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:
Goddamn, Brad! That was a helluva entertaining story!
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.
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