Pork Chop Brine

Pork Chop Brine
Pork Chop Brine

Pork Chop Brine

SKU
101203 001
Price:
$9.16
Net Weight:
3.8 oz
Please select

Brine is a terrific way to infuse meat with moisture and flavor and help you make a tender piece of meat. This blend is also known as wet pork chop brine, pork chop brining blend, savory pork chop brine, or brining seasoning.

 

What is Pork Chop Brine

 

Pork Chop Brine is a salty and aromatic brining blend that we put together to enhance the sweet flavor of pork. Over the last decade we’ve seen pork turn increasingly lean in its composition, and while that’s great news in terms of its healthfulness, it’s got a negative impact on flavor and texture. This seasoning is boiled in plenty of water and cooled, and then used as a bath in which to soak your pork. Once you cover and refrigerate the pork for 3 or 4 hours, it can help you produce juicy, flavorful pork chops and sidestep the less appealing characteristics of lean meats.

When proteins cook, they tighten up, and lean meats pull together more tightly than fatty meat. You see this when you make a hamburger; an uncooked lean meat burger may start out flat and wide, but as it cooks it pulls together and may even become a little rounded at the top. It dries out a bit, too. Fattier meats, like a burger with a higher fat content, don’t tighten up as much, so they squeeze less moisture out from the middle of the meat and into the bottom of your pan. The moisture from the fat helps the protein fibers stay more relaxed. Thus, they shrink less, and stay juicier longer.

Wet brines allow moisture and seasonings to penetrate into the layers of muscle fiber, emulating the way fat keeps the muscle fibers relaxed. Wet brine helps to create a sort of equilibrium in the meat, allowing it to maintain moisture in the muscle fibers and cook evenly, so the outside doesn’t dry out before the interior is cooked.

 

History of Brining

 

Brining, a salt-based method of preserving meat, has been in use around the globe for thousands of years. The earliest records of salt being used as a preservative was on fish. These records date back to the Sumerians, circa 3500 B.C.1; by 3000 B.C., Jewish settlements around the Dead Sea were using salt water to preserve meats that were more than just fish2. In 200 B.C. the Romans learned the secrets of curing meat with salt from the Greeks 3, and also came to understand that nitrates in the salt gave their meat that pink hue. Fast-forwarding to a more modern era, in 1608 A.D Native Americans taught the people of Jamestown, Virginia their time-honored tradition of salting, smoking and aging venison4.

While brining has clearly been an option for ages, pop culture food historians point to a 1999 episode of Alton Brown’s TV show Good Eats as the catalyst for our current interest in brining. Promoting a fragrant array of herbs and seasonings and backed by science, Brown made a strong case for brining’s benefits in the fight against dry turkey, and started a culinary phenomenon. Not long after this episode aired, heavy hitters in the food world, like Alice Waters at Chez Panisse and Ruth Reichl, now retired, a former food writer for the New York Times and editor at Gourmet magazine, published their own brine recipes 5.

Food trends wax and wane in popularity, and there’s been some argument about wet brining vs. dry brining, vs. braising, vs. stuffing scandalous amounts of butter under the skin of the turkey and letting it roast away. Brining is not for everyone. It requires a lot of room, either in a refrigerator or in a cooler, and adds an extra day to preparation time, because you need to let the turkey sit in the brine so the salt can work on the proteins and the meat can absorb the flavors. But brine advocates point to the significant change in moisture retention in a brined bird; poultry loses at least 25% of its moisture during cooking, and longer cooking times can drive that up to about 30%. A turkey that’s been soaked in brine will only lose about 15% of its moisture6.

 

Where is Pork Chop Brine From

 

USA

 

What Does Pork Chop Brine Taste Like

 

Pork Chop Brine has a sweet and savory flavor that accentuates the inherently sweet flavor of pork. It opens with the woodsy, spicy flavor of whole allspice, shored up by the sharp, fruity pepper of cloves. Shallots create an aromatic base, built upon by smoky bourbon barrel pepper and smoked salt, and the clean burn of white pepper. Piney rosemary and citrusy thyme add a verdant lift that’s enriched by the golden flavor of honey. It’s inherently salty, because the brine needs the salt to lift the flavor and to perform the chemistry necessary for a successful brine.

 

How Do I Use Pork Chop Brine

 

Our basic recipe is designed to season 4 pork chops that weigh roughly 6 ounces per chop.

Add 4 Tablespoons of Pork Chop Brine to two cups of brining liquid; you can use all water, or a combination of water and vegetable or chicken stock. Bring this to a boil, then remove from heat and allow to completely cool. When cool, place your pork chops in a single layer into a large container, like a pot or a non-reactive mixing bowl or baking dish. Pour the brine over the pork chops and move them to the refrigerator, or in a cooler loaded with ice. The pork chops should sit in the brine for 3-4 hours.

When you are ready to cook your chops, remove them from the brine and pat them dry before cooking as you normally would in a pan or in the oven. Visit our recipe for Brined Pork Chops with Poached Fennel to see how we use this ingredient.

 

Ingredients Sea salt, applewood smoked salt, honey, smoked pepper, shallots, thyme, white pepper, allspice, rosemary, and cloves.
Also Called Wet pork chop brine, pork chop brining blend, savory pork chop brine, or brining seasoning.
Recommended Uses Brining pork chops or chicken cutlets
Flavor Profile Salty and smoky, with woodsy bursts and a terrific aromatic lift
Cuisine American
How To Store Airtight container in a cool, dark place
Shelf Life 6-12 months
Country of Origin USA
Dietary Preferences Gluten Free

 

 

Hungry for More Information?

What Spices Go With What Meat?
When And How To Use Salt While Cooking
The Salt Life
Is It Done Yet?

 

 

References

 

1 - Kogel, J. E., Trevidi, N. C., Barker, J. M., & Krukowski, S. T. (Eds.). (2006). Industrial minerals & rocks: Commodities, markets, and uses. Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration.

2 - Kurlansky, M. (2002). Salt: A world history. Penguin Books.

3 - Frost, F. (1999). Sausage and meat preservation in antiquity. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 40 (1999), 241–252. Retrieved 1/21/2022 from https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/2221/5949.

4 - Hinman, J.E. (2021, November 22). Virginia is for ham lovers. The House and Home Magazine. http://thehouseandhomemagazine.com/food-and-drink/virginiaisforhamlovers/ Retrieved 1/21/2022.

5 - Severson, K. (2018, November 12). The rise and fall of turkey brining. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/dining/the-rise-and-fall-of-turkey-brining.html Retrieved 1/21/2022.

6 - Corriher, S. (2002, November). Why brining keeps turkey and other meat so moist. Fine Cooking, 53. https://www.finecooking.com/article/why-brining-keeps-turkey-and-other-meat-so-moist Retrieved 1/21/2022

Reviews

5 out of 5
1 total ratings.

patrick m. (Verified buyer) 05/02/2022
Pork loin Brined a pork loin and it turned out great!

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