John Westfield

I'm a lifelong cooking enthusiast with a special love for strange and underused ingredients. I hope this blog helps open your mind to more of the wonderful edible treasures around us.

Does pork and orange go well together?

Pork plays well with fruits like apples, apricots, cranberries, currants, dried cherries, dried figs, mangoes, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, quince, and strawberries. Pork comes in many forms and when paired with fruit, the combinations are endless. Examples are pork chops with apples or pomegranate and pork loin with oranges. Pour in orange juice, soy sauce …

Does pork and orange go well together? Read More »

How to cook roast pork with crackling?

Adam Stratton is the owner of Tender Gourmet Butchery chain around Sydney. He is Australia’s most awarded butcher and part of the ‘Butchery Olympics’With Christmas only a week away he has shared his glazed ham recipeAdam has released stuffing, gravy and pork crackling tutorials for customers. How to cook pork for the perfect pork crackling? …

How to cook roast pork with crackling? Read More »

Should I brine pork chops?

Rinsing increases the risk of cross-contamination. Rinse and you may doom the quality of your meat. Some more things to investigate are: salt water soaks for meat are also unnecessary, use a thermometer for safety’s sake, or bottom line: don’t rinse meat. You should be wondering “Should you brine pork chops?” One way to think …

Should I brine pork chops? Read More »

Where do pork come from?

Smoked meat is the result of a method of preparing red meat, white meat, and seafood which originated in the Paleolithic Era. Smoking adds flavor, improves the appearance of meat through the Maillard reaction, and when combined with curing it preserves the meat. When meat is cured then cold-smoked, the smoke adds phenols and other …

Where do pork come from? Read More »