 350 direct to 145. Both were equally juicy but the brined one was good but a little salty. The texture of the brined chop was changed slightly in a pleasant way. Maybe next time equal quantites of sugar and salt and less time and another virgin chop for the wife.

Chef Charles

The last time I tried brined pork chops I left the little rascals in the brine a bit too long and they too turned out salty. The first time I did this cook, I did not have the full time called for in the recipe for brining and they were excellent. Perhaps brining them less time is the way to go.

thirdeye

Tom,

It sounds like a little fine tuning to suit your personal taste is all you need. How thick were your chops?

The addition of Tenderquick in Brine #2 is responsible for the slight texture change. It may have make it slightly "pinker" too. The brine time you used was middle of the road, so maybe just brining for 1 hour is all you need.

Lastly, I hope you read through the preparation instructions (which apply for all brines), as heating the water to dissolve everything is important....but the most important thing I mention is:

Following brining, give the product a good rinse followed by some rest time in the refrigerator. Shrimp only need about 15 minutes of resting. I will rest smaller pieces of chicken or pork chops for a couple of hours and up to 8 hours on a turkey breast. The rest lets the salt and flavors retained in the meat disperse and reach a state of equilibrium of sorts.


If you cook brined things right after coming out of a brine (even with rinsing or soaking) a lot of the salt is still near the surface. The heat of cooking will draw it out and the evaporation process will concentrate it. Then....when you take a bite, you are met with a salty flavor first. The equalization time lets everything settle down.

psiman

The most successful brining procedure that I have used is found in Mario Batali's "Molto Italiano". For his basic brine use 1 cup of kosher salt per gallon of water. Boil each cup of salt in 2 cups of the water and add any spices (a few bay leaves/dozen peppercorns) and sugar (cup of brown sugar per gallon of water) to the boiling water. Stir to dissolve. Add the remaining cold water and chill the brine fully before submerging the meat or poultry. Refrigerate, covered, overnight, but not a full 24 hours. Rinse the meat or poultry twice before cooking. Throw out the brine.

thirdeye

...for clairification on my Flavor Brine page.

The hippest thing about having an online cookbook is the rapid editing. I just make a couple of changes (adding soaking for larger items, and adding the information about the concentration of surface salt) on that page.

Thanks for the comments, they always help.

TomM24

Oops I used the small batch of Number 1 It was the second listed hence the mistake. The chops were thin probably a half inch. I rinsed the chops but did not let them equalize. Next time I will. But you're right just needs a little tweaking to taste.