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Tough And Tasteless Pork ?


marsh man
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Is it just me or do any of you guys out there find Pork is tough with very little , or no taste ?

We are far from up market but for a change we often pop in M and S and get something for tea , last week we got two chops with the Mustard seed around the edge , if I had to rate them out of 10 it would be minus one , they were as tough as old boots and had no taste whatsoever . Lucky enough I have still got my own teeth , not as many I was born with but the ones in my mouth are all mine and my pork chop was just to tough for my teeth to cope with , my dog have got good teeth and me and my wife both smiled when we saw he was also making hard work to chew them up into eatable sizes .

Moving on a few days , Sunday we went up the coast for a run out , on the way home we popped into Waitrose as late Sunday afternoon they reduce bits and pieces that have reached the sell by date , on the fish counter we got two pieces of Haddock in bread crumbs , these were nearly £3 the two and well worth it , we had them Monday night and they were nice , On the meat counter they had two large pork chops , were just over £6 and now reduced half price , these were last nights tea , not quite as bad as Marks but still very poor quality and again with little taste and tough .

I know what you are going to say , Why don't you use your local butchers instead of going to the super markets , the answer is yes we have been to them all within a few miles and none of them stand out , the only one which is worth using is , Roys of Wroxham that sell Pork from a big Pig farm in Blythburgh , when we are out that way then we do buy there Pork and it taste like the Pork we had in the past but from mine it is well over 20 miles away and to far to go for a couple of chops .

So is it just me , or is the majority of Pork going down hill ?

 

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the only 2 cuts i use is/are

  1. pork fillet
  2. belly pork

they rest is as you say...........and i will only buy homecured bacon.............marsh man...................try either  Carters in Acle or the small butchers at the top of the high street in Gorleston............

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Only pork we get now is from a local farmer/butcher, all outdoor reared, really tasty! Everything he does is full of flavour, can see them out grazing (sometimes up close when they pop into ours from the field next door!) and now he is selling some of my goat meat through his shop

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My sentiment also MM and as Ditchy says I also have not had a good pork chop for many years, I used to eat them regular and even the ones from the supermarkets select range were tasty with a soft texture and suited my palate well. After finding quite a few on the run being tasteless and the texture much more grainy I abandoned them and would say the last time I had one must be a good few years now.

I am now salivating thinking about a juicy thick grilled pork chop with heaps of apple sauce. I used to snip the fat rind with scissors at intervals to stop them curling up when I grilled one on a high heat. Has anyone pan fried them?

At least the dog seemed to appreciate them albeit somewhat chewy. 

atb

7diaw

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I agree with those above. It seems impossible to buy a decent pork chop these days . Belly pork is much better.

The only time that we do get decent pork chops , is when one of my farmers kills his own pigs ,and gives us a bag of pork . I'm not sure how he looks after the pigs , but the pork chops taste just how they used to taste when I was a youngster.

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A lot of its going to be down to what the pigs are eating, I remember Gordon Ramsay doing an experiment with 2 home reared pigs and fed one a portion of some strawberry beer which added extra flavour to the meat. I watched a video over lockdown last year done by TGS and jonny was interveiwing a guy who inspects slaughterhouses and according to him pork is a meat we don't rear enough off to satisfy demand so it is imported, mainly from Denmark and Germany, maybe we are now seeing the post brexit  price of quality going up and the supermarkets selling the dregs left over.

My thinking is even locally farmed pigs are probably being fed on some cheap fattening meal to get the money's worth out of them. Best bet is to find a farm shop that does rare breed pork and buy from them

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2 hours ago, Rob85 said:

A lot of its going to be down to what the pigs are eating, I remember Gordon Ramsay doing an experiment with 2 home reared pigs and fed one a portion of some strawberry beer which added extra flavour to the meat. I watched a video over lockdown last year done by TGS and jonny was interveiwing a guy who inspects slaughterhouses and according to him pork is a meat we don't rear enough off to satisfy demand so it is imported, mainly from Denmark and Germany, maybe we are now seeing the post brexit  price of quality going up and the supermarkets selling the dregs left over.

My thinking is even locally farmed pigs are probably being fed on some cheap fattening meal to get the money's worth out of them. Best bet is to find a farm shop that does rare breed pork and buy from them

Weve exported a lot of pIgs recently to China after they had to cull 8 million pigs because of ASF (I think is was ASF). As a result we undoubtedly imported a lot of pork to make up for the short fall. And it will have been from Denmark most likely where they don't get privileges such as daylight or fresh air, and it all goes towards altering the flavour and texture of the meat. 

Some of you more....stately gentlemen will remember pork tasting differently partly because that's how memories work but also because there were more heritage type pigs about - Tamworth, Gloucester Old Spot, Berkshires etc which are a bit slower growing and as a result put down more fat and flavour through the meat. Nowadays they're large white/landrace type pigs which grow big very quickly. It's a similar thing now with lamb and the movement towards eating hogget rather than new season lamb, a lamb can be 10wks old and reach Slaughter weight and that just doesn't covert to a full flavour. 

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11 hours ago, ditchman said:

marshman..............its Fleetwoods in gorleston......:good:

Cheers , I know where Fleetswoods is and when I can bring myself to try another bit of pork I will give them a try , another place which is o k is Blakes on the market near the chip stalls .

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24 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Cheers , I know where Fleetswoods is and when I can bring myself to try another bit of pork I will give them a try , another place which is o k is Blakes on the market near the chip stalls .

blakes have gone from there years ago.............they are down one of the rows now............do lovely home cured bacon as you know........

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15 hours ago, Walker570 said:

Sausage, all it is useful for  plus maybe belly pork mixed with venison in a game pie as per pork pie.  Can't stand pulled pork. Like trying to eat string.

i must agree with you on the subject of "pulled pork"...........can never really see the point............the only meat that should ever be pulled is that bit of meat twixt ones thighs....and that should only be done infrequently as it may cause deafness....

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1 hour ago, ditchman said:

i must agree with you on the subject of "pulled pork"...........can never really see the point............the only meat that should ever be pulled is that bit of meat twixt ones thighs....and that should only be done infrequently as it may cause deafness....

As always, it depends upon whom is doing the pulling

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24 minutes ago, loriusgarrulus said:

I used to love a good thick pork chop with a bit of kidney attached. They tasted fantastic. You can't get them like that now. 🙁

my local butcher will still do a pork chop with kidney in it if i give him a weeks notice...........they are to die for with cold fresh made apple sauce

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7 hours ago, ditchman said:

i must agree with you on the subject of "pulled pork"...........can never really see the point............the only meat that should ever be pulled is that bit of meat twixt ones thighs....and that should only be done infrequently as it may cause deafness....

What!  Who said that?

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