There are some tricks to making sure that your meats are tasty when you sit down to eat them. Just like you marinate chicken, you need to brine your pork. Bub is the one that taught me this business about brining swine and he learned it from his brother-in-law. Bub makes the best ribs. Hands down. (More on that later) And he always brines them overnight.
So, I applied the same principle to pork chops. Here’s the deal with making a brine. It has always got to have vinegar of some sort in it. And then all the rest is just extra. Milk also helps make the meat more tender.
For my brine I used
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp garlic
- 1/2 tbsp poultry seasoning (yes, I know.)
- salt and pepper
Pour all this in a zip loc with your pork chops and let it chill for several hours. The salt helps the liquid and flavors move in and out of the muscle tissue of the meat. SO, generally there are hints of the brine in and on the swine but the main purpose of using a brine is to tenderize the meat as well to as help it retain its moisture.
