Tom Raveret
TVWBB Pro
Huge difference in taste of Berkshire Ribs vs Swift
Last week I made my first of which will likely be many pilgrimages to a small town west of Madison WI called Black Earth (we live in Milwaukee a good 2 hours away). There is a butcher called Black Earth Meats that was featured on a public television show called “Wisconsin Foodie” that is part of the slow food movement that sources locally and supplies quite a few Madison area restaurants. You can watch the show online from this link if you are interested it’s a half hour show and this is one of three featured articles that episode.
http://wisconsinfoodie.com/2012/11/07/wisconsin-foodie-preview-pinn-oak-ridge-lamb-farm/
Southwestern Wisconsin is a great place to find lots of locally sourced ingredients and is rich in organic farming. At Black earth meats they have three types of beef and often more than one heritage breed of Pork. When I was there they had Berkshire Pork ( their primary breed I think) and Red Wattle for chops. I also was able to score some also picked up a rack of Berkshire spares. The Berkshire Ribs and chops cost $4.00/lb the Red Wattle was $5.00/lb
I decided on a side by side test of the spareribs from Black earth and what I have get at the grocery store (but not any “enhanced” crap). I wanted to try and make it a fair comparison so I saw spares on sale at the local Piggly Wiggly for 1.69/lb and headed out. Our local Piggly Wiggly gets non enhanced Pork which usually is Farmland and the Butcher said the spares were as well but unfortunately they were all frozen hard so I didn’t think it fair to use them against the fresh Berkshire ones. I tend to be highly prejudicial against frozen meat and it really bugs me when a store advertises fresh meat and they either get it in frozen or store it frozen. Well it was almost noon on Sunday the day I wanted to cook so I went up to Costco and they didn’t have any spares just some Swift St Louis cut ribs so considering the time this was as close as I was going to get to an even comparison for that day I grabbed what looked like the best pack.
I unwrapped the St Louis cuts and was disappointed to find that only one of the slabs really were St Louis cuts the other were the shape of a St Louis cut but contained way too much of the area that I would call rib tips. I took the membrane off of both and seasoned with a pretty basic Memphis rub so as to compliment but not overwhelm the ribs. I didn’t want to risk saucing the ribs and losing the differences in the Pork. I cooked the racks whole on the larger of my two WSM’s and was shocked at the difference in taste. The Berkshire had more marbled fat in it and was so much more tastier that I don’t know that I will go the Swifts ever. (I may try this again against the IBPs at Sams that many talk more highly of on this board).
I have been wanting to try Berkshire for a couple of years since reading about it in Cooks Illustrated. I wasn’t willing to pay the premium for it having to ship it to get it but now that I can find it relatively close I may have to reevaluate my stand on frozen meat to get better tasting pork.
Also did a taste test with some Premium Standard farms pork chops against the Berkshire and the red Wattle. The Berkshire was our favorite but want to experiment more with the red wattle. I hope to get some red wattle ribs and try them against the Berkshire but the supply isnt as regular they said. Does anyone have any experience with Tammworth pork? I recently found it at a winter farmers market and was wondering what experiences others have had but only had their bacon (which was good)
Last week I made my first of which will likely be many pilgrimages to a small town west of Madison WI called Black Earth (we live in Milwaukee a good 2 hours away). There is a butcher called Black Earth Meats that was featured on a public television show called “Wisconsin Foodie” that is part of the slow food movement that sources locally and supplies quite a few Madison area restaurants. You can watch the show online from this link if you are interested it’s a half hour show and this is one of three featured articles that episode.
http://wisconsinfoodie.com/2012/11/07/wisconsin-foodie-preview-pinn-oak-ridge-lamb-farm/
Southwestern Wisconsin is a great place to find lots of locally sourced ingredients and is rich in organic farming. At Black earth meats they have three types of beef and often more than one heritage breed of Pork. When I was there they had Berkshire Pork ( their primary breed I think) and Red Wattle for chops. I also was able to score some also picked up a rack of Berkshire spares. The Berkshire Ribs and chops cost $4.00/lb the Red Wattle was $5.00/lb
I decided on a side by side test of the spareribs from Black earth and what I have get at the grocery store (but not any “enhanced” crap). I wanted to try and make it a fair comparison so I saw spares on sale at the local Piggly Wiggly for 1.69/lb and headed out. Our local Piggly Wiggly gets non enhanced Pork which usually is Farmland and the Butcher said the spares were as well but unfortunately they were all frozen hard so I didn’t think it fair to use them against the fresh Berkshire ones. I tend to be highly prejudicial against frozen meat and it really bugs me when a store advertises fresh meat and they either get it in frozen or store it frozen. Well it was almost noon on Sunday the day I wanted to cook so I went up to Costco and they didn’t have any spares just some Swift St Louis cut ribs so considering the time this was as close as I was going to get to an even comparison for that day I grabbed what looked like the best pack.
I unwrapped the St Louis cuts and was disappointed to find that only one of the slabs really were St Louis cuts the other were the shape of a St Louis cut but contained way too much of the area that I would call rib tips. I took the membrane off of both and seasoned with a pretty basic Memphis rub so as to compliment but not overwhelm the ribs. I didn’t want to risk saucing the ribs and losing the differences in the Pork. I cooked the racks whole on the larger of my two WSM’s and was shocked at the difference in taste. The Berkshire had more marbled fat in it and was so much more tastier that I don’t know that I will go the Swifts ever. (I may try this again against the IBPs at Sams that many talk more highly of on this board).
I have been wanting to try Berkshire for a couple of years since reading about it in Cooks Illustrated. I wasn’t willing to pay the premium for it having to ship it to get it but now that I can find it relatively close I may have to reevaluate my stand on frozen meat to get better tasting pork.
Also did a taste test with some Premium Standard farms pork chops against the Berkshire and the red Wattle. The Berkshire was our favorite but want to experiment more with the red wattle. I hope to get some red wattle ribs and try them against the Berkshire but the supply isnt as regular they said. Does anyone have any experience with Tammworth pork? I recently found it at a winter farmers market and was wondering what experiences others have had but only had their bacon (which was good)
