Recently I got an email from Brooks, one the the originators of Bacon Fest, asking me about bacon chops.
“Have you ever had one? I read about it in Food and Wine and am trying to see if a local butcher can get me some.”
Sadly, I had to tell him that I never had one. Even thought it’s a popular Irish dish I never noticed it on any menus. It could also be the fact that I haven’t been to many Irish restaurants.
Me being a lover of all things bacon, I feel I need to find a bacon chop and eat it right away. So I started my search on Google, but to my surprise it really didn’t come up with a lot information.
Luckily, Heather from Bacon Unwrapped emailed her suggestions for finding a bacon chop. She says that I would have a good chance, if I find a butcher that specializes in pork. Pittsburgh does have some nice markets and butch shops so that should not be a problem.
Heather also says:
“The Irish version of bacon typically comes from the shoulder or loin, so I’m pretty sure a Bacon Chop isn’t actually cut from the belly like American bacon.”
This means that its going to be more like a thick cut of back bacon and most likely not smoked. I have also seen a bacon chop pictured with a bone on one side, so then again maybe its more like a pork chop. I guess I will only know the answer to that after I have one myself.
I need your help! I need to find a recipe for a bacon chop that I can make at home. Also since Google failed me please share any information about bacon chops via comments.
I almost had a heart attack just reading this.
Thats to much of a good thing!
OK, first of all - Irish Bacon is great - but it isn’t bacon-bacon, so don’t get too excited. I’m a fan, it’s just not as perfect a taste as ameri-bacon.
My mom usually makes this for St. Patrick’s Day - it’s actually boiled, traditionally with cabbage. Here’s a recipe/instructions:
http://www.dochara.com/eat/traditional/bacon-cabbage.php
How about this?
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/BBQs/barbecued_tipsy_bacon_chops____h.htm
Or,
http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fetch-recipe.php?rid=misc-bacon-chops-butter-beans
Thanks for the information guys, keep it coming! All this talk about bacon is making me hungry.
Ok,
So here’s what you need to do if you want a true bacon chop. A true bacon chop will be the belly while it is still attached to what we consider the Spare or St. Louis Ribs. I’m guessing most butchers buy the ribs already trimmed from the belly. Hence why you will need a local small shop guy. If you have a friend of a friend of a friend that knows a small farmer figure out where they sell their hogs to and ask the butcher to give you a chop cut from the belly with the spare rib attached. If he can slice them that will be helpful since you will need to cut through alot of cartalidge since they won’t be able to trip it off like they do to bring a Spare rib to a St. Louis. You might want to get a few people to go in on this with you because it might be a considerably large bill when you consider you are taking away both bacon and ribs which will add up to around $4/lb. combined at least.