tempebamafan is making his second appearance in the Tailgating Recipe Challenge with "Razorback Chops"
This recipe works with pretty much any kind of pork chop from your beautiful boneless center cut pork loin, to your fatty bone in, end cut pork loin. My rule of thumb has always been whatever is on a sale at a decent butcher shop is perfect, especially if you're cooking for lots of people. Fattier cuts are usually cheaper and make a good choice so you can A) buy more and feed more people, and B) they have extra fat, which gives you extra wiggle room on the grill if you get a bit distracted by the days festivities, or the Jefferson Pilot broadcast of South Carolina vs. Kentucky…
marinade
1: honey and mustard.
1 big ol bottle of mustard, the better quality, the better off. Yellow "FMV" brand will work, though realistically, Grey Poupon is best. (seriously though, you may wanna try dry yellow mustard before using FMV yellow come to think of it. that stuff is mostly just white distilled vinegar and food coloring) If you got some halfway decent spicy brown mustard, or even the fancy horseradish style kind w/ the pig on it, you’re even better off.
1 bottle of honey/agave nectar… here quality helps, but cheap is fine too. If you happen to have agave nectar this works well too, but you will need to use more of it than if you were using straight honey. For those of you unaware of agave nectar, its basicaly a sweet substance made from Agave plant hearts. (they make Tequila outta distilled agave syrup. this is un-distilled nectar)
1 shot of Kentucky Bourbon (this isn’t necesarry at all. but if you wanna bring the real flava, dont bring no stinkin tennesse or canadian, and especially scotch or irish "whisky". use a fine Kentucky Bourbon like Makers, or even Old Forrester or Old Grand Dad.)
1bottle of extra lite (not extra virgin, thats the exact opposite of what we need here) olive oil
1 or 2 bunches of fresh herbs. In order of preference, Taragon, chervil, chives, parsley, marjoram.
preparation.
In a giant mixing bowl the morning of the game (we don't want them in this marinade for more than 12 hours tops) or possibly night before, mix in 2 cups of mustard to 1 cup of honey (if using agave nectar use approx 1 1/2 cups). then finely chop the fresh herbs. Add them in along with several cranks on the black pepper mill, add in the shot or two of bourbon, and just 1 or 2 ounces of extra lite olive oil. Now drop the pork chops in there 4 at a time, get em all smothered 'n covered, take them out and put in a large Ziploc bag, then into the cooler. Repeat til all your chops are covered in a thin to medium thickness yellow paste. The enzymes in the mustard will start breaking down the connective tissue of the pork in minutes. These really only need about 1 to 2 hours of time before you’ll notice great effects from the marinade. Grill em, and if you want, serve em with a couple pieces of grilled citrus for garnish, or even with grilled peaches and apricots fer eatin'… either way, i hope you get to eat some delicious pork every September. Killing hogs in the fall is what we do down in BAMA.