Heritage breed pork in New Jersey: at B&M Market, Park Ridge, NJ
April 05, 2018
Look at that marbling!!!!!
In much of America, your food options are painfully limited to absolutely unexceptional meat (and cheese). Nothing like Europe and other parks of the world, where animals actually have flavor. We've bred all of the character and fat out of our meat, and the crap that we feed them doesn't help.
Good-quality and interesting beef is becoming more the norm, with dry-aging coming back into vogue, and grass-fed meats hitting the markets. And that's great. But quality pork hasn't gotten much traction. We are still largely stuck with mass-produced, factory-farmed, bland, unexceptional pork chops.
There are a few farmers who have taken to the heritage breeds (the ones with flavor), and are giving them the diet that they need to yield a tasty product, but they are few and far between. Retailers who carry that stuff are even more difficult to find.
Thankfully B&M Market in Park Ridge is carrying some excellent heritage breed pork (from Ossabaw Island in Georgia).
As soon as I heard about this, I ran over to the place, and picked up two gorgeous pork chops. I could hardly wait for dinner. In my mind it was going to taste like the exceptional pork I've had in Spain and Italy. With tons of flavor, fat, and character. While it didn't quite hit that mark, these were some of the finest pork chops I've had in the states.
I set the sous vide device to 140 degrees, and let 'em rip. After an hour or so, I put them in a screaming hot cast iron pan with some butter and olive oil to get some color and sear.
The pork ate like steak. It was tender, it was juicy, the fat actually had flavor. It was an eye-opener.
There is simply no reason to eat supermarket pork again. This is my new spot for pork. Now, if I can just get them to dry-age the beasts, I'd be getting closer to what I've had in Europe. That would be sweet.
B&M Market : 192 Kinderkamack Rd : Park Ridge, NJ : 201.391.4373