Smoked pork chops in honey mustard and rosemary

 

Traditionally, in the Netherlands, pork chops are cooked individually in butter in a pan. Yet we call them "karbonades", which means BBQ grilled. They are not, like in England for example, roasted in the oven as a rack, as is not uncommon there for Sunday lunch. The two are very different: the Dutch version tends to be without skin or fat and can be rather dry as the cuts are usually rather thin.


What makes eating a karbonade worthwhile, though, is the taste of the butter-browned meat. The English rack of pork, on the other hand, has a crispy crackling on the outside, and soft and juicy meat on the inside.

I had a friend over on a Saturday not long ago. It was about time that we did some serious catching up - when we were kids we would play several times a week together. Now, even if we plan ahead we find it difficult te spend time together more than just twice a year. We resort to visiting each other's work-do's to enhance the frequency. But not last Saturday. After the previous and very interesting paté-making moments we shared, and some experimental sausage-work in my earlier charcutery years, we decided to spend the day trying to acchieve what is common for all English housewives yet spectacular good fun for us, the good old rack of pork. With a little drop of wine to help conversation going throughout the hard work.

We got a nice rack of the Lindenhoff farm in Baambrugge. The butcher wanted to help us and clean the rack to the Dutch standard - we almost had to physically stop him him from eagerly cutting away all that lovely skin and fat. This is what we managed to save.

Pork chops, fat and skin cut away half

We then cut the skin of the rack with a sharp knife, crosswise. We stuffed the slits with garlick and rosemary, rubbed the whole thing in salt and pepper. Nice.

Next, we placed it in a smokerbag (available through Amazon.com). This is an aluminium bag which contains wood in one of its three layers. Place it in, close it up, put in a very hot oven for 15 minutes... and this is what you get.

Smoked, not cooked

A bleak looking, semi cooked piece of pork.

Next, we seared it's skin in a very hot pan, to make sure the crackling would turn out nicely. Then we covered it in honey mustard and placed it back in the oven, at a much more reduced temperature, and let it slowly roast for an hour or so. Resulting in this delicious thing.



Heaven on a bone
 

We left it to rest for a good 20 minutes. It was the most juicy, tender pork ever to have left my fork. The smoke came through nicely but not too much, the crackling could have been crispyer but was not bad for a first-timer like myself. All in all: wonderful.



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