Pork Loin Chops with Dry Rub cooked Sous Vide
2010-01-18
Chris Shenton
Serves 8

We got a large boneless pork loin from Costco: sadly, it's from the
Swift folks so not terribly flavorful nor humanely treated (pigs or
workers), but it's an inexpensive way to experiment before getting
good quality pork from Eco Friendly or Polyface Farms.

We wanted to try a variety of things including some pork chops for
tonight and some cured meat to produce something akin to Canadian
bacon. This is for the former: a dry rub applied to dinner-sized
chops, bagged and cooked sous vide. The rub's based on one in
_Charcuterie_ by Ruhlman and Polcyn.  We like Spanich Pimenton for its
smokey flavor.

For whole Pork Loin, you'd need to cook longer due to the increased
thickness of the meat.

32	ounce	Boneless Pork Loin, cut into 8 4-ounce chops
10	g	Black Pepper, freshly ground
3	g  	Cayenne
16	g	Chili Powder
16	g  	Coriander
13	g  	Brown Sugar
2	g	Oregano
32	g  	Pimenton
40	g  	Kosher Salt
10	g  	White Pepper

Make a dry rub; we put everything including pepper corns into a
coffee/spice grinder and whiz it up. This is more rub than needed for
this amount of pork; save the rest. 

Cut pork into chops, sized one per person.
Coat with dry rub.
Chill well.
Seal in pairs in vacuum bags suitable for sous vide. 

Cook sous vide at 130-140 for 2-12 hours; chops should take less time
than full loin due to their thin dimension.

Finish for service by searing on very hot skillet with a tiny amount
of oil or bacon fat.

On 2010-10-18 I'm trying chops at 135F for 3:45 hours. It's barely
pink, would like to do 130F next time; would more hours make it more
tender? Not super tender, but perhaps it's not supposed to be. No
flavor in pork, only rub: this pork should always be brined.