Where and when did the tradition of having applesauce with pork originate?
I’ve searched with Google and the SDMB and cannot find anything
Tahnx
huh.
I had thought it was applesauce and meatloaf.
That started in my junior high cafeteria.
Well, one possibility is that pigs were often traditionally slaughtered in Autumn (before they lose weight though a lean winter, plus the colder days allow the meat to be processed into hams and bacon before it spoils); apples, particularly cooking apples, are quite abundant during this period.
I didn’t know it was a tradition. I just thought they taste great together.
I guess you never watched The Brady Bunch!
I thought it was on The Brady Bunch.
[Peter] Pork chops…and applesauce…gee, that’s shwell. [/Peter]
Porl and apples go well together. One of my cookbooks has a traditional recipe for “Dublin Pork and Apples,” although I have no idea how far this recipe dates back.
Another factor is that acidic sauces have long been served with fatty meats because it was believed that this aided digestion (not sure if there’s any truth in the matter. Before the advent of processed sugar and sweet dessert apples, apple sauce would have been quite sour.
Damn Dins…
That’s one heck of a simulpost (shweetheart!)
…And…
It’s not at all unusual for pigs to be kept in an orchard, or at least released into an orchard periodically; it solves several problems all at once:
-Cleaning up fallen, rotting apples (including June Drops).
-Making more use of limited land
-Keeping the trees fed.
So it’s quite usual that anyone keeping a pig (or several) would also have an orchard; if you have a limited range of ingredients, you tend to try them in all sorts of combinations.
To back up Mangetout’s acidity theory, I have found this lovely ickle site about apples:
Also, having lived in an area of Southern Oregon where apple orchards and critters abound, it was not uncommon to let the pigs, cows and every other critter into the orchards to feed and fertilise 
I have run into a number of people who believed that applesauce should be eaten with pork chops to prevent something ‘unhealthy’ from happening to you. My family back in NY believed that, and my wife’s family here in MA believes that. However, nobody could ever specify exactly what might go wrong if you ate pork chops without the applesauce. It was just something they ‘knew’. I always assumed it was some historically lingering fear of acquiring trichinosis. I’ve never heard of anyone getting sick from eating pork chops without applesauce, and I usually omit the applesauce myself.
Pork chops should be eaten vith kkrrraauuutt! <goose steps around kitchen> applesauce is good, too
I’ve never eaten applesauce with my pork chops except in diners or on airplanes.
Pork chops are to be eaten with cornbread, cabbage, and turnip greens; or, alternatively, with rice, gravy, and green beans.