FOOD NEWS
The Juiciest Pork Chops All Begin With A Milk Marinade
By Tom Maxwell
Pork chops are lean-cut meats prone to drying out while cooking, but combining milk with salt and a generous marinade time will end your rubbery pork chop woes.
A milk marinade will gently tenderize your pork chops, help create a lovely outer crust, and give the whole exterior a delicate flavor.
Enzymatic agents in the form of acids, like lemon juice, vinegar, or soda, are used to tenderize meat, but they can ruin a pork chop. Milk is also enzymatic but far more gentle.
It's also calcium-rich, and calcium teams up with enzymes to promote the breakdown, or tenderization, of proteins. Think of this process as speed-aging the meat.
Milk also has a lot of sugars and proteins, so when you brown a milk-marinated pork chop, it will be practically fork-tender, with a browned, caramelized exterior.