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Broiled Pork Chops
Cut from a loin of pork the required quantity of chops, trim them neatly from all fat and place them in a fryingpan and fry for a few minutes. Remove and put them on a gridiron or grill over a clear fire and broil them until done. Pour into a fryingpan with the fat from the chops, a breakfast cupful of milk and add a little salt and pepper, thickening with a small lump of butter rolled in flour. Pour the sauce onto a dish through a fine sieve, arrange the chops in it, and serve.
A two-stage method — a brief sear in the pan, then finishing over live fire — with a milk gravy built from the rendered fat. It translates directly to a skillet and a hot grill or broiler.
- Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup was a large cup, roughly 8 to 10 fluid ounces. One cup of milk is the right reading, and it will make enough thin gravy for four chops.
- A clear fireThis means a charcoal or wood fire burnt down past the smoke to steady, even coals. A hot gas grill or an oven broiler with the rack about four inches from the element gives the same result.
- Why fry firstThe pan stage renders fat for the sauce and starts the browning; the grill finishes the cooking and adds the smoke. Give the chops two or three minutes a side in the pan, no more, or they will be dry by the time they come off the fire.
- DonenessNineteenth-century advice generally called for pork to be cooked right through, and this recipe says only "until done." Modern pork is safe at 145F internal with a three-minute rest, which leaves it faintly pink at the centre and considerably juicier. A 1-inch chop needs roughly 6 to 8 minutes on the grill after the sear.
- Trimming and modern porkToday's loin is bred far leaner than the 1896 animal, so there may be very little fat to trim and very little rendering into the pan. If the pan is dry after searing, add a tablespoon of butter or oil before the milk.
- The thickeningThe "small lump of butter rolled in flour" is beurre manié — equal weights butter and flour worked together, about 1 tablespoon of each. Whisk it into the simmering milk in pieces and let it cook a minute or two so the flour loses its raw taste.
- The sieveStraining removes browned scraps and any flour lumps and gives a clean white sauce. Skip it if you would rather keep the pan fond in the gravy; the dish is better tasting for it, if less genteel.
- YieldAs written the quantity is left to the cook. Figure one chop per person and one cup of milk for every four chops.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection is a working restaurant book. The milk gravy thickened with butter and flour belongs more to the American home tradition than to the French repertoire that supplies much of the book — a similar sauce went over fried chicken in many parts of the country — and its appearance here is a reminder that Oscar was cooking for New Yorkers who wanted familiar food as often as they wanted haute cuisine. The gridiron itself, a rack of iron bars set over the coals, remained common equipment in both hotel and domestic kitchens into the era of ranges with enclosed broilers.