Escalope in Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 lb pork meat , slices of a quarter of an inch thick
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 oz butter
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- balsamic vinegar to taste
- salt to taste
Ask your butcher to cut the pork meat into ¼ inch slices. Pound the meat using a meat-pounder until very thin.
Lightly flour each slice and shake off excess flour. Place a frying pan over medium heat. Add the oil and butter.
Once the butter has melted, brown the meat for 15 minutes making sure that it is golden on both sides. When done cooking, season the meat with salt, remove it from the heat and drizzle a couple drops of traditional balsamic vinegar from Modena on top. Serve hot so that the aroma of the vinegar is released.
Food History
Today, domesticated pigs are raised to make all kinds of salumi and meat dishes, although the pigs once lived in the wild like boar. In ancient times, pigs were considered a precious beast. In fact, in the first century B.C.. Marco Terenzio Varrone wrote: “It is believed that nature gave man pork so that he could live in abundance.” It is well known that pigs are valuable because you can eat the whole animal, head to tail, but it is lesser known that in ancient Rome, these animals were a symbol of peace. When a peace agreement was signed between warring nations, a pig was slaughtered. Pigs were also slaughtered at the weddings of kings and of illustrious people.
In Rome, pork was so widely consumed that Pliny the Elder wrote that over 20,000 pigs were sent from Tuscany destined to end up on the table of the Emperor.
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