Although it tastes really good, but cooking pork requires immense care and expertise while maintaing great hygiene. The culinary name for meat from the pig, pork, can also refer to cured, smoked or processed meat.
It can be eaten and prepared in various forms: Cured, smoked, roasted, broiled, grilled, steamed, sautéed, stir fried, braised and stewed. But tasty as these sound, experts caution that pork should always be cooked well.
Chef Noah Barnes from The Hungry Monkey, says, “Pork should always be cooked at high temperatures or for a longer period of time – be it grilled, fried, roast, braised and stewed. A lot of pork products are also cooked by a method called curing, however this is done at a controlled room temperature and humidity.”
According to Barnes, “there is no part of the pig that cannot be cooked, everything from its ears, intestines, belly, and hooves are cooked in some form or the other.” In Delhi the favourite pork dishes are pork chops, pork belly and pork sausage and pork mince.
Pork as a product is very versatile and can be easily adapted for use in almost any cuisine. Arjun Singh Khurana, director, Quote Bar and Lounge, said, “Braising is one of the best cooking processes for pork. It makes the pork succulent and greasy and ensures that its not dry. The right cooking temperature is very important with pork.
Temperature above 145 degree celsius is ideal but it also varies. For example, ground pork has to be cooked at a temperature above 165 degrees.”
Xavier Namchyomoo, executive chef of Irezumi, Asian Tapas Club, said, “While most people turn to chicken or beef for their meal, pork can make a good meal too and costs much less than red meat. The most common issue while cooking pork is that either it’s overcooked or it remains dry after cooking, which has given pork an unfavourable reputation. There are many ways to cook pork from marinating to shallow frying and to even stir frying. Stir frying is the best way to cook pork and indeed remains the easiest way to cook it,” he says, adding “pork should be freezed for at least 20 minutes before slicing as freezing makes it easier to cut it into thin pieces. Shallow frying can also be a great way to cook pork as it gets the pork a nice crunchy exterior, but still remains juicy.”
