Braised Pork

Appears in

Published 2007

About

Many pork cuts contain quite a bit of fat and tissue, especially the shoulder. This makes them perfect for braising, because it eliminates the need for any preliminary larding. The Boston butt is the best cut for pot roast. Shoulder pork chops, which many people eschew because of their fattiness, are also excellent braised.

Cooking Bacon

The trick to cooking bacon is using slow, gentle heat so that the fat has time to render before the bacon becomes too brown. Use a small heavy-bottomed sauté pan that’s just the size of the bacon you’re cooking and place it over low to medium-low heat. You can save the bacon fat for a future use, provided the bacon never got too hot which would have caused the fat to burn. Most bacon has so much of its own fat that you can put the slices directly in the pan without using any other oil or fat to cook it in.

If you can find it, buy double-smoked slab bacon and cut it yourself, which enables you to slice it to the thickness you want, such as the rather thick lardon slices for Boeuf à la Bourguignonne. Fresh slab bacon will keep for weeks, in the refrigerator, wrapped in a kitchen towel. Always buy bacon labeled as “naturally smoked,” not “smoke-flavored."