Pork Updated

Members of my generation were raised to think of pork as both caloric and even dangerous. Bacon, pork roasts, chops marbled with fat, and barbecued ribs were all sinful dishes, albeit delicious. We also learned to cook pork until no pink showed or risk trichinosis - a nasty parasite that may live in raw pork. But cooking today's pork with these conceptions produces an almost inedible result. Pork can still be very tasty and even healthy, but it requires a different approach.

This column will concentrate on the other white meat, i.e. the leaner cuts of pork. Pork is now 31% lower in fat than it was 20 years ago. Pork tenderloin, boneless pork chops, and boneless pork roasts have less saturated fat than a chicken thigh. A 3-ounce serving of each of these cuts has less than 200 calories. But there is a cost. With less fat, pork dries out easily and overcooking results in dry, tasteless meat. But it is easy to both cook pork safely and add great flavor.

First, cook pork to a lower temperature than yesterday's cookbooks advised. Cooks were admonished that pork had to be cooked to 185 degrees in order to erase all risk of trichinosis. However, the trichinosis parasite dies at 137 degrees so 185 degrees is overkill. Further, trichinosis was common when pigs were fed casual slops - they ate infected feed. Today's pig is fed sanitized feed. As a result, it has been over 20 years since a case of trichinosis has been reported in the U.S.

You can achieve a solid safety margin by cooking a pork roast to a temperature of 150 degrees and letting it rest for 10 minutes. Alternatively, if you want to rest meat for only 5 minutes, especially with chops and tenderloins, cook the meat to 155 degrees. In order to monitor doneness properly, use an instant read thermometer. 

Next, ignore thin cuts of pork entirely - they're almost impossible to cook without drying out. Buy pork chops at least one inch thick. This thickness also allows you to use a thermometer to test for doneness. If you want a good crust on a thicker pork chop or a crust on a pork roast, sear the surface of the meat over high heat, and then finish cooking in indirect heat. You can use the oven, a section of a gas grill with its heat source turned off, or a charcoal grill section that isn't directly over any coals.

Finally, add flavor. Pork adapts wonderfully to a variety of flavors, whether added by a marinade, brine, and rub, by themselves or combined. Marinating and brining both require that the pork rest in liquid for awhile while a rub is a dry mixture of spices, herbs, and sometimes salt which can be put on the meat ahead of time or just before cooking. Below are some of my favorites.

Marinades and brines work well with all the leaner cuts of pork. I personally favor brines since the salt allows the pork to stay juicy during cooking. Brining increases the amount of liquid that cells can retain while being cooked. The brine can be flavored, or a rub or sauce can then be added right before cooking for additional flavor.

There are a number of brines; following is a basic one from the Food Channel's Alton Brown:

Dissolve 1 ½ cups of Kosher salt in a combination of 2 quarts of water and ½ cup of molasses. For additional flavoring, add 1 tablespoon each of whole juniper berries and peppercorns as well as 10 whole cloves. If using the flavorings and you have time, heat the water, molasses and salt, and add the spices when the brine is still hot. This will allow them to infuse their flavor into the salt water. However, do not add the meat until the brine is cool; a few ice cubes will help cool it down. Refrigerate the meat in the brine for 4 - 6 hours; larger roasts can stay in the brine overnight.

Rubs are extremely versatile and cater to all flavors. They can be used by themselves or added to brined meat right before cooking. Simply stir the dry spices together in a small bowl. Rub evenly over the pork.

To get you started, the following combinations are courtesy of the National Pork Board - reduce or eliminate the salt if using on brined pork:

Southwestern Rub: 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon each of brown sugar and ground cumin, ½ teaspoon each of cinnamon, ground red pepper, and salt.

Asian Rub: 1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns, 1 ½ teaspoons crushed anise seeds, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, ½ teaspoon each of salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and ground cloves.

Cajun Rub: 1 teaspoon each of ground white pepper, onion powder, crushed dried thyme leaves, and ground black pepper, ½ teaspoon each of garlic powder, celery seeds, ground red pepper, and salt.

Greek Rub: 1 tablespoon each of minced garlic and finely shredded lemon peel, 1 ½ teaspoons each of crushed dried rosemary and crushed dried oregano, 1 teaspoon of crushed dried mint, ¼ teaspoon each of salt and ground black pepper.