Cooking For Engineers

[Guest]

Best tip for juicy pork chops? Buy thick cut pork chops instead of the usual ½" thick ones. 1" thick is a whole lot easier to cook. I cook them at about 450°F and flip them when they look right. Used to need a thermometer, but now I can just tell.

Please excuse the lack of precision: I'm just an industrial engineer.

[Guest]

Enjoyed the site! Not sure how I ended up here...but I learned a little and had a few laughs besides. You guys are great!
Chow,
Stacie

[just a passerby]

Since the ingredients in your rub are already ground, and since the rub is going to sit on the pork chops for 8 hours or more anyway, it seems unnecessary to me to go to the trouble of grinding in a spice grinder. I would think the flavors would be infused nicely into the meat in 8 hours from the spices in their already-ground state straight out of the bottles, with further grinding superfluous.

Any thoughts or experience in this regard? Thanks.

[Michael Chu]

[Titanfan54]

I've used this one twice, the second time with a couple of variations. I got great results both ways, but this original way was a little better.
The second time I didn't have enough "heads-up" time, so I used some store-bought McCormick Pork Rub I had used before on Memphis-Style ribs. I also used the little trick of putting on a light coating of olive oil before applying the rub. It helps the rub stick to the meat, makes the meat a little less prone to stick to the grill, and helps it brown up nicely.
If you need to save some time, these tricks worked out for me. Otherwise the times and temps presented were dead-on. Good job!

[Guest]

How does one go about getting a 'real' pork chop, as opposed to the sliced pork loin they call 'pork chops' in the butcher section these days. My Dad, in his butchering days, sliced between the ribs - and only 'chopped' the 'T' at the top. Now, it seems, they just set the saw at 3/4" or whatever and cut the rib into fragments.

[phoenixjs]

For really nice juicy chops use at least 11/2 inch thick chops
and brine for at least 12 hours.
1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup of sugar and some Orange juice in
one gallon of water. Yes, Orange juice at least one Orange.
In this day and time very few folks get sick from pork chops
that are under cooked. Besides, no one lives forever.

[One Happy Man]

Great recipe! I have to admit I was a bit skeptical that all those ingredients for the rub were going to produce a tasty chop (I'm a ME not a chemmie) but once I pulled them off the grill - all my family and I were doing was licking our chops!

2 thumbs up recipe.

Thanks!

[Guest]

I didn't have time to let the spices sit and infuse. I made my rub (cutting down that amount of salt by 25% or more) and put the chops on the grill. This was my very first time cooking pork on a grill. I got caught up doing other things and forgot to check on and turn my meat and time and I burnt one side of some of the chops. Surprisingly, it was still really tasty. My family said I need to grill pork this way more often--they really enjoyed the meal.
Thank you.

[Mom of Engineer]

My daughter, an Electrical/Computer Engineer and her boyfriend (ME) were over and he grilled out for us. I enjoyed the grilled pork so much, I wanted to make some myself. While Googling, I found this website and laughed out loud. I'll try this recipe and will be back for more of them. Thanks for a good laugh and good food.

[jeffinchiangmai]

That's more or less what I've been trying but I didn't always get the proportions the same so different results. Good to see the proportions written down. I will try again. (My excuse for bad cooking is always "I'm not a cook, I'm an engineer".
I was using these herbs, more or less, mixed with yogurt and left to marinate. Never knew if I was doing right or wrong. Is there any benefit to marinating, say over night?

Jeff

[Dilbert]

>>marinating overnight

two edged sword. an acid marinate will affect the protein in pork - essentially causing it to tighten up and resemble 'cooked' before it ever sees a pan - 'more cooking' can produce 'dry hard pork'

dairy - yogurt and buttermilk for example - are relatively mild on the acidity marinate scale.

a lot of how moist the pork will be, after cooking, depends on the state of 'lean' - essentially any really lean meat - poultry to pork - tends to dry out an become hard/tough - overcooking does not help that problem.

in the thread you'll find thoughts about brining pork - the aim is to get some water aka moisture back into the meat before cooking. depending on your source of pork and how fat/lean it is, you might want to experiment with that. the other factor mentioned - 'thickness' - should not be dismissed out of hand. a thin pork chop is much more likely to become hard&dry than a thicker one - basically because it can 'overcook' faster/easier. the 'margin of error' in cooking a 1/2 inch thick chop to tender and juicy vs. dry as cardboard is probably less than 2 minutes. a 1-1/2 inch chop more than double that. "sticking it in the oven and setting the timer" could be a major failure point on thin stuff.

[spuds]

The wife and I both enjoyed this rub on some good Iowa chops

[Guest]

>and cook until an instant read thermometer registers 145°F (63°C) [336 K].


336 K ???? You really ARE! an engineer!

The only engineering geek-speek I hablo is:

- "have you seen Dilbert this morning yet?"

- "nice Dockers!"

- "can I borrow $5?"