I had the opportunity to get some pork chops from Gum Creek, a local farm. In my freezer i had a Caw Caw creek chop, and this past weekend at the grocery i forgot about both of those and bought pork chops....so what was i to do but have a blind taste test?
I've heard a lot of talk about how pastured pork is better by lightyears than commercial. And admittedly i've said the same thing....but is it really? Only 1 way to find out.
My goal was to cook them identically, and taste them blind.
All 3 chops were vac packed with just salt and some oil. Here was my main mistake. I should have salted by % of weight of the meat, to keep that constant. I salted by feel/sight.
All 3 chops were cooked at 138 deg. for 2 hours, and removed from the vac packs and patted dry:
The 3 chops were seared in a BLAZING hot oiled pan for 1 minute per side.
Both my wife and I, blind tasting, picked commercial!! as having the best flavor. We both could hardly believe it. So much so, that i retasted them repeatedly trying to convince myself...but nope.
Gum creek had the least flavor but was the most tender. Caw Caw had good flavor and ok tenderness..and commercial had the most flavor and was the toughest.
The commercial chops i had were quite nice...nice marbling. I think there is a lot of variability to commercial pork. We've done this test before with caw caw vs. commercial and it was a blowout for caw caw...
really raises questions though, doesn't it!
