- Lay two pork chops on a shallow bed of salt.
- Sprinkle salt over top of them as well.
- Put chops into the refrigerator
- Take a cup of hickory wood chips and soak them in bowl of water
- Refrigerate chops overnight uncovered, and let the wood chips soak up water on the counter also overnight
- The next morning, wash off the salt from the chops
- Dry them well with a paper towel
- Pour the water from the wood chip bowl, and place the chips on the used paper towel.
- Bring a cast iron skillet or Dutch oven up to about 500º
- Put in 1 TBL safflower oil and spread it around
- Put the chop onto the high heat for about three minutes
- Turn the chops over and surround them with wood chips, so that the wood chips are in contact with the hot cast iron
- Put the cover on the Dutch oven, and as soon as you start to smell smoke (3-5 minutes) set the pan on the patio on a cooling rack for another 5-10 minutes
- Plate while out on the patio so that you don’t get smoke in your house
If you are up to it, make your own Birch Syrup.
- Collect the sap and bring to a simmer. You will need a lot of sap, as it reduces by about 85% after about ten hours.
- Five liters (21 cups) of sap will become about 1/3 of a cup.
