Sunday, March 24, 2013

gotta share the good and the bad......



Ok....so I go to the local grocery to find some "local" meat, wanting to try and compare food/meats from here to what we have at home.   I am perusing the butcher counter, checking it with great intrigue and care.  I see a cut of pork...a nice pink/red meat, not that pale milky pork we find in most of our stores....it's labeled as a "pale back joint", but looks to me like a "center cut pork loin"...it's got a nice fat cap on it that I think I can really sear and melt off.  I go outside and cut some fresh rosemary and thyme from the little herb garden out back and pierce the pork and lace the herbs through it.  I season it nicely with some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.....see where I am going here?  This is gonna be an incredible dinner that I wish I had someone or someones to share it with.  I start browning off the fat, carefully basting the loin, melting the cap.  In the meantime i cut up my baby potatoes, season them up with some olive oil, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper along with some minced herbs from the garden.  To finish this off I finely slice some leeks and local mushrooms to just throw over the top.. This is gonna be a good dinner...     I throw the pan with the pork and the potatoes in the oven while I saute the leeks and mushrooms on the stove top......20 mins in the oven and all seems perfect.  I pull it, let it sit for 10 mins to firm up and finish cooking....start slicing it, but it looks a bit strange, though not sure why.  i cut and end piece and taste it.....damn, super salty....wayyyy salty.  Now I had a couple Guinness, but I still know how to cook and season, could I possibly have thrown that much salt on it?  I plate it up, as you can see...and cant wait to eat......damn, this shit is wayyyyy salty, what the hell did I do?  I can't figure it out at all...there is no way I could have added this much salt, and it tastes like it was brined........I don't get it.  I saw the pork, I held the pork, I cooked the pork...I have cooked pork loin a million times.....finally, after putting it aside, waiting an hour or so...I come back to it.  I look on-line for Pale back joint....nothing....i dig deeper, looking at Irish Pork sites....finally I find "Pale Back Rashers"...it's fricking bacon....Irish fricking bacon!!!!  The same goddamn thing I ate the other day in the pub, though it was boiled and served with cabbage.  I am an idiot!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Goddamn, Brad! That was a helluva entertaining story!

Unknown said...

Next time freeze it, slice it super thin, wrap up some asparagus or better yet some blanched potato batonettes, pan fry in some of that fat cap.. n there ya go. I wish I was there dude.