Years ago when Sarah and I were dating I was invited to her Dad’s house for Christmas dinner. He and his 3rd or 4th wife (I forget) cooked a pork loin on their rotisserie way too long and that fucking thing was like eating sawdust. Luckily there was some applesauce on the table so I dipped a cut of my pork loin in there before every bite. I looked around and it seemed to catch on because nobody was saying shit except asking people to “pass the applesauce”.
So here I took the classic pork and apples to another level by making a sandwich using pan-seared, thin cut pork chops seasoned with salt, black pepper and minced rosemary- the buns consisted of assorted apple pastries.
1) Pork Chop and Caramel Empanada from Taco Bell
* First impression: Hello caramel.
* Taste: Lots of caramel upfront, then apple and the pork took the backseat on this one.
* Texture: It was a bit too crumbly for me.
2) Pork Chop and Baked Apple Pie from McDonald’s
* First impression: Now this is a good pie.
* Taste: These pies are seasoned so well that it was hard for the pork to make a presence. The balance was def not on the pork chops side though.
* Texture: Much better than the empanada. When I was deciding which pastries to use for this experiment I had in my mind that McDonald’s still fried these hoes up so I was a little disappointed to learn that they are now baked. When at the drive thru I saw double quarter pounders and double filet-o-fish sandwiches on the menu so it’s obvious they are lightening up the menu a bit.
3) Pork Chop and Apple Toaster Strudels
* First impression: Holy fuck. You have to try this.
* Taste: This. Is. Amazing. Could probably use bacon.
* Texture: PERFECT. Super flaky and a little crunchy from the toast action.
4) Pork Chop and Apple Danishes
First impression: This thing has an unwieldy presence. It’s looks really fucking tough and pissed off. It’s statuesque. I picked it up and imagined myself dislocating my jaw just to take a bite. We had to cut the danish portion down to just one pastry and slice it in half (see below).
Before:
After:
