Recipe for dry-aged pork chops
Pork can do so much more than just being dry-fried in a pan.
This recipe is for pork chops that are dry-aged for 30 days and then cooked sous vide. The meat is prepared almost like a beef steak and served with a delightful accompaniment consisting of a rich red wine glaze, crispy kale, pickled red onion wedges, celery root purée, and small oven-roasted potatoes.
Ingredients
- 4 pcs. Pork Chops dry-aged/tørmodnede
- Butter for frying
- Oil for frying
- Butter
- Red Wine
- 0.5 pcs. Celery
- Milk
- Cream
- Vinegar
- Lemon Juice
- 1 kg Potato small
- Vinegar
- Oil
- Spices salt and pepper
Instructions
Dry-aged pork chops
- In my eternal pursuit and eagerness for the perfect steak, I have now turned to the pig, specifically the pork chop. As a novice in the field of meat aging, I have bought dry-aging bags that dry-age meat using a technique where the meat is vacuum-packed. The bags can help the meat get rid of moisture/liquid, creating space for the proper enzymes to start working on making the meat more tender.
- A good rule of thumb within meat dry-aging says 14 days for lamb, 21 days for pork, and 28 days for beef. However, I love the strong umami/nutty flavor that develops when the meat is aged, so I gave my pork 30 days.
- After 30 days, the meat had overall "lost" about 20% of its weight.
- The meat was then seasoned with salt and pepper and finally vacuum-packed.
- It was placed in a sous vide/water bath and cooked for 3 hours at 56 degrees Celsius (133 degrees Fahrenheit).
- This is a significantly lower temperature than I usually use when cooking pork, as it's almost like cooking a good beef steak at that temperature. But since the meat is dry-aged, it's important not to overcook it, as the dry-aged meat does not contain as much liquid.
- The meat was then taken out of the vacuum bag and dried well.
- Finally, it was fried together with rosemary sprigs at high heat for about 1 minute on each side in a mixture of neutral oil and butter.
- Sprinkle a bit of flake salt on the meat, and it is ready to serve.
Celeriac puree
- Peel the celeriac and cut it into rough cubes.
- Put them in a pot and add 1/3 cream, 1/3 water, and 1/3 milk until covered.
- Boil the celeriac for about 20 minutes until completely tender.
- Then blend it with a bit of the cooking liquid. Add the cooking liquid a little at a time until the puree is fine and smooth.
- Season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and vinegar.
Small potatoes
- Boil the potatoes for 2 minutes in water with a couple of tbsp of vinegar added.
- Let them drain, dry them, and turn them in oil, salt, and pepper.
- Bake the potatoes in the oven until golden.
Glaze
- For the glaze, we used a mix of red wine and the liquid from the meat's vacuum bag.
- Put the wine and liquid in a pot and boil it down until most of the liquid evaporates.
- Mount the glaze with butter and season with gastrique, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Add a drop of coloring to the glaze if you prefer a darker color.
Serving
- Serve the dish with crispy kale and pickled red onions.
