The term “pork chops” doesn’t really conjure images of haute cuisine. It’s more of simple midweek dinner or family barbecue. No doubt it’s because there’s no real way to eat pork chops efficiently without picking them up, and that requires getting your hands dirty and greasy. And unfortunately, dirty, greasy hands and haute cuisine do not a happy marriage make.
Ah, but if the bones on the chops have been “frenched” by having all the meat, fat and assorted other bits scraped off, they can be picked up gracefully and gnawed (which, as any stickler for etiquette must allow, is acceptable behavior).
Why you need to learn this
Frenching creates a very elegant presentation. The little bone handle, scraped free of meat, turns a beautiful burnt-ivory color during cooking. It looks terrific and it gives you a dry, mess-free handle to grab should you want to pick up the chop to get the last couple of succulent bites.
And besides, since today is Halloween, what more appropriately scary way to celebrate than by scraping the meat off some bones?
Steps to follow
Start by getting out your paring knife or a small boning knife.
We’ll be using a pork rib chop, but you can do this just as easily with lamb or veal chops. (The basics of this technique can be used on chicken wings as well: You can create mini-chicken legs called “drumettes” or “lollipops” out of the wing halves or, by leaving the cleaned and scraped drumette bone attached to the breast, you create what’s called an “airline breast.”)
When choosing your chops, I’d suggest getting them fresh from the meat counter rather than prepackaged from the meat case: Not all chops are the same, and not all butchering is perfect. Choose chops that have a prominent and uncracked bone. For frenching to be effective, you’ve got to start with nice materials.
1. Choose the spot on the bone at which you would like to trim. Remember that there’s no “right spot.” You can trim just an inch or so from the end of the bone, leaving the rest of the chop intact. Alternately, you can get rid of everything but the main piece of meat, called the “eye.” This will look terrific, but of course you’ll be trimming off more of the meat. But you can chop or grind that meat and use it for a meat loaf, stir-fry or delicious Bolognese sauce.
2. Cut away as much of the meat, fat and tissue as you can easily (photo 1). Don’t worry about getting the bone clean yet; we’re just getting the big pieces out of the way.
3. When you’ve got almost everything cut away, flip your knife over and use the spine of the blade to scrape the bone (photo 2). At this point the only thing left will probably be some stringy sinew or connective tissue that’s hugging the bone.
4. Slip the point of your knife underneath those last stringy bits. Run the knife along the bone to loosen and separate it from the bone. Cut and remove the connective tissue as far up the bone toward the meat as you can. At this point the bone should be looking pretty dry and free of any tissue.
5. With a clean towel, wipe down the exposed bone to dry it and get any last, stubborn pieces of tissue.
6. Trim any loose ends from the meat and gently push it up toward the eye, just enough to give it a nice shape.
7. Before cooking, wrap the cleaned and exposed bone in foil to prevent it from burning. When the chops are done, remove the foil before serving.
———–
ctc-goodeating@tribune.com
DeWan is an instructor at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago.
Market Basket will return next week.
