What's the best way to cook pork chops for around 80?

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Thanks everyone for the great ideas! Wish I could be on here more but I'm working at a camp in the middle of nowhere from 6:30am to 8:00pm and no Internet. I like the beer one Craig! It would work for me but I would prob get fired haha. I'm getting through breakfast and lunch pretty good . It's fairly easy. Pancakes, sausages, French toast etc . (except the Saturday morning cinnamon rolls) Corn dogs nuggets, grilled cheese. It's the suppers I'm struggling with. Tonight was chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans. Thursday night is pork chops. The menu is the same every week so hopefully I will get it before camp is over! LoL Any imput would be greatly appreciated ! I do have some help but mostly with serving and clean up I do most of the prep work.
 
Addie said:
Im working as a cook at a church camp this month and they want home-made cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Saturday mornings.

Cindy

Craig, this is her original post. She is cooking for a church camp. That means daycamp. Kids show up around nine a.m., have a snack, have lunch and go home in the late p.m. in time for supper at home. And since this is a church sponsored camp, you can bet the budget is tight. :)

The kids come in on Monday morning and stay through Saturday morning so I'm cooking 3 meals a day for them plus getting their evening snack. The menu is already made up and the food is already bought. I'm kinda limited on ways to fix the food.
 
No one knows my secret, but let me share it with you. I use Franks Red Hot Original as my chop seasioning. I slather it on and either fry it or bake it. It doesn't get as hot as some may think, but it does have a 'kick'. It also keeps the meat moist. No one has figured it out..yet
 
taxlady said:
That might work for some kids. I would have gone to bed hungry with those suggestions. Squash, pumpkin pie seasoning, glazed carrots, baked beans, bread dressing, sweet sauces, lentils. You have listed some of the things I really despise and despised as a child.

Thanks! I like your Ideas !
 
Hello Cindy4331,
Brine the pork chops for 4-8 hours depending on the thickness (the thicker the chop, the longer time in brine)


Basic recipe:
1 gallon water
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup kosher salt
2 each white onions, rough chop
2 stalks celery, rough chop
1 carrot, rough chop
1/4 cup garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp. black peppercorns
2 each bay leaves
1 tbsp. juniper berries
2 each thyme sprigs
2 each rosemary sprigs
1/4 cup mustard seeds
1 tbsp. cloves
1 tbsp. allspice
1/2 cup coriander seeds


place all ingredients in a large pot, except the fresh herbs. Bring to a boil and remove from heat, and cool in a large icebath. Add the fresh herbs and brine the pork chops for a few hours, depending on the size (4-8 hours is good). Remove pork chops from the brine and marinade in olive oil, smashed garlic cloves, thyme and rosemary. Pan sear or grill.


Sear the chops in a large saute pan over high heat, remove and place on a roasting rack so that the chops are not touching in a single layer. You could mark the pork chops on the grill for added flavor. With either method be careful not to overcook the pork chops, only to mark until brown.


When ready, preheat oven to 500 degrees as the oven temperature will drop substantially when many items are placed inside it. cook the chops to your desired temperature (145 degrees internal temperature is recommended, but not always necessary) , remove from the oven and rest for 3-5 minutes. Serve.


Good luck, and remember, don't stack the pork chops, don't overcook them as they will dry out.
 
She is cooking for a daycamp for kids. Remember, she is the one who asked about the cinnamon rolls. That is when she mentioned the daycamp. Sorry I chided you. But it did make me laugh. :LOL:;)

Umm, I don't remember , because I didn't read that thread, so I could only base my reply on the OP in this one.:rolleyes: I guess assumptions have their way of making the rounds.:neutral:
 
I find my grand kids love sweet things I know, I know sugar:LOL: But it is important to get food down them soooo. I find brown sugar, sliced apples and apple cider or apple juice over the chops might do the trick. My kids also love battered green beans, peas and butter, they have discovered rhutabegas mashed with butter in potatoes yummy, bacon and green beans, rice pilaf just plain rice in browned butter with Mexican fideo browned first then rice added and then chicken broth they gobble this down. I find kids are not so fond of potatoes so rice and especially tiny pastas like the mini bow ties with nothing but butter and a little salt is great to them. Salads not so much depends on what they are given at home but they do love berries, and any kind of fruit.Seasoning for pork a touch of fresh chopped rosemary go easy tho it's strong Brining is fine if you have a lot of time. lemon zest and juice,garlic,salt and pepper,evoo,sage,carrots,pancetta. some thoughts
kadema
 
Last edited:
chayati said:
Hello Cindy4331,
Brine the pork chops for 4-8 hours depending on the thickness (the thicker the chop, the longer time in brine)

Basic recipe:
1 gallon water
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup kosher salt
2 each white onions, rough chop
2 stalks celery, rough chop
1 carrot, rough chop
1/4 cup garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp. black peppercorns
2 each bay leaves
1 tbsp. juniper berries
2 each thyme sprigs
2 each rosemary sprigs
1/4 cup mustard seeds
1 tbsp. cloves
1 tbsp. allspice
1/2 cup coriander seeds

place all ingredients in a large pot, except the fresh herbs. Bring to a boil and remove from heat, and cool in a large icebath. Add the fresh herbs and brine the pork chops for a few hours, depending on the size (4-8 hours is good). Remove pork chops from the brine and marinade in olive oil, smashed garlic cloves, thyme and rosemary. Pan sear or grill.

Sear the chops in a large saute pan over high heat, remove and place on a roasting rack so that the chops are not touching in a single layer. You could mark the pork chops on the grill for added flavor. With either method be careful not to overcook the pork chops, only to mark until brown.

When ready, preheat oven to 500 degrees as the oven temperature will drop substantially when many items are placed inside it. cook the chops to your desired temperature (145 degrees internal temperature is recommended, but not always necessary) , remove from the oven and rest for 3-5 minutes. Serve.

Good luck, and remember, don't stack the pork chops, don't overcook them as they will dry out.

Thank you! Sounds good!
 
Hey Greg I'm cooking at at a church camp the month of June. I work as a cook at school so I'm used to fixing large amounts but we use mostly prepared food. Also I have more to work with. I have volunteers who are in and out to help with some of the cooking. Mostly it's just me though.
 
Hey Greg I'm cooking at at a church camp the month of June. I work as a cook at school so I'm used to fixing large amounts but we use mostly prepared food. Also I have more to work with. I have volunteers who are in and out to help with some of the cooking. Mostly it's just me though.

I was worried that you were jumping in over your head. I'm relieved to know that apparently you have good help and evidently you have most of your day to deal with it.

It sounds like a fun challenge!
 
I was worried that you were jumping in over your head. I'm relieved to know that apparently you have good help and evidently you have most of your day to deal with it.

It sounds like a fun challenge!

Do you have volunteer servers? That can be one of the more difficult parts to do alone, as you have to juggle the cooked food, and serving at the same time to keep everything at temperature. We also had girls assigned to us (girl's camp) to do the dishwashing as we were cooking from 5 a.m. until 6 p.m. and then had to take proper care of left-overs so as to re-purpose them if possible for more meals, i.e. proper containment and refrigeration in a timely manner. As it was, cooking for 200+ kept us busy, non-stop, for about 14 hours per day. And there were two of us doing the cooking.

It's a whole lot of fun when the kids come to you and say things like - I wish my Mom could cook like you guys.

The only problems we had were with adult women who were a bit on edge because we got rave reviews with the kids, while they had received ho-hum reviews in previous years. The kids even made plaques our of pie pans for me and my partner, with a ribbon no less.:LOL:

It was hard work, but made us feel like we really accomplished something. We served wholesome, healthy meals, with varieties of food that the kids hadn't been exposed to, within budget. But then again, we were allowed to create our own menus, as long as we kept withing a set budget.

The kids especially loved the bright, and colorful salads, and were amazed that we could make all of the meals from scratch. It opened their eyes to good food, and maybe pointed them on a better path to home-made meals.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
It's been easier the last couple of days since I now have more help. Last week was a little stressful since I was working mostly by myself. This is my 3rd year working at this camp and I do enjoy it. The last couple years I was just assistant cook but this year the other cook retired and due to finnacial problems they could only afford 1 cook. It does make a long day! The kids do most of the clean up and washing dishes. I just run them thru the dishwasher when they're done.
Hopefully help continues to arrive!! And your right there is no break between meals. As soon as one is done I jump right into the next one!
 
I tried lightly browning and putting in a large roaster but they were a little soggy and the ones on the bottom fell apart when I tried to serve them. Also what would be good for seasoning them? Thanks!

Hi, Cindy. Where can I sign up for this camp? lol. Kudos to you for working so many long hours and days for the kiddos.

Hard to tell w/o seeing the recipe, but my guess is moisture from thawing (were the chops frozen?), too much oil, temp, bone-in or boneless, or the double cooking method.

I have not cooked for 80, so can't help you there.

Planning on pork chops w/ marsala & baby bellas; but that wouldn't be age appropriate.

What you might try is a one-step shake and bake prep, i.e. dipping the chops in beaten egg(s) (or slathering in dijon mustard) and coating w/ bread crumbs or crushed seasoned croutons, grated parmesan, Italian seasonings, & baking until golden and crispy; or, baked with cream of mushroom or french onion soup & sour cream.

Sides could be roasted/baked dijon potatoes, steamed green beans, or sauteed zucchini and yellow summer squash.
 
Cerise said:
Hi, Cindy. Where can I sign up for this camp? lol. Kudos to you for working so many long hours and days for the kiddos.

Hard to tell w/o seeing the recipe, but my guess is moisture from thawing (were the chops frozen?), too much oil, temp, bone-in or boneless, or the double cooking method.

I have not cooked for 80, so can't help you there.

Planning on pork chops w/ marsala & baby bellas; but that wouldn't be age appropriate.

What you might try is a one-step shake and bake prep, i.e. dipping the chops in beaten egg(s) (or slathering in dijon mustard) and coating w/ bread crumbs or crushed seasoned croutons, grated parmesan, Italian seasonings, & baking until golden and crispy; or, baked with cream of mushroom or french onion soup & sour cream.

Sides could be roasted/baked dijon potatoes, steamed green beans, or sauteed zucchini and yellow summer squash.

Him Cerise, the pork chops were frozen . They were brought to me at noon for the 5:00 dinner frozen. I had to do some fast thawing to get them ready for supper. Did I mention I was a little stressed? Haha . Tonight I did the shake and bake thing and they turned out pretty good. A few got a little over cooked but it was easier than last week when I was trying to brown them in a couple of skillets. I think I finally got the ovens figured out. One is a convection which works pretty good and the another one is off 25 degrees and the last one is about 50 degrees hotter than it says. This is week 2 of a 4 week camp so maybe before it's over I'll have it figured out! Lol thanks for your advice! I really appreciate the help!
 
One good bit of advice for anybody who has an oven (that's all of us, right?), get an accessory oven thermometer to monitor your oven's real temperature.

Oven temperature dials cannot be trusted. Maybe they were right once but the settings on the thermostat can change.
 
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