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Beer Brined Pork Chops

"Tender full-flavored pork chops that are always a crowd pleaser. Great on the grill! Pat dry the meat before you put it on the grill for good grill marks. Also, use a meat thermometer to insure proper cooking."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beer and corn share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 61 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

The recipe

8 pork chops
Prep15 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Whisk the beer, red wine vinegar, dark corn syrup, prepared mustard, minced garlic, dried sage, salt and ground black pepper in a large bowl until the salt dissolves.

  2. Add the onion slices and pork chops to the brine, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours.

  3. Remove the chops from the brine, discard the brine and onion, and pat the chops dry with paper towels.

  4. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for 3 minutes until hot.

  5. Cook the chops 4 to 5 minutes per side until browned and the thickest part reaches at least 145°F (63°C).

  6. Transfer the chops to a plate, rest for 3 minutes, then serve.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beer + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Beer + red winetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Corn + porktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,068 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Red wine + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, red wine, vinegar, corn, syrup, mustard, garlic):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Gingerbetter flavor fit
  3. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, red wine, vinegar, corn, syrup, mustard, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).