October 2002

Hello all, I'm back again with a few useful and several useless tidbits about meat. Thank you to everyone for your continuing interest. Fall is here, thank god summer is over and it's finally cool enough to fire up the grill for lunch.

In the last newsletter I focused on beef so it seems natural that this time we take a look at pork. Now before I begin, let me just say that while I love good pork, I hate pigs...

This is probably due to some resentment I still feel stemming back from childhood summers spent working on 4-H projects. For those of you who don't know, 4-H is a youth organization, usually for rural kids. Each spring you choose a few projects and spend the summer vacation working on those projects, then at the local County Fair everyone gets together, you bring in a judge and the kids are awarded prizes for their efforts - usually a plastic trophy and a satin ribbon but when you're ten years old these prizes can make or break your summer.

Growing up on a cattle ranch, my projects always revolved around steers and heifers. While it might sound strange, there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into winning the champion steer prize at the County Fair. First you have to teach the animal to lead and then you have to wash them everyday and brush their hair, training it to cover up any weak spots (kind of like those guys with a bald spot they're trying to hide with the "bar code-do"). You practice everyday teaching this animal to prance into the show ring with its head held high like a catwalk model. Finally on the day of the show you are up at five washing and primping and getting this thirteen hundred pound animal ready for its moment in the spotlight. Only to have some judge from out of town give the trophy to some pretty little fat girl in pigtails who has a nicer smile than you.

Now let me tell you what the kids from the pig farms do. A day before the County Fair they pick out a pig. 10 minutes before the competition they spray that pig with a hose. Then they get a stick and chase him through the show ring twice. Project finished, same blue ribbon, same plastic trophy. Grrrr...

But as we all know, "pork chops taste goooood, bacon tastes gooood" so let me tell you what I've found. If you really want nice pork you've got to know where to look. American pork loins are great, but the bellies are too fatty, Danish tenderloins are excellent but I wouldn't touch the hams. I've tried just about every type of pork that I can get my hands on here in Japan and my recommendations are as follows:

1. Pork chops: I take Austrian bone-in pork loins and have them cut into thick, 250 gram chops. Austrian pork loins are really nice and juicy and when you cook it on the bone the flavor is great. 1200 yen gets you a pack of four.
2. Ribs: You have three types of pork ribs. Baby back ? these are the most famous and taste the best, mine are Austrian and they are the best I have ever seen. I've got two great big racks that I usually sell for 1000 yen, I'll sell them for 900 yen to all of you this month. The other two types are belly ribs (St. Louis cut), I can get these but the baby back ribs are so nice that I can't imagine anyone wanting these instead. I've also got riblets, also called country style ribs. As a kid these were my favorite cut, three ribs from the shoulder area with lots of meat. Right now I only sell these by the case so they are not on the list but if anyone really wants this we can work something out and if it doesn't work out well for me, you might see this item on my sale list next month!
3. Pork loins: I've got American loins right now, they are a little over 3 kilos with very little fat. Excellent quality, easy to roast, cut into chops, or slice thin for stir fry, nabe, shabu shabu, etc�cI ate some of this about an hour ago, it was great. Usually 1,100 a kilo but 1,000 this month, for 200 yen more I can cut it up however you want.
4. Pork tenderloins: Not on the list yet, these are Danish, I've was with friends last week and we threw some on the grill (electric grill, usually a major sin for me but no charcoal was available...) they came out wonderful. Just a little salt and pepper, cooked medium to medium rare - you don't have to cook this pork too long. 1200 a kilo.
5. Pork Shoulder Roast: If you've got an oven and you want to have a party, throw one of these in the oven for an hour. These are also Danish, low fat, and they roast really well, I had one of these for Christmas last year and plan on doing it again soon. Each one is about 2.5 kilos and they are cheap - 800 a kilo.
6. And of course, bacon, prosciutto, salami, ham etc. If you haven't yet tried these deli items yet you are missing something. The bacon is great - I highly recommend buying a block and slicing it yourself - I can give you any size block you want. My prosciutto was just rated the fourth best in an EU competition, the top three don't export to Japan so I am pretty sure I've got the best around. You won't be disappointed. 10% off anything on my list with an "A" in front of the item number this month.

That's all for now.

-jason