[Sca-cooks] Re: Pork shank 2

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 18, 2006, at 11:29 AM, Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:

>> What we've been trained is right for pork since childhood is based
>> upon the imperative to avoid trichinosis. That's all she wrote. This
>> is so much the case that there are people who become alarmed if the
>> cooked pork displays even a sign of juice, and why, out of all the
>> meats we commonly eat, it is [marginally] second only to turkey in
>> the variety of sauces traditionally associated with it. They tend to
>> be necessary.
>
> oh. I thought they were just GOOD with it.

Well, I certainly hope so, and I'm sure making them good is  
important. On the other hand, think of all the glazes, gravies,  
fruit, milk-or-cream sauces, and mustards associated with pork dishes  
versus, say, a good beef steak or roast, which is somewhat more  
likely to be served nude, or with a relatively narrow spectrum of  
sauces. One reason for this is that in our culture's perfectly  
understandable desire to avoid heart worms, most Americans have  
developed the habit of cooking pork until they're absolutely sure  
it's not only merely dead, it's really most sincerely dead, and the  
lost moisture, that would otherwise be in the leaner cuts especially,  
needs to be restored.

>
> -- Jadwiga, who never met a European sauce she didn't like on pork,  
> but 
> admits her education is not Ras-quality diverse.

I'm with you on the sauce thing, but if the meat is properly seasoned  
and cooked, they really shouldn't be necessary. That's actually  
something you're taught in cooking schools; that the sauce and the  
wine are there to enhance the substrate, but should never be  
considered necessary as a cover-up for improper cooking or seasoning,  
or to help wash the food down your throat.

Adamantius, sauce Robert fan for pork...




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

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