Awesome, I would love to hear your thoughts, specifically on level of ginger, a whole tablespoon is a lot, I might even tone my next version down to 1/2.
Hahaha, oh yea, my local super market has an awesome butcher counter, they band sawed 'em double thick at my request. I love thick cut pork chops for slow smoking, they only take 1 1/2 - 2 hours and taste like you slaved over them all day.
Looks like you started with some mondo chops! I wet brine mine and pat dry and they turn out excellent too. Never tried a cherry sauce but that sounds good. Michigan is full of cherries I really should. Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome, I imagine it would work with most fruit, I'm thinking the peach version with either ginger or chipotles would be dynamite. I think it would also pair beautifully with wild game or duck.
Not too sweet, now that I think about it, I'm starting to believe that using crushed cherries for the brine liquid was a waste of money (gave them a great purple colour, but flavour was not there). The meat was moist and succulent as it usually is after a wet brine, but all the cherry flavour and sweetness came from the sauce.
Also, I got better bark when I wet brined, removed from wet brine, dried off the outside and then used a dry rub a couple weeks ago, so I think that going forward, I would use water to wet brine and add the sauce toward the end.
It's cherry season, so I thought why not make some double cut cherry pork chops?
I wet brined the chops for 24 hours, I used about a cup of crushed fresh cherries for the liquid, you can see them marinating in the bag in one of the attached pics.
I used my new creation, Oaf's Cherry Q Sauce:
- 3 cups fresh cherries pitted and coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1/8th cup brown sugar (add more if you like sweeter, this is how I like it)
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger (I like lots of bold, spicy, ginger flavour, which is what you get with an entire tablespoon. If you want it less intense use 1/4 or 1/2 tablespoon, if I was cooking for kids I'd do 1/4 for sure)
- Pinch of cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
- Pinch of salt to taste
Put all ingredients in food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Bring to boil over medium heat, reduce heat and simmer for 1/2 hour or until mixture has thickened to your desired consistency.
I then reverse seared the chops on my One Touch with cherry wood to 140 IT. My guests raved about the chops and the meat was gone before I could get a final picture!
The sauce is out of this world, nice and simple and all about the cherry flavour. Next time I will not bother brining in crushed cherries (water instead, eat those fresh cherries!) it gave them a great purple colour but all of the true cherry flavour came from the sauce.
I'm already thinking about the version with fresh peaches which are in season in Western Canada in about three weeks.
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