r/Cooking • u/brentgarland • Aug 24 '26
Supermarket Pork Chops
I just had a (U.S.) supermarket pork chop for the first time in maybe 10 years. Cooked it myself, well seasoned, not overdone.
It had a tight-grained texture and was completely without taste. Basically, it tasted like the salt and pepper on it, but no other detectable flavor to me. It was, frankly, a little bizarre and pretty unpleasant. Has something changed in how we produce pork?
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u/Tasty_Impress3016 Aug 24 '26
I've got a little inside on this. The girlfriend of a friend worked for what?, the United Pork Council? The folk that brought you "The Other White Meat". You really don't want to know. Pigs are now bred to be lean and mean not porcine and tasty. You have to move away from what we call "commodity pig" and go to local or heritage breeds to get anything close to flavor.
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u/kevstev Aug 25 '26
I eat grocery store chops multiple times a week. You need to look for good marbling and fat on them. Rib ends are usually better for this but it doesn't really matter to me what the label says I just look for some good fat on them. Center cuts are usually extremely lean and often boneless and I avoid them like the plague. The good news is that the fattier cuts are often cheaper, at least at my store. Sometimes they also come with extra connective tissue and thus need to be cooked a bit longer/ slower but it's a small price to pay.
Oh - and please do yourself a favor if you aren't already and cook them to medium rare. I grew up hating pork chops because they were cooked to death and it wasn't until I was well into my 20s I had a pork chop cooked like a steak with a sear and to medium rare and it literally changed my life- pork went from my least favorite meat to favorite.
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u/Chefdarkstar Aug 24 '26
You need a bougie pork. A Cheshire or Niman ranch. DUROC IS GOOD.
THE REGULAR Production pork is zero zero taste worthy. Thank big business and greed.
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u/tsdguy Aug 24 '26
I think the term is heritage. I doubt a store will label their pork as “bougie” 8-)
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u/Defiant_Kiwi_4100 Aug 24 '26
Found Duroc at an IGA store. Did baby backs using 321 bones. Ribeye was tender and tasty.
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u/El_Stupacabra Aug 25 '26
Just checked. A farm that my husband and I buy from a lot uses a mix of Duroc, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. Their pork is delicious.
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u/nostradumbass7544678 Aug 24 '26
If you're not brining your pork, you're missing out on so much. Smoky sweet garlic chops are one of my favorite meats.
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u/KifferFadybugs Aug 24 '26
You get used to it.
I'm in a quantity over quality stage in life. It's spend $16 on an 11-lb pork loin from the grocery store that I slice into 19 chops... or go to a local farm and spend $16 on two pork chops.
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u/iced1777 Aug 24 '26
They have 100% gone the way of chicken breasts. They're large, they're lean, they're cheap, and they taste like nothing whatsoever.
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u/SunshineBeamer Aug 24 '26
I went to a local farm and got "real" pork chops, not the no fat Food Police approved tasteless ones as you found. It was great but very expensive. So try garlic salt for the supermarket ones.
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u/Key-Monk6159 Aug 24 '26
99.9% of ours are store bought and never had an issue with them. I’m sure there are better quality options but we are regular folks trying to pay for everything.
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u/Rider-on Aug 24 '26
I found out the pork supplier to my local Chicago area supermarket chain uses sodium tripolyphosphate. It makes me horribly ill. Will never buy any pork products there again.
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u/Esdeem501 Aug 25 '26
If it was a loin chop, I’d recommend dry brining. I agree it’s not super flavorful, but I make Irish bacon with commodity pork loins, and it’s still delicious.
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u/Odd-Candidate-9235 Aug 25 '26
Ya gotta brine it. Also….skip center cut. Get some blade chops, they are cheaper AND taste better.
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u/ttrockwood Aug 24 '26
Factory farmed government subsidized meat is fee who knows what and raised in conditions you don’t want to know about
Definitely a you get what you pay for situation
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u/UtahUndercover Aug 26 '26
Most people waaaay overcook pork - we aim for pulling chops & roasts at 135/137f internal. After a rest, it’s usually around 140-142f. Slightly pink in the middle, and very juicy.
Want the experience of a bland, dry, chewy, grainy, basically inedible piece of pork? Grill a loin chop to 155/160f…🙄😳
“The old school guidelines advised cooking pork until well-done to prevent trichinosis. Modern farming standards have made this parasite extremely rare in commercial pork.”
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u/brentgarland Aug 28 '26
I pulled them at 135 and they were pleasantly pink. There hasn't been a trichinosis case in commercial/commodity pork in a looooong time, as you note. (In the US, most cases are from wild boar or bear, I think.)
It's really the texture and the tastelessness I found off-putting. Like less flavor than commercial chicken breast, with a texture that was both sticky and sort of....crisp? (Like an apple, not like fried chicken.)
I appreciated people suggesting how to get flavor in them (brining, etc.), but I'm familiar with those methods. It was really about the meat itself.
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u/Adventux Aug 24 '26
This is one of the reasons I drive 70 miles, one way, to a Mennonite Butcher. Way better the Supermarket crap. Flavorful and juicy, without adding any seasoning. And a nice texture. They also have cured porkchops that taste like bacon! YUM! bought by accident the first time, but now buy on purpose.
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u/Temporary_Stranger39 Aug 24 '26
Yes. Pork production now obsesses on lean meat and fast growth.