Marinades can take numerous forms and can be left for long periods to fully infuse the meat with all the spices, liquids and seasonings. That said, some marinade recipes for meats can be left for only short periods before cooking (half an hour to an hour for example) and the below pork marinade is just one of these recipes which you can make and marinade in a relatively short period.

Perfect for pork chops this recipe will bring a zing to your loin steaks and is quick and easy to make using ingredients which you will probably find in your cupboards.

Pork Chops Grilling Marinade

Simple Pork Chop Marinade

2 x fl oz of Soy Sauce

2 x Tablespoons of dark brown sugar (demerara is good)

1 x bulb of chopped garlic

1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger

Simply mix all the ingredients into a secure plastic bag and shake to mix. Place your pork chops into the marinade and tie the bag and then massage the juices into the meat ensuring that all parts of the chop are covered. Leave for half an hour to an hour on your kitchen worktop. This will bring the chops up to room temperature whilst marinading which helps the absorption of the flavours and in addition, will help cooking your pork chops evenly under the grill. Please refer to our Grill Time For Pork Chops for details on how to best grill your chops.

So, how do you go about cooking pork ribs in the oven producing such wonderfully tasty results?

There are a mulitide of methods and recipes to cook ribs in the oven and some considerable preparation which can be conducted upon the ribs to enahnce and infuse the meat with different flavours. A popular method of flavouring your baby back pork ribs is to smoke them using various types of smoking chips, Oak being a truly exceptional flavour for ribs.

But lets say we do not have a smoker and just wish to bake our ribs in the oven without too much fuss but still giving us some tasty, and tender ribs. Below is my twist on a simple yet delicious method of baking ribs in the oven. Ensure that you prepare in advance for this dish though given the cooking times involved which primarily are to ensure that your pork ribs fall off the bone yet are still succulent and full of flavour.

Basic Oven Cooked Pork Ribs with BBQ Sauce

Sticky Oven Baked Pork Ribs

1. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees

2. Brush the ribs with some BBQ sauce (BBQ ketchup or a purpose bought BBQ sauce)

3. Place the ribs in an oven proof roasting tray (if they are too long simply cut into sizable pieces to fit)

4. Make up some pork stock from a stock cube (usually 1 cube to 1 pint of stock)

5. Pour the stock into the roasting tray to a depth of 1cm (reserve the remaing for later)

6. Cover with tight fitting foil and bake in the oven for 2 and half hours turning once halfway through cooking (top up the liquid with remaining stock at the halfway point if needed).

7. After 2 and a half hours remove the foil and coat with more BBQ sauce and bake in the oven for a further 15 mintues, turn baste with BBQ sauce and roast for a further 15 minutes.

After 3 hours of cooking in the oven your BBQ pork ribs will now be succulent (from the steaming) and tender (3 hour cooking time). Leave to rest for 5 minutes covered loosly with the foil and then eat!

Grilling Perfect Pork Chops

One of the most common mistakes in cooking pork chops is cooking them to long. They become dry and hard and lack any succulence given all the moisture from the meat has been removed through over cooking. Therefore, the first tip to mention is that the thickness of your chops is the key to ensuring at what temperature you cook your meat.

Thin pork chops (around half an inch thick) will require a higher heat setting whereas a thicker pork chop (an inch or more) will require a medium grill setting. Given a thicker pork chop will need longer to cook through it is this reason why anything over an inch thick will require longer more sustained cooking over a medium grill. Thick chops can be cooked quickly over a heat heat. Below are the grill times for pork chops with the bone in relating to the two most common thicknesses.

Grilling Thin Pork Chops Bone in

1. Set your grill to the highest grill setting and wait for it to reach optimum temperature.

2. Carefully place the chops on the grill rack/pan and give them 2 minutes under the grill

3. After 2 minutes, rotate the chops 90 degrees (do not turn, just rotate this gives great ‘grill lines’) and leave for a further 1 minute.

4. Carefully turn over your pork chops and give a further 1 minute before again turning 90 degrees for 1 further minute.

Cooking time for a thin (half an inch) pork chop is around 5 minutes

Grilling Thick Pork Chops Bone in

1. Set the grill to the highest setting and allow to heat up.

2. Carefully place the pork chops onto the grill rack and give them 1 minute at this high heat.

3. After the first minute turn over the chops and give another 1 minute.

4. Rotate the chops (90 degrees as before) and turn down the grill to a medium setting and cook for 3 minutes.

5. Turn over the chops whilst also rotating them and cook for a further 4 minutes.

Cooking time for a thicker (over an inch) pork chop will be around 9 minutes in total.

The final, and in my mind the most significant part of successfully grilling great pork chops, is to allow the chops to ‘rest’ after cooking. The meat has been through quite an ordeal and needs time to recover and reabsorb it’s juices. Simply take from the grill and place onto a plate and loosely cover with tin foil. Leave for 4-5 minutes by which time the juices will have redistributed themselves back into the meat leaving you with soft, succulent and great tasting pork chops!

Pork Loin Boned and Rolled

Timings of your pork loin cooking will depend very much upon the size and weight of your joint and whether or not it is boneless or with the bone in. However a simple test is to regularly check your joint with a skewer placing the implement into the deepest section of the loin and watching the flowing juices – if they are clear then no further cooking is required, if they are slightly pink or a darker red then obviously more cooking is required.

As a guide you should be looking at around 20-23 minutes per pound for a boneless joint and around 20 minutes per pound for a bone in joint. You may wish to think about the value of purchasing a meat thermometer, these are really useful in any kitchen enabling you to know exactly how hot the meat is inside, you can then check this temperature against a cooking guide which allows you to take the guessing game out of cooking your joints of meat. They are relatively inexpensive and will be a well implement in your future cooking.

If you do not wish to invest in a meat temperature gauge to get a better idea of your roast pork loin cooking times then simply use the above as a guide and check every now and then with a skewer.

The most common way of preparing baby back pork ribs is to boil the ribs for around 45 mintutes in boiling water. This in effect further tenderises the ribs and cooks them through. Once cooked, drained and cooled (they are best left overnight in the refrigerator) they will then requiring roasting in a hot oven.

Tender Succulent and Sticky Pork Ribs!

Place the ribs into an appropriate ovenproof dish and cover with tin foil and cook at around 250 degrees for 3 hours. Once cooled, it is now time to add your seasonings whether that is via some form of tasty sauce spread over the ribs or dry seasoning which ever you will then need to place the ribs under the a medium grill for around 4 minutes or until they are slightly crispy (but not burnt!).

If you are using a sauce take care when grilling your pork ribs that the heat setting is moderate and not too hot otherwise you will simply burn the sauce leaving the ribs underneath slightly soggy.

Quite a protracted process I know, to get the ribs to the grill, but well worth the effort!

Buy a Boneless Joint and Slice Into Chops!

Loin of pork can be either grilled as chops or roasted in a joint and the time taken to cook through thoroughly is very much dependent upon the thickness of the steaks.

On average a 1″ thick pork loin will need around 4 minutes under a medium grill on each side, be careful not to overcook though given pork chops have a tendency to dry out if over cooked, if you are concerned with the cooking times using the grill simply probe with a skewer and look at the resulting flowing juices from the hole, if they run clear then your chops are cooked through.

A top tip when purchasing boneless pork chops separately, is to purhcase a whole boneless loin joint and slice it yourself, You will notice the price increase per pound for pre cut boneless chops compared a rolled loin joint, why pay the extra for this when it is very simple to slice the loin into chops yourself!

As with all meat cooking, how to cook pork depends on what cut of the animal you are cooking, the size and equipment being used. There are several popular cuts of pork staring with the shoulder, this is part of the pig which is constantly active and therefore is not as tender as other parts of the body. As a consequence, shoulder meat tends to be use mostly in casseroles although the shoulder can be boned and rolled resulting in a rolled shoulder cut which can be roasted to good effect. In some countries the foot or ‘trotter’ is also used and cooked for long periods and is considered a delicacy along with the head. In most cases however, the head meat is used in sausages which we will come onto in a moment.

Pork Cuts Diagram

Pork chops are a common favourite of many which can be grilled or roasted and are quick to cook. The pork chops are located along the spine of the pig and just nestled within the opposite side of the spine is the most tender cut of pork, the pork tenderloin. This is the ‘fillet steak’ of the pig and is used in more delicate recipes which require ultra tender meat which can be easily and quickly cooked, perfect for stir Fry’s and medallions.

Other cuts are the baby back ribs or spare ribs which are a lovely addition to your BBQ or equally tasty basted with a sauce and grilled. As mentioned earlier probably the most famous of the pork dishes is the traditional pork sausage. Usually mode from shoulder and off cut meat mixed with cereals and spices and a defined level of added pork fat makes for some hearty breakfasts.

Finally, we come to the legs of pork. These can be boned and rolled or with the bone in to be roasted in the oven. The leg meat is relatively tender and can also be used for pork escalopes or a more tender casserole pork.

As you can see pork is amazingly versatile and comes packed full of flavour and is also relatively cheap compared to other cuts of meat therefore represents value for money whilst being simple to cook. For lots of pork cooking ideas and tips check out our cooking pork section where you will find a host of ideas to help you get the best of what pork has to offer you and your family.