Chelada chops

I wanted to brine some pork sirloin chops but wanted to use something other than herbs. I finally decided on tomato juice so I used equal amounts of V8 juice and a hoppy Wisconsin microbrew, and added a tablespoon of table salt.


I put the chops in the brine Sunday night and took them out Monday afternoon.


Got some really nice cast iron grate marks!


The flavors of the V8 and the beer were actually pretty noticeable and the chops were nice and moist. My understanding of a tomato-based chelada is that the usual beer is a lager and I think that might've been an even better choice.


Brad

Well that's an attractive plate up, Brad! Wish I could get my chops to look like that. Interesting to hear the marinade took that well to the meat.

Thanks, BC. If you look at the beer label you'll see the words "piney" and "resinous" and believe it or not there was a slight flavor that could be interpreted that way. I like a hoppy beer but in this case something a little less bold might've been a little better.

ScreamingChicken wrote:

Thanks, BC. If you look at the beer label you'll see the words "piney" and "resinous" and believe it or not there was a slight flavor that could be interpreted that way. I like a hoppy beer but in this case something a little less bold might've been a little better.

I like a hoppy beer too, but they don't work all that well in cooking. Heat and UV are enemies of good hop flavor and excessive heat can cause a whole bunch of off-tastes with beer. I tend to choose the milder beers for cooking and that seems to work out better.