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Serious Sandwiches: Brooklyn Butcher's Red Cooked Pork Sandwich

Posted by Zach Brooks, March 26, 2008 at 4:00 PM

Photo courtesy of Adam Fields

If you love meat and you love sandwiches, then it doesn't get better than a sandwich made by a butcher. Makes sense, right? I mean, if a guy can take apart an animal, he probably knows how to make it taste delicious. That's all I could think about last night as I stood with 11 other "classmates" at a pig butchering class in the Brooklyn Kitchen (a hipster's Williams Sonoma for New Yorkers who love to cook). The butcher, Tom Mylan, was dissecting half of a 200-plus-pound Berkshire pig, and the 12 of us had paid $75 to watch him do it, ask him anything we wanted, and, of course, divvy up the meat at the end of the show.

My question (aside from how I could get his job): If you were going to make a sandwich from this glorious animal, what part would you use and how would you do it?

Tom Mylan is a butcher in Brooklyn, NY for Marlow & Sons, Diner & Bonita.

About the author: Zach Brooks is the proprietor of Midtown Lunch, where he blogs about affordable lunchtime eats in Midtown Manhattan. The guy knows his sandwiches.

The Brookyn Kitchen

Address: 616 Lorimer St, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (map)
Phone: 718-389-2982
Website: thebrooklynkitchen.com

Tom Mylan's Red Cooked Pork with Asian Slaw on Wonderbread

Ingredients

For the Meat:
4-5 lbs. pork belly (or fatty shoulder)
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
2/3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons salt
5 cloves garlic crushed

For the Slaw:
1 tablespoon red pepper flake or 4 whole chile de arbol
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 small Savoy Cabbage, shredded
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon ground five-spice (cinnamon, coriander seed, cumin, black pepper, clove)
Salt to taste (don't get salt conscious here, people)

Procedure

To make the meat: Cut meat into 2 inch sided squares that are 3/4 inch thick and combine well with all other ingredients in a oven proof container (cast iron skillet, half hotel pan, etc.) and cook at 350°F. After the fat has rendered, toss every 10 minutes (about 1 hour), cooking until dark red and crispy.

To make the slaw: Whisk all ingredients together but cabbage, taste and correct seasoning. Combine with cabbage at least 30 minutes before serving.

To assemble the sandwich: Remove pork from liquid and combine on a white wonderbread bun for a Momofuku-meets-Fette Sau style pork sandwich.

For bonus points, let strained liquid cool in the refrigerator over night, remove fat and reduce to syrup as a deeply flavored barbecue sauce for pork.

2 Comments | Tags: Brooklyn, New York, pork, sandwiches, Serious Sandwiches, Tom Mylan