Fat: As Nature Intended

Fat: as natural as Cape le Grand National Park's rock formations

In an episode of “Chef at Home”, Michael Smith sautés his pork chops in a covered saucepan and over a smaller fire to keep the meat from drying out and turning tough. And we’ve to do so as pigs are now farmed to produce leaner muscle. But that takes the fun out of the frying process for me: I love to watch and hear the meat sizzle.

So I’ve replaced my chops with pork belly in all its glory – wobbling in fat and covered in pinkish skin. Boy, can I sear it in high heat! And the crispy crunchy lip smacking crackling that gets laid on blissfully contrasts with the lip-smacking melt-in-your-mouth juices-dripping cut. And it’s perfection whether thickly glazed with warm sweet orange marmalade or flawlessly smothered with savoury crushed tomatoes liberally spliced with garden-fresh basil.   

Fat is the greatest natural tenderizer and packs such lush inherent flavour into a cut of meat; the very reason why well-marbled rib eye is highly priced. And when it’s superbly cooked in the French tradition, its veins of fat lavishly soak up the red wine sauce. Biting into it compares well with a pampering of the senses while wine tasting in Burgundy.