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Broiled Pork Chops
For broiling, chops should be cut very thin and broiled at least fifteen minutes, holding the broiler some distance from coals, to avoid burning.
A single sentence of instruction that assumes a coal fire and a hinged wire broiler held over it. The timing is the part that no longer applies.
- Fifteen minutes is the fear talkingThin chops held over coals for a quarter hour will be grey and dry. A chop 1/2 inch thick needs about 3-4 minutes a side; the USDA endorses an internal temperature of 145F with a three-minute rest, which leaves the centre faintly pink and juicy.
- What a broiler wasIn 1907 a broiler was a hinged double wire rack that clamped the meat and was held over live coals, not the overhead element in a modern oven. The instruction to hold it "some distance from coals" translates to a medium grill fire or the second rack down under an oven broiler.
- Cut thickness"Very thin" here probably means something on the order of 1/4 to 1/2 inch, cut from the rib or loin. Supermarket chops are usually thicker; a 1-inch chop is better seared then finished at 400F rather than broiled straight through.
- Season and dry the surfaceThe original gives no seasoning at all. Salt the chops at least 40 minutes ahead or immediately before cooking, and pat the surface dry so it browns instead of steaming.
- Modern pork is leanerCommodity pork has been bred progressively leaner, and today's loin carries less intramuscular fat than the mid-century animal; how it compares with 1907 stock is harder to pin down. Whatever the exact margin, there is less fat in a modern chop to carry it through overcooking.
- YieldFigure one chop per person for thick cuts, two for the thin ones described here.
The instruction to broil pork "at least fifteen minutes" belongs to the long era when trichinosis shaped much American pork cookery; cookbooks of the period are often said to have told readers that pork must be cooked until no trace of pink remained, and the safety margin appears to have been set generously at a time when thermometers were far from universal in home kitchens. Lowney's, published by a Boston chocolate company as an all-purpose household manual, reflects that consensus rather than inventing it. Trichinella is now vanishingly rare in commercially raised American pork, thanks to changes in feeding practice and inspection, and official guidance was revised downward to 145F in 2011 rrather than a working timing.