Help me ID these pork ... things

March 7, 2019 8:35 AM

What is this inexpensive pork cut? Here in Greece, they're called neck steaks or neck chops (μπριζόλες λαιμού), and they look about like this (no banana, so fork and lemon half for scale). Trying to translate this into something useable for searching US/UK recipes, I'm coming up with [shoulder? / neck? / collar?] [strips? steaks? chops?] and maybe faux "Country Style Ribs". Anyway, it would be easier to find recipes, if I knew what to call them! (If you have recipe ideas, please throw them my way!)

The pieces in my photo weigh about 2 lbs altogether, are each about 7–8 inches long, 3–3.5 inches wide, and .5 inches thick at their thickest part (quite thin in other spots). They are not boneless, but there's not a lot of bone.

We normally just cook these in a frying pan with pan gravy and rice, but I'm bored with that. I'd particularly like to know about how long to cook these in an instant pot, since I've found a couple of recipes I'd like to try to adapt. And any Asian "bbq"* type treatments seem like maybe a yummy idea!

* Not for outdoor grill. We do have a stovetop cast iron grill, but I'm really thinking IP, skillet, or oven ideas. We also have a enameled dutch oven.

posted by taz to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Best answer: I would probably call those shoulder chops or blade shoulder chops. Alternatively, my (fancy) butcher sells them as coppa cuts/chops. I have never seen them in the US with the bone in, though. Depending on what you're doing with them, loin chops (sometimes referred to just as "pork chops" in the US) could be substituted. Loin chops will be much more lean, however.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:41 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

As far as cooking them, if you cook them high heat in a pan/on a grill like you're doing right now they'll come out like extra juicy pork chops. Slow-and-low cooking will also work, and you'll end up with meat that pulls easily. It's basically steak cuts of pork shoulder, so you could do anything with it that you would do with regular old hunks of shoulder if you want.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:47 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think those are cut from the shoulder. I'd add the terms "shoulder steaks" and "shoulder chops" to your searching. They look like they have a fair amount of connective tissue in them, such that they would benefit from being sliced thin and/or tenderized for a while. Is that right?

If so, basically anything that you might do with ribs or country ribs would probably work, as well as some of these recipes:

Char siu pork shoulder
Lemongrass grilled pork chops
Cuban-style pork shoulder (has some discussion of cooking methods that might be beneficial)
This thread of recipe ideas
A guide to different kinds of "pork chop" including shoulder or blade chops

In addition, I'd cut those steaks into cubes, salt and pepper them for a bit, and then brown the hell out of them as the start of a sunday gravy.
posted by gauche at 8:49 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Here's a simple recipe for Thai grilled pork neck.
posted by neroli at 9:05 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Yup. Pork shoulder blade steaks are my go-to when I'm craving a chunk of meat as I'm not a big fan of beef. Delicious, easy and quick to cook, freeze well when on special at the store and so cheap! Rinse and pat dry, rub with a dollop of olive oil and a generous coating of McCormicks Montreal Steak seasoning, fry in melted butter in a hot pan with additional daubs of butter melting in on top until you flip it. 3-4 minutes a side or until it reaches safe temperature. I'll be checking back here for alternate preparation methods if and when I ever get sick of eating them this way.
posted by rekrap at 9:58 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Boston Butt or butt roast might be the ticket. I used it recently for a couple of America's Test Kitchen recipes Slow-Cooker Mexican-Style Pork and Hominy Stew and, of note because of your mention of using the meat in Greece, Greek-Style Braised Pork with Leeks. I can't find the ATK link for that, but this recipe looks somewhat similar.

And when I cooked these recipes, I learned that the pork butt cut is part of the pig's shoulder.
posted by msbrauer at 11:30 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm almost certain they're sold as 'country style ribs' at my local Publix. One of the best-kept secrets in pork: cheap, tender, delicious many ways.
posted by LonnieK at 6:42 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Looks to me like either a pork picnic (pork shoulder) or Boston Butt cut into slices. In our store, the Country Style is actually from the loin, cut in a certain way (and boneless country are from the ends of boneless center loins, cut in half lengthwise and sliced). Picnics and Boston Butts are so versatile ..they make great slow cooker foods. great as roasts, and in slices like this.
posted by annieb at 10:55 AM on March 8, 2019

Response by poster: Thanks everyone, for the very helpful answers! Sorry I didn't update sooner, but for some reason I thought I already did. (I was reminded because we'll have this again tonight, but husband is cooking, so he'll make it his way — which is delicious; no complaints!). When I posted this I ended up making them with Hong Kong onion sauce in the instant pot, a recipe which actually calls for pork chops. The onion sauce was very tasty, but rather overwhelmed the thinner shoulder blade chops, so I wouldn't use them again for that recipe.
posted by taz at 10:13 AM on March 24, 2019