It helps to have a butcher who will offer these mega-thick cuts: Piedmont grocery puts up for sale a special porkchop that's almost three inches thick, and upon request they will cut a deep pocket into the sucker. In a mixing bowl I combine meatloaf (I originally used pork sausage, and in a senior moment mentioned that as an ingredient in the parent post, but I find that Piedmont's meatloaf serves as a much more malleable substrate) with diced onions, diced canned mushroom slices (in another senior moment I forgot to mention the mushrooms), pine nuts, dried cranberries (rather like raisins; available at Piedmont Grocery and sundry other merchants within a five-mile radius; may not be put up for sale in certain states in the Midwest), feta cheese (optional), the whole kneaded and mixed with a generous several squooshes of BBQ sauce—oddly enough, we generally use the "Safeway Select Hickory Smoke" house brand, which somehow has eluded the attention of the ADM police and does not include high-fructose corn syrup, which the SO cannot endure, in its roster of ingredients. I don't specify the portions or proportions, but the meatloaf at the end should feel itself very nearly overwhelmed by the other ingredients. The aforementioned components having interpenetrated in the mixing bowl, I spoon them into the porkchop cavities—the finished product can be ludicrously thick, and frequently have to be secured by means of jumbo toothpicks—and usually slather the surface of the meat with the BBQ sauce. The assembled chops are placed precariously upright (slit skyward) in a foil-lined baking dish in a preheated oven at between 375-400° F and cook for about an hour. We generally serve this with a shallow dish in which sour cream and horseradish ("prepared" rather than "cream," and for choice the jars that are put out for sale in the refrigerated section) have been blended in a ratio of approximately 1.5:4.

I'd be interested in hearing about it should this rather approximate recipe find favor.

cordially,

I'm sensitive to this because the SO is violently allergic to corn in all its forms. The "Juice Squeeze" line of bottled beverages seems largely free of HFCS, and Piedmont G offers several regional brands of sugar-based soft drinks, probably unavailable in your area (although their "Dad's Root Beer" is also an ADM no-fly zone for some reason).

I seem to recall reading that, NAFTA notwithstanding, Mexico still attempts to protect its domestic sugar industry, and that in consequence ADM has not yet overwhelmed their soft drinks. I haven't researched this, so some Googling would probably be prudent, but a local Mexican restaurant we patronize sells name-brand sodas bottled in Mexico that do not, so far as I can parse and translate the listed ingredients, include HFCS in any language. If you have a Hispanic district in your area, you may be able to pick up imported "kid pleasers" at the ethnic retailers.

cordialisimo,

...by the SO that she would cook those porkchops for at least 75 or more likely 90 minutes, and reminds me that she has generally forced the issue hereabouts to at least the 75-minute mark. I acknowledge this, and observe that the chop should be pink/white and not red/pink when it emerges from the oven.

cordially,