Heritage Pork

A very nice LTHer offered to pick up some heritage pork from Willow Creek Farm in Madison Wisconsin as he was driving there to get a 1/2 pig. I picked up fatback and a few odd and ends, mainly just wanting to try a little bit to see how noticable the difference was from "the other white meat" I buy at Whole Foods. It was all frozen and since I'd just taken a pork butt out to make carnitas and Chinese BBQ pork, I left it there for a few weeks.

Last night, looking for a relatively quick dinner, I took out the chops. First, I pulled out the rib chops. HOLY COW! (Or pig in this case) They were truly 2" thick. Not wanting to thaw that in the micro and risk having them start to cook, I turned to the loin chops. These were a measly 1" thick, so I decided to try those. I was able to defrost them using short defrost cycles, interrupted by a few minutes of sitting. They defrosted without cooking. SO far, so good.

After thinking, I decided to go with the simplest of methods because I wanted to taste the pork and see how different (or not) the pork was. I salted them and went for CI's method for pan seared chops. First, in the oven at a low temp until they reach 120 degrees, then in a hot skillet in oil to sear both sides, pulling them at 145. I think I pulled them a but earlier, maybe 139 to 140. I tented them while I finished the sides and a pan sauce I made to go with the chops.

The first thing I noticed was the outside edge of fat. Mmmmm, it was delicious. Soft, fluffy, almost like pillows of melty fat. I'd browned the edges of the chop in the pan, so it had a bit of crisp skin over it. The chop itself was a bit tougher than I expected, but I think it's because I normally brine pork and I didn't brine this. It wasn't too tough - just a bit chewy. The flavor was rich. The fat running through them was similar to the delicious heavenly tasting lining the edges, having the same assertive porkiness to it that melted in my mouth.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. The meat wasn't as bold as I thought it might be. The color was darker but not nearly as dark as I thought it might be. The flavor and taste of the fat was certainly a stand out for me. I look forward to brining the rib chops and doing them on the grill.

Commercial pork has been bred to be lean and require less feed. I doubt that if you fed a commercial pig all it wanted to eat you could get the pork of yesteryear. My experience with the Berkshire breed has been that its really not any different than any other breed. My conclusion is that you just can't obtain pork with fat like you could 40 years ago no matter what its heritage.
BTW, I never brine my pork. A true comparison must be done blind and double blind if possible. Your perceptions of what you want from a Heritage breed can color your conclusions. -Dick

budrichard wrote:My conclusion is that you just can't obtain pork with fat like you could 40 years ago no matter what its heritage.

When I got back from Italy after eating some of the richest, fattiest, tastiest pork of my life, I agreed that there was nothing like it here. Then I tried the pork from Slagel Family Farm, about which REB has written justifiably great things, and it was just as good.