Pork chop

A pork chop is a thick slice of meat cut from the domestic pig, particularly one adjacent to a rib and usually served with it. It may be cooked in many ways, the simplest being fried or grilled, plain or coated with flour and dipped in egg and breadcrumbs. Numerous combinations of vegetables, fruits, spices and herbs are cooked with pork chops in the cuisines of many countries, including Austria, Britain, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US.

Although pork was favoured in classical and medieval times it was not until the nineteenth century that pork chops became popular. Modern breeding techniques mean that it is no longer necessary on food hygiene grounds to cook pork, including chops, for as long as used to be recommended, with the result that a juicier result can be obtained.

Definition and history

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines a pork chop as "A thick slice of pork, esp. one adjacent to a rib and usually served with it".. The first use of the term cited in the OED dates from c. 1752, but the cut has been familiar for considerably longer: the Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française dates the French term for it, Côtelette de porc, back to the fourteenth century. In her 1954 Food in England, Dorothy Hartley wrote of the Anglo-Saxons enjoying a grilled pork chop with apple sauce and ale, but although pork was a favoured meat in classical and mediaeval times it was not until the nineteenth century that pork chops became widely popular. Hanna Glasse (1747) makes no mention of pork chops in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, but Mrs Beeton (1861) gives two recipes for pork chops in Beeton's Book of Household Management.