Hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ chicken, brats, all staples of the 4th of July grill. Indiana pork farmers suggest some alternatives as you finalize the Independence Day menu. One of the benefits to putting pork on the grill is how quickly it becomes ready to eat, according to Jeanette Merritt with Indiana Pork.
“Taking pork chops and putting them on the grill, you’ll have a meal done very quickly,” she said. “Ten or fifteen minutes and your pork chops are done, make a nice little side and dress them up a little bit and you don’t have to stand at the grill all day. You can hang out with your friends, your family and you’ll have a meal done in minutes.”
For breakfast on the 4th of July, Indiana Pork has a recipe on their Fork More Pork website for ham and cheese muffins, delicious, easy and quick.
“You can make them the night before if you don’t want to make them that morning, and then just warm them up. But, they can be ready in twenty minutes from baking them in your oven and they have ham and cheddar cheese and all your typical muffin ingredients. It’s a really good, complete breakfast that doesn’t dirty too many dishes.”
And for later in the day she says pork shish kabobs are fun to eat and fun to make.
“It’s something that you can involve your kids to do,” Merritt said. “Kids really like to make their own, so you can take your pork loin, chunk it up and then do with it whatever you want. Our online recipe has some options, but maybe your family doesn’t like onions or peppers and they’d rather use pineapple on it, or they’d rather do something different. So, kids can kind of make an assembly line and make those however they want to eat them, whatever is tasty to them, and then it’s always fun for them to eat too because you are kind of playing with your food, pulling it off the kabob and eating. It’s a really fun, family recipe that everyone can be involved in making.”
Pork on the 4th, your Indiana pig farmers will thank you!