When I was a kid we didn’t have pork that often unless it was bacon with breakfast or thin little pork chops with a ring of fat around them that Mom would fry half to death. The big treat of that dinner was seeing who got to dunk a slice of bread in the old cast iron frying pan for some truly tasty “soppins’”. (And I’m still a sopper over a half century later).
But pork has changed, perhaps because of the “other white meat” promotion that the Iowa Pork Producers came up with 20 or so years ago. People eat of lot more pork whether it’s grilled or fried or slow cooked or barbecued and shredded.
In today’s world the challenge is to get the best quality for the lowest cost. Pork loin can cost as much as $3.50 or $4.00 a pound. And that’s loin not the tenderloin. But if you’re willing to spend 5 or 10 minutes at most “breaking down” a whole loin then you can save anywhere from $1 to $2 a pound and get multiple different meals all from one cut of meat.
We love grilled loin chops and grilled loin roast, just done and still juicy, sliced thin. We also love thin chops pan fried and smothered in onions or with kraut and an apple juice/broth sauce. Nothing beats thin, pounded loin chops breaded and fried, served either as an “Iowa Porker” sandwich or as chicken fried chops with pan gravy and mashed “taters”. And you can dice up a loin chop for sweet and sour pork, fried rice or for fried pork tacos. There’s all kinds of tasty things you can do.
Are you salivating yet? Well, here’s how simple and quick it is to slice pork loin into all these cuts and save a bunch of money in the process. So here’s a simple “primer” on how to do it:
Recipe: Pork Loin on a Budget
Summary: Get a whole pork loin and cut it into your own roasts and chops. It’s easy and saves you money.
Ingredients
- 1 Pork Loin—whole (6-8 lbs)
Instructions
- Get out your best chef’s knife and a cutting board (I use 2 end to end if the loin is long).
- Slice open the “tube” holding the loin (over the sink is best), drain out the liquid and slide the loin out.
- Wipe the loin off with your hands and acouple of paper towels to make it easier to work with then wash your hands good.
- Find the sirloin end of the loin—it’ll be a bit smaller and will have “two-toned” meat, some pink and some deeper red. (I goofed on this loin and forgot to start
with the sirloin end). - Starting from the sirloin end, cut about an inch off the end so it’s nice and straight—save this for your “stir fry” pork.
- Then cut a roast about a foot long and set it aside.
- At the other end of the loin, cut about an inch off so that end is nice and straight too and save it for “stir fry” pork.
- I use a tape measure or ruler for this next part—make score marks in the top of the loin about 1 ¼-1 3/8 apart for about a half dozen nice thick loin chops.
- Cut through the loin to create your chops. (You can cut more if you want).
- Then cut 6-8 chops each about a half inch thick—these you’ll use for pan frying or for “pounding” and breading and frying.
- Package your chops into freezer bags. I put 2 thick chops in a bag and 4 thin chops in a bag. And I use a gallon bag for the roast. Put everything in your freezer.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
You should be pretty much done. Now, I find that it’s easier to measure the thicker chops rather than eyeballing it. That way I get the thickness I want and a 1 ¼ to 1 3/8 is just about perfect for a grilling chop.
http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/pork-loin-chops-with-orange-glaze/
The Cheap Bastid Test: Let’s take a look at what we just did. This pork loin roast cost $2.09 a pound at Costco and it was nearly 8 lbs. In counting it all up, I cut it into at least 16 portions of meat if not more (depending on how many meals we get out of the roast). That’s less than $1 per portion. By the way, we were at Costco today and thick-cut pork loin chops were $3.29 a pound–that’s $1.20 a pound more than cutting your own. This a lot of good eating and stretches your food budget a long way.
That’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!
Joy, thank you very much. Truth be told, my favorite of the bunch is the thin boneless chop, pounded thin and pan fried–and then served with country gravy made from the pan drippings. You take that and a big mound of mashed potatoes both smothered in the gravy and it’s pure country heaven! Thanks again.