When you are preparing for a grilling party with your old high school mates, you want to pick a nutritious and delicious cut. There are different cuts of meat on the market from tender, mild-tasting (which cooks quickly) to tough and extremely flavorful if properly braised.
As always, it boils down to personal preference, but there is still a struggle when it comes to pork steak vs. pork chop.
However, you might want to choose a slice of pork between these two. Here is an article that guides your step on how to choose the best for your party.
Pork Steak
Pork steaks are also known as Boston butt or pork blade steaks. They are steaks extracted from the shoulder of the pig. These shoulder steaks are cut from the same primal cut of meat and, most of the time, serve as pulled pork for broiling.
To avoid this cut becoming tough and dry, do not overcook. Cooking the pork steak to 145 degrees F with a 3-minute rest leaves you with a bit of pink-tinted or clear juices and result in meat that’s tender and juicy.
As a result of the high amount of collagen in this steak, this meat is often cooked at a slow rate compared to a pork chop. Likewise, you can either choose to stew this cut of meat or simmered it in barbecue sauce. Even though they can also be grilled, they are much better and delicious when stewed.
When it comes to price, pork steak is known for its low cost as they are most of the time readily available, as opposed to pork chop that is a little bit scarce resulting in a slightly higher price.
Unlike pork chop, pork steak is easy and straightforward to cook, and they tend to turn out better for most folks. Also, another essential feature to take note of this pork is that it contains more fat and takes a bit of time for it to be well cooked.
So, you don’t need to worry about cooking this steak for a long period as you will get the same tender texture even if prepared for a short period.
Pork steaks are usually fairly lean when compared to the pork chop, and they can be boneless or not, depending on the exact area of the pig butt where they are extracted.
When it comes with a lot of bone than meat, it tends to have a shape that looks similar to the one of T-shaped meat.
Pork Chop
Pork chop is one of the most commonly consumed meats in the world. Like other meat chops, the pork chop is a loin cut taken perpendicularly to the spine of the pig and, most of the time contains a rib or part of a vertebra.
They are extracted from the loin, which runs from the hip to the shoulder, and it has a small strip of meat called the tenderloin.
Unlike other pork, this pork chop is cut from four major sections, which are the shoulder, also known as the blade chops, ribs chops, loin chops, and the last, which is the sirloin chops.
For the blade chops, they are from the shoulder of a pig. They are quite easy to identify with their dark-colored, and they contain a lot of fats and connective tissues and some blade bone.
The rib chop is also referred to as center-cut rib chop or pork chop end cut. They are extracted from the shoulder to the middle of the loin. Ribs chop also have two sections where it is cut from.
The rib chops from the blade end have more fat and connective tissue compared to the other cut from the shoulder end. They have a milder flavor and possess a tender texture. Grilling, broiling, searing, or roasting are the best ways to cook them for a yummy taste.
Loin chops are also known as the center loin chop or center-cut loin chop. They are extracted from the hip and loin toward the back of the animal. However, wherever you are cutting these chops from, these chops may have some pieces of tenderloin.
The loin chops are cut towards the center of the loin and usually with the T-shaped bone. This cut often comes with loin on one part and tenderloin on the other part. Loin chops have mild pork flavor, and they are very lean.
The boneless chop, which is also known as pork loin filets, is a cut from the part of the pig, usually towards the head of the loin above the loin chops. They look very much like connective tissue or fat and, at the same time, look very lean.
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How to Choose the Best Pork
Whether you are leaning towards a pork steak or you have decided to buy a pork chop, they are some things you should know and some features to look for.
For instance, if you are a griller who loves to get a lot of fat from a slice of meat, then pork steak is your best bet.
They are known to have a lot of fat in them compared to other meats. Even though some pork chops, like loin chop, have fat too, they are low compared to the pork steak.
Also, another factor to consider is the price tag of the meat you are purchasing. Pork steak is one of the cheapest pork not only to buy but to come across in the market today.
Keep in mind that pork chops may not always be available on the market, which also contributes to its salty price tag. Above all, you should be aware that both cuts of meat come from different parts of a pig, which result is quite distinctive features such as cooking time.