The Ember’s Pork Chop

There is a wonderful restaurant named The Embers in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, where chef Clarence Tuma prepares his famous One Pound Pork Chop. He has won numerous awards for it and has featured it on numerous national television shows. It takes a full 24 hours to prepare, and is well worth the trouble (oddly enough, it really doesn’t take that much effort). He freely gives the recipe away, and invites everyone to drop by and discuss how theirs turned out at home.

4 – 1 pound Pork chop(s)

MARINADE
1 cup Soy sauce, dark
1/2 cup Water
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1 tablespoon Molasses, dark
1 teaspoon Salt

SAUCE
1 cup Ketchup
1 cup Chili sauce
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon Dry mustard
1/8 cup Water

To get the pork chops, ask the butcher at your local supermarket to cut four one pound, center cut pork chops. The butcher will look confused and say “One pound EACH?” Look right back at him and reply “One pound each.” Start by preparing the marinating sauce using the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, molasses and salt. Mix them together and bring to a boil, then let it cool.

In a large sealable plastic bag, pour the marinating sauce over the pork chops, put them in the refrigerator and let them stand overnight.

When you get ready to cook the next day, take the pork chops out of the marinating sauce, place in a baking pan and cover tightly with foil. Put in 375 degree oven and bake until tender (about 2 hours).

Discard the marinating sauce.

While they are baking, prepare the red sauce. Mix the dry mustard, brown sugar and water together leaving no lumps. Add the ketchup and chili sauce, then bring the mixture to a slight boil.

After the chops are tender, remove them from the oven and dip each in the red sauce.

Take the chops after dipping and place them back in the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until slightly glazed. Save the unused red sauce for the table.

For extra flavor, keep the chops at room temperature until you are ready to put them on a charcoal pit or grill. Have the grill as high as possible from the coals; not a large bed of coals is needed.

Place the finished chops on the grill and let them cook slowly… a little blackening does not hurt the chops. Grilling should not take more than 15 minutes.

BBQ techniques, family recipes