Cincinnati Porkburgers, March 3, 2015

Last night, we had a nice, home-y dinner of porkburgers (I made ours mini, but will give the full-sized recipe here), egg noodles, and honeyed acorn squash with crushed pineapple, pecans, and cherries. The acorn squash was basically dessert---oh, so delicious! I was pretty skeptical of the porkburgers. I've had the recipe for years, copied down from a creaky old Cincinnati cookbook, the kind where all the recipes are from women who don't have their own names, but are listed as, for example, Mrs. John Taylor and Mrs. George Smith. I wasn't skeptical of the pork aspect, but of the fact that they are cooked in prune juice and port wine. I'd never had prune juice, but it does have a rather bad reputation and, if you recall, I have a thing about sweet and meat together. However, they turned out to be quite tasty and not at all too sweet.

Cincinnati Porkburgers

1 lb. ground pork

1 c. flour

1 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 c. prune juice

1/2 c. port wine

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds

Form meat into 4 patties. Mix flour, mustard, salt, and pepper. Dredge burgers in flour mixture. Brown on both sides in olive oil (I'm sure you could also just use cooking spray---the original recipe called for bacon grease). Add prune juice, port, and caraway. Cover and simmer on lower heat for 45 minutes, adding water if necessary. Serves 4. 

Honeyed Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, halved

1/4 c. butter, melted (this can be omitted)

4 tbsp. crushed pineapple

2 tbsp. honey (or to taste)

2 tbsp. chopped pecans

2 tbsp. dried cherries

Place squash, cut-side-up, in a microwave-safe dish. Microwave on high until softened, about 10 minutes. Mix everything else together and spoon into squash halves. Microwave on high another minute. Serves 2.