Black Applesauce and Pork

Alexis de Tocqueville, 175 years ago, warned a democratic republic could degenerate into tyranny more intolerable than any of the Europe’s monarchies. As power and wealth became centralized and concentrated he prophetically observed:

“…the sovereign extends it arms over society as a whole. It covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; …it rarely forces one to act, but constantly opposes itself to one’s acting; it does not destroy, it prevents things from being born, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd.”

In an August Rasmussen poll, a shocking 69 percent of likely voters no longer believe the federal government governs with the consent of the people. I copped the above quotation from a short article by Jeffry H. Anderson, writing on the topic in the Weekly Standard. (Full text here) In a similar vein Myron Magnet, writing in the City Journal, thoughtfully outlines how we’ve reached this point. (Full text here)

I bring this up because I fear that with my regular rants on the mindless, numbing tyranny of the federal government that I may be becoming something of a crackpot. And while this may true, I take comfort in knowing that at least I am not alone. I am proudly one of the 69 percenters.

Now I shall turn my attention to more pleasant things – black applesauce and pork.

Black apple sauce is a good thing, but you must rethink apple sauce. This isn’t anything like the ready to eat apple sauce that comes in a jar. In Tocqueville’s words that processed applesauce on the grocer’s shelf has been hindered, compromised, enervated, extinguished, and dazed into an insipid mush that only vaguely suggests its beginnings were in something as glorious as an apple.

Instead my applesauce is apples, cider and in this case some balsamic vinegar with a hint of Chinese Five Spices. It’s an autumn celebration – good harvest from the land. It is an ad-lib concoction I made to lather on breaded pork cutlets. And oh my, the balsamic vinegar was a happy stroke of blind genius.

An important note here – balsamic vinegar is a product of Italy and somewhere the label should read Aceto Balsamico di Modena. It should be added just prior to serving so that its aroma carries through to the finished sauce.

For reasons unknown to me, pork and apples marry so well. Sweet/Sour and pork can be perfect. And it’s all so easy.

2 baseball sized apples – pealed, cored and diced into pea sized pieces

¼ cup of apple cider (from the orchard and not reconstituted apple juice from the supermarket}

¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar

½ teaspoon Chinese Five Spices

Pork cutlets, thinly sliced, breaded and sautéed in butter.

For the sauce: cover the chopped apples with a 50/50 mix of cider and cider vinegar, season to taste with the five spices. Bring to a slow boil and allow the apple to cook and soften for about thirty minutes. Add liquid as necessary balancing sweet and sour to taste. Just prior to serving add the Balsamic vinegar.

Serve hot over the pork schnitzel.