Waterless Cookware Blog

Pork is an enjoyable source of lean protein with varied and tasty menus.  In posts to follow, we share a few of our favorite stovetop recipes—ham, country ribs and chops.  We do so, as always, with a focus on good taste, cost, nutritional value, and a healthy appreciation for where the food we eat comes from.

Overview:
Today’s American and European pork generally contain half the fat they did in 1980.  The cuts most enjoyed come from pigs typically slaughtered at six months, at an average weight of 220 lbs.  As a breed, pigs use muscle intermittently (compared to other red meat sources like cattle or sheep) and thus produce a pale meat (15% lower in red muscle fiber) with a much favored tenderness.

Pork’s historical taboo tends to reflect pigs themselves—difficult to herd, voracious and indiscriminate eaters that readily decimate all matter of field (especially eco-fragile areas like the arid Middle East, historical homeland of Jews and Muslims).   Today’s pig farms have alleviated much of this concern as well as the ‘unclean’ harboring and transmission of pork-related parasites of old.

Like cattle, hog farming has industrialized in the last century and now poses new challenges typical of mass meat factories–abuses of animal diet, antibiotics and inhumane treatments:

On January 11, people from across the US and Canada packed the New Bern, North Carolina Riverfront Convention Center to discuss strategies for combating pig factories and promoting humaneness and sustainability in pig farming—click here to read the good news.

Your sources of meat products remain an ethical, nutritional and of course economic choice.  Consider pork during spring and fall when local farm abundance reduces price points.  Pork freezes well: $10 to $12 dollars of pork provides amply 10 to 12 separate meals for an average family.  A large ham shank, for example, serves a family well:

• Prime slices of ham for dinners, with eggs for breakfast, mid-day sandwiches;
• A variety of Ham Bone soups easily prepared and parceled for freezing;
• Diced ham with egg and spiced veggies over rice is a favorite of ours.

A favorite flavor at our home is molasses-brushed sliced ham shank (inside and out) cooked stove-top in a dutch oven or roaster with shank bone, scrap meats and drippings saved for a variety of soups to follow.   In an upcoming post, we prepare a basic yam & ham bone soup.  Yummy!

Cook healthy, eat honestly, and thrive.