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Pan Broiled Chops
Chops may be either loin or rib. Wipe and remove superfluous fat. Put chops in a smoking hot frying pan. Sear quickly on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and continue cooking, turning frequently. For rare chops cook about eight to ten minutes, for well done ten to fifteen minutes.
A method rather than a formula, and it still works: the only equipment is a heavy pan and attention. A few points worth knowing before you start.
- Which chopLoin or rib most likely means lamb or mutton here, since the recipe offers a rare option. Lamb loin and rib chops are thin and cook fast; the same technique suits them well.
- If you use porkDo not follow the rare timing with pork. Pork chops should reach 145F at the center with a three-minute rest, which for a thin chop is close to the recipe's longer time anyway.
- Pan broiling means dryNo fat is added. The trimmed fat left on the chop renders and greases the pan. A cast-iron or heavy carbon-steel pan is what this assumes; nonstick will not take the heat needed for a proper sear.
- Smoking hotThe pan should be hot enough that a drop of water vanishes instantly, roughly 400F or above at the surface. Ventilate the kitchen and expect smoke, which is why this was traditionally a quick job.
- Salt after searingThe original salts once the crust has formed. Salting well ahead also works and seasons more deeply, but salting immediately before the pan draws surface moisture and slows browning.
- Turning frequentlyContrary to the old rule about turning meat only once, frequent turning over lower heat cooks more evenly and is exactly what this recipe calls for. Keep it up.
- Timing depends on thicknessEight to fifteen minutes suits a chop of roughly three-quarters of an inch to an inch, though the recipe never states a thickness. A thin half-inch chop will be done in half that. An instant-read thermometer is more reliable than the clock: about 130F for medium-rare lamb, 145F for medium.
- Pour off the fatWith fatty chops, tip out the rendered fat partway through, or the chops fry rather than broil and the crust turns greasy.
- YieldTwo rib chops or one thick loin chop per person is a normal serving.
"Pan broiling" is a distinctly American term, and it describes cooking on dry hot metal with no added fat, as opposed to frying or sautéing. It became a standard instruction in domestic-science cookery around the turn of the twentieth century, when coal ranges with flat iron tops made a hot pan far more convenient than the older method of holding a gridiron over live coals. Household manuals of the period tend to present it as the healthful choice precisely because nothing is added: the meat cooks in its own fat. The Metropolitan Cook Book was issued by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and distributed free to policyholders, part of a broader early twentieth-century campaign in which insurers promoted domestic hygiene and sound nutrition among their customers, and its instructions are correspondingly terse, cheap to follow, and aimed at cooks with limited equipment.