Chops by any other name—finally

Of all the information I came away with during last weekend’s Pork Summit 2013, held at The Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus in St. Helena, Calif., the most interesting had nothing to do with cooking techniques, flavors or even ways of using the whole animal (more on that in another blog).

Instead, the most fascinating nugget had to do with naming conventions. During a presentation on the breeds, raising and harvesting of hogs, Stephen Gerike of the National Pork Board explained that the board recently completed two and a half years of work with various government agencies to come up with new names for various cuts of pork chops.

The names would finally bring pork in line with the beef industry when it comes to identifiers for selected cuts of meat. It was long overdue in the minds of pork producers, who for years have seen restaurateurs market pork chops simply as “pork chops,” without any differentiation between one cut or another.

Now, pork chops can be identified by the type of cut and where it comes from on the hog, much like beef producers can do with steaks. As a matter of fact, the names are almost identical. For example, the center cut pork loin, bone in, will now be known simply as a “porterhouse chop.” Similarly, a pork loin chop, rib chop, bone in, will be called a ribeye chop, while the pork top loin chop, bone-in, will be known as a New York chop. Gerike explained it thus: “We own ‘chop,’ they own ‘steak,’”.

According to Gerike, consumers are now able to purchase pork chops by their new names, and foodservice operators will be able to order chops under their new designations by the fall.

“Consumers will see consistency of chop names at the retail level and in restaurants,” said Gerike. “The names will be more appealing for customers and more profitable for restaurant operators, who will be able to position pork chops in a premium way on menus. It used to be, you had a pork chop on the menu, who knew what it was. Now customers will know.”

The new naming conventions, coupled with changes in rules about how pork has to be cooked, will allow chefs to add more variety to pork presentation. Gone soon will be the old rules, which specified that pork had to be cooked to a certain temperature. Customers will soon be able to order chops medium rare, for example, rather than chefs having to prepare all cuts to the same level of doneness.

In fact, the Pork Board is planning what Gerike called a “huge consumer marketing program” that will include a “cook it like steak” promotion.

Everyone who dines out frequently has noticed the paucity of pork on most menus. A “pork chop” might reside on a menu beside five types of steaks and three or four types of chicken. But as someone whose parents grew up with the specter of pork as a “dangerous” type of meat, capable of causing debilitating illness if it wasn’t cooked until the last vestige of pink has been removed, I can see this as giving pork new status in the industry.

It’s going to take some time to eradicate the stigma pork has among people of a certain age, but eventually the average diner will learn what pork lovers have known for years: a chop by any other name still tastes great.

More from Pork Summit 2013 tomorrow.