Businessman, Agriculturist, Speaker, Author, Podcaster, Host of XtremeAg.farm's "Cutting The Curve."
Two problems for pork that will prevent it from ever eclipsing steak: Cooking and Breeding Cooking: It's the year 2024, Trichinosis hasn't been a disease concern in pork since we stopped feeding hogs human's leftovers in the 1950s, yet the myth "you have to cook pork until it's dried out and has the texture of shoe leather" persists. Even when it's a chef at a hotel or restaurant doing the cooking. Breeding: The misguided fear of dietary fat that began 50+ years ago spurred the pork industry to breed hogs with no fat. As Todd Thurman points out, lard was a valuable by-product until the anti-fat movement begun by corporate backed bad science (think makers of Crisco for instance) killed fat. Fat is flavor and fat isn't bad for you, in fact it satiates and makes you full vs. empty carbs. Breed back fat!! I love pork in all forms, but as Todd describes, when it comes to cuts like chops, roasts, and pork loins, it's dry and flavorless. And that's a problem!
I recently had a group of Chinese clients traveling with me on a tour of the US pork industry. The night they arrived we had a catered dinner at the hotel. Not surprisingly, we chose pork chops from the catering menu selection. They were...not good. They were dry, overcooked and frankly...flavorless. I snapped this photo of one of my clients who doused her pork chop with Tabasco sauce in an attempt to put some flavor in the meat. I can't blame her. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I dipped some of mine in ranch dressing. We need to do better. We need to provide a more flavorful product with more intramuscular fat and we need to continue to train chefs and home cooks not to overcook pork. There is plenty of high quality pork out there that is fantastic when it is prepared well, but I'm afraid this is typical of the standard commodity pork chop experience. #pork #meatquality #flavor