Yes, you can get great pork chops at a Texas barbecue joint
There are many different cuts of pork found at your neighborhood barbecue restaurant, where some types are more popular than others.
There are the triedand-true items found on just about every menu, including pork spareribs or St. Louis-cut ribs, made from the middle and lower rib cage of the hog, as well as pulled pork, made from the shoulder.
Occasionally seen on barbecue menus are baby back ribs from the upper rib cage, in addition to pork belly and pork steaks (again, from the shoulder).
Surprisingly, a cut that is rarely seen on menus is the pork chop. Aside from bacon and ham, pork chops is a dish most Americans grow up with. Why is it so rare in the Texas barbecue tradition?
The reason is mainly due to economics and anatomy. Unlike a full shoulder or rack of spareribs, pork chops are easy to cook at home and have always been a staple in meat market display coolers.
In the Central Texas meat markets of the early 1900s, pork chops would have been a bestselling item among wealthier customers during the week. In the days before refrigeration, the remaining cuts, like spareribs
and shoulder, would have been cooked as barbecue on Sundays and sold to workers as prepared meals. Pork chops just weren’t as available for barbecue as the other cuts.
In terms of anatomy, pork chops, which come from the top of the rib cage along the spine (known as the loin), are relatively lean. Unlike shoulder and belly, which are imbued with veins of fat that break down (render) during the low-andslow cooking process, pork chops are more like beef tenderloins, which are better suited to grillon ing or broiling.
But that doesn’t mean they can’t be smoked. To this day, the meat marketstyle barbecue joints of Central Texas still serve pork chops on their daily menu. Both Smitty’s Market and Kreuz Market in Lockhart have pork chops their daily menus, and they are some of the best in Texas (get there early, they often sell out).
Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, based out of Llano, is known for the “Big Chop,” essentially a double-cut pork chop that is a meal unto itself. (The Cooper’s location in Katy recently closed.)
The best version of a smoked pork chop I’ve tasted recently is at Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin.
There, chef and pitmaster Ernest Servantes is known for taking mundane or forgotten dishes and cuts of meat and giving them the craft barbecue treatment.
On a recent visit, I ordered a pork chop among the myriad of other proteins on the menu.
“It’s hands down my all-time favorite, because when cooked perfectly, nothing can beat it,” says Servantes, as he spun around and pulled a briefcase-size rack of golden and pepperflecked rib loin from his warmer.
Servantes soaks the rack in a salt brine for 48 hours, coats it with a cracked black pepper rub and then smokes it for seven hours.
On the cutting block, he slices off an inch-thick chop with the bone attached. It’s a great “combination cut” — there’s the leaner “eye” of the chop, which is the pork tenderloin, and then the attached bone is basically a small piece of fattier baby back rib.
Pork chops are traditionally served with a sweet accompaniment (think apple sauce), and Servantes provides a light, sugar-based sauce if requested. They are only served on weekends, making it an easy daytrip from Houston.