I grew up in Lansing, Michigan and one of my Dad’s favorite restaurants was about an hour away, in Mt. Pleasant. Called “The Embers,” the specialty was a one-pound pork chop. And as you left, they’d give you a little folder with the recipe. We collected a number of them through the years and I often wished I could find one again — I had loved those pork chops and usually requested to go there for my birthday.
Well, The Embers closed its doors several years ago, but I found one of those little recipe folders tucked inside a high school year book just a couple of weeks ago. And so, for our 17th anniversary last week, I made them.
Well, I have to admit that I changed the recipe a bit — who eats a pound of pork any more? But they were still every bit as good as I remembered. So I’m sharing the recipe — but note that this is modified a little from the original to make it a little more “up-to-date” (smaller portion) and “boat friendly.” If you’re curious about all the changes I made, I’ve listed them below the recipe.
And while it’s written for using pork chops, you can also use a pork roast (it’ll take longer to “cook until tender” though), a pork tenderloin or chicken pieces.
Note that this is not a quick meal to make, and it will heat the boat up some with the baking — great on a special but cool day! And a nice “company” meal!
If you have the freezer space, you can also cook up a bunch of the pork chops (or boneless skinless chicken breasts) through the “cook until tender” stage and then freeze them (I like to put one in a one-quart freezer bag, makes it easier to thaw the right number, as well as faster). Then when you want to eat them, you simply the thaw the number you need, make the red sauce and do the final cooking in the oven or grill.
Carolyn’s Variation on The Embers’ Pork Chops
Ingredients
- 4 pork chops (thick cut are best) OR pork roast OR pork tenderloin OR 4 pieces of chicken (bone-in or boneless, skinless are best)
Marinating Sauce
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon molasses
Red Sauce
- 1 cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon dry mustard OR 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
Instructions
- Mix the marinating sauce ingredients in a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Remove from the stove and let cool.
- Place pork chops in a leakproof freezer plastic bag or plastic container with not too much room to spare.
- Pour the marinating sauce over the chops and let them marinate in the refrigerator for about 6 hours (12 hours for a pork roast). Turn occasionally.
- About 2 hours before you wish to eat, remove the chops from the marinating sauce and place in a baking dish.
- Cover very tightly with aluminum foil (if not tightly covered, the chops will be dry).
- Place in oven at 350 degrees F. for about 1-1/4 hours (2+ hours for a roast), until tender.
- As the chops are in their last 15 minutes of baking, mix the red sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then remove from the stove.
- When the chops are tender, remove them one at a time from the baking pan and dip both sides in the red sauce.
- Place them back in the baking pan.
- You have a choice here — you can finish them in the oven, or on the grill.
- Oven: Place pan back in the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes more (still at 350) until the red sauce has become a nice glaze.
- Grill: Remove the chops from the pan and place them on a medium-hot grill for about 5 minutes a side, until the red sauce has become a nice glaze.
Notes
Changes from the original:
- Using smaller pieces of pork and also suggest other cuts or chicken.
- Considerably less marinating sauce — if you use a small container for the meat, there’s not nearly so much wasted marinade.
- No added salt in the marinating sauce — why add more salt to all that soy sauce??
- About half as much red sauce made, again to reduce waste.
- Original red sauce called for both ketchup and chili sauce — my local store does not have chili sauce, so I just used ketchup. Still tasted great!
- Adjusted “bake until tender” time for the smaller chops.
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D and Don svsoutherncross says
CAROLYN
I tried to copy and paste your recipe to keep it, but no avail as it looks delicious. Any suggestions?
D
Carolyn Shearlock says
Use the PDF button under any article to make a copy — you can either save it as a PDF or copy from there. I had to disable copying (by just highlighting and CNTL-C) as robots were copying literally every article on the site and then posting them elsewhere.
Jenny Kenyon says
I love the app “Recipe Keeper”. You can add recipes from websites easily. Best $5 ever spent.
Darlene Price says
I may try the marinade and then grill. I don’t cook anything that long on the boat. We grill thick pork chops all the time. My captain loves anything with ketchup.
SusiiQ says
Hi Carolyn! Thanks for posting this recipe. I grew up in also Lansing and loved the Embers. I’d like to make this recipe, but “marinating sauce” seems rather vague. What type of Marinade did you use?
Carolyn Shearlock says
The ingredients under the words “marinating sauce” and above “red sauce” are the ingredients for the marinade and the ingredients under “red sauce” are the ingredients for the red sauce 🙂
SusiiQ says
LOL. Oh…I see that now. 🙂
Thanks!
Laney Gale says
Sounds delish! I have chili sauce, what is the ratio with ketchup and chili sauce in the original recipe? Thanks!
Jenny Kenyon says
Any recommendations/thoughts about doing this in a slow cooker?
Carolyn Shearlock says
Sure, you could do the long cooking there, then take the pork chops out and finish in the oven with the red sauce. I’d cook them in the marinade in the slow cooker so that they stay moist.
Chad Davis says
My parents used to go to Embers when I was a kid. My dad was a State Trooper so we moved when he was transfered to the U P but my mom made the recipe quite often. The butcher thought she was crazy asking for 1 pound pork chops.
Anyway, I am a chef and wanted to try to make these for my family and I found a copy of an old menu from The Embers that says they are baked for 5 hours. I don’t have an original recipe card and my mom’s recipe has changed over the years and she has shortened the cooking time as well.
I was just wondering if card listed a 5 hour cooking time and what temperature. I am going to try 300 for 5 hours which is similar to how I precook my ribs.
Thanks for sharing your story and the recipe, updates and all
Chef Chad
Carolyn Shearlock says
I’m on the boat and that card is packed away in storage but I remember it was a very slow oven — maybe even 250??