Can we talk Tamworth pork?

The Tamworth

Oh my god. Tamworth pork is delicious.

I wish I could share with you the incredible deliciousness of my dinner. I'm still a bit high on flavour so you'll have to forgive my wobbly post.

In case you can't tell, I'm in love with this pig. Tamworth pork is worth the $$$. Okay, honestly, it didn't cost an extraordinary amount of money, but it did cost $9 a pound. $11.90 bought me two thick chops. The farmer's market stand really sucked me in - photos of her happy pigs, running, playing, sleeping and nibbling in her green pastures, and the beautiful packaging (I'm a sucker for marketing) made me buy the chops. I vowed that if they were anything but delicious I would never buy them again. Fortunately, they were only delicious. Actually, they may have been the best pork chops I've ever had in my life. I am pleased to say that a happy animal really does taste better.

Cooking the Tamworth chops

First I salted the chops. My new favourite cook book (thank you, Yani Kong - my dear friend - for sharing this gift with me), Chef Judy Rodgers' The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, suggests salting your meat hours before cooking it. She calls it "the practice of salting early". In her book she writes:

Aside from simply allowing time to diffuse the seasoning throughout the food... early salting also promotes juiciness and improves texture [she's right]... salt helps dissolve some of the proteins within and around muscle fibers that would otherwise resist chewing... salt does draw moisture from cells - whence the widely accepted belief that it dries food out. However, the quiet trauma of osmosis is temporary. With time, the cells reabsorb moisture in reverse osmosis. When they do that moisture is seasoned with salt [also right].

Hesitantly, I generously salted each side of each chop (about a full teaspoon per chop). If Chef Rodger's was wrong I was about to ruin nearly $12 of meat. I left the chops for three hours on my counter (oh yes I did), and enjoyed half a dozen oysters at Roland's Oyster Cinq a Sept. I expected to return home and find the chops sitting in a pool of their own juices, the salt having drawn them out. I was almost positive I had ruined them. I didn't completely trust the Zuni cookbook. But, the chops were dry. They had, as Chef Rodger's promises, reabsorbed moisture lost. Okay, there was a small pool of juices (negligible, really), that I'm sure would have been sucked back into the pork if I had given it more time, but they were not dried out.

I made a honey mustard glaze with a tablespoon of grainy beer mustard and nearly the same amount of honey. I heated the pan, and dropped the chops in. Smothered the top of the chops with a little honey mustard and then turned them in the pan. The underside was golden. Flavour! I smothered that side with some of the honey mustard and bunged them in the oven. Condiment inspiration hit me, and I heated a little of the rhubarb jam I made earlier this week in a pan with a splash of water, some white wine vinegar and a dab of Dijon. Once the chops had cooked, I let them rest and made a quick pan sauce with the drippings (added some water to the pan, let that come to a simmer, scraped up the sticky bits and added a pat of butter) and served them with the rhubarb sauce.

Enjoying the Tamworth

The pork was so good I believe it would have been delicious if I'd added nothing to it. The rhubarb was a nice addition, but unnecessary. The quality of the meat really spoke for itself. It was tender, juicy and so flavourful. I couldn't get enough. I'd have eaten a second one if I could afford it. I devoured it. Including the fat.

I tell you, my house smelled like Au Pied de Cochon - Martin Picard's full-on Montreal porkalicious eatery. I remember sitting in Au Pied de Cochon, the air full of this savoury maple syrup scent. At the time I thought it was maple syrup (a result of delicious fois gras served over a pool of maple syrup and jus with pork belly & bacon), but now I realize it was the pork. My kitchen filled with that same savoury syrupy scent, despite not using any maple syrup. All I can say is Tamworth pork has it's own cooking smell, and it's damn good.

Very successful dinner.

Once I learn how to upload photos, I'll show you all about it...