Last week Syd and I were at Menards in search of the perfect snow shovel.  We found it and also found something else that I had been dying to buy, wood chips for smoking food on a grill.  I bought a bag of Maple chips and last night I put them to use for the first time.

Now, if you’ve been a longtime reader of my blog you probably know that a few years ago I went vegetarian.  I stuck to that fairly well until semi-recently when I realized that it just didn’t make sense for me.  For one thing, vegetarianism has never saved the lives of even a single feed animal.  Animals like cows and pigs that are born to be slaughtered are already dead at the time of conception.  They are bred to be eaten.  It is unfortunate, but it is also unchangeable.  The only remaining question is what is final disposition of the animals bodily remains?  Is it to be eaten by unicellular life forms or multicellular life forms?  No matter what you do, everything that ever lives dies and everything that ever dies is eaten by some other living thing.  This is a fundamental fact throughout the animal kingdom.  Vegetarianism, then, to me, is ineffectual as a decision of conscience (although I do respect those who make that choice, as I see that for them it has internal, rather than external, significance).  For me, I do a little ritual inspired by a Buddhist talk I once heard, in which I take a moment to give my respect to the animal that gave it’s life for the benefit of us, it’s fellow animals.

This means that my decision towards vegetarianism was based on a desire to eat healthier and feel better, two things I find are generally true when I don’t eat meat.  I discovered, over the course of a couple of years, that I do feel good when I eat vegetables, but that I don’t feel enough better to warrant a wholesale exclusion of meat from my diet.  Therefore, I am back on the omnivore bandwagon, although vegetables and tofu will always make up a healthy portion of my diet.

Now, back to the main point.  Last night I had the finest grilling experience of my lifetime.  I made Maple Smoked Pork Chops, barbecue-style.  A few hours before cooking time, I began soaking about 3-4 handfuls of maple chips in water.  When I was ready to go, I lit my charcoal using a chimney starter and newspaper (so as not to imbue the meat with a lighter fluid flavor).  When the coals were good and hot, I placed them in my grill, pushed off to either side for indirect cooking.  Then I took two thick-cut, boneless pork chops and placed them on the grill, in the middle between the two beds of coals.  Next I drained the water from my maple chips and placed even amounts of wet wood on each pile of coals.  The smoke began immediately.  I closed the grill and let it go.

After about 10 minutes I decided to add one more thing.  I poured a small amount of pure maple syrup (the good stuff, the real stuff) into a small bowl, grabbed my basting brush and went back out there.  I basted the chops in maple syrup on both sides, put a little more wood on the coals, and closed it again.  After about 45 minutes they were done.

They were, without a doubt, the best pork chops I have ever eaten in my entire life.  That chop may very well have been the best piece of meat I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.  It was juicy and tender, with a golden brown dark-honey appearance on the outside and pure white on the inside.  The smoke had penetrated beautifully, giving that rich, delicate flavor that only smoking can produce.  I had no idea that a couple of wood chips and a little maple syrup could create such an incredible flavor.  It’s on the menu again for tonight.  Yum yum.

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RyanSutter has content marketing with Arkayne Socialize.

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