“Firecracker Applesauce” is a dish that was created by celebrity chef David Burke for the Maloney & Porcelli restaurant in Manhattan in 1996. “Crackling Pork Shank with Fire Cracker Apple Sauce” is also served at Smith & Wollensky restaurants, with the applesauce served in a Mason jar.
 
“Firecracker Applesauce” has been imitated with a dish (see below) titled “Apple-Pepper Chops with Sizzling Applesauce.”
 
   
Food Network
Crackling Pork Shank with Fire Cracker Apple Sauce
Recipe courtesy Maloney and Porcelli Restaurant
Show:  Food Network Specials
Episode:  Home Food Advantage
   
1 pound sugar
2 pounds salt
4 pork hind shanks
4 pounds lard
2 pounds sauerkraut
1 quart Pineapple Mustard Glaze, recipe follows
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup chives
Firecracker Applesauce, recipe follows
 
Mix together sugar and salt. Score skin on the pork shanks and dust generously with salt and sugar. Place in the refrigerator and let cure for 24 hours.
Slowly melt the lard in a large saucepan to 225 degrees F. Add the pork shanks and cook for 2 1/2 hours, or until done. Carefully remove from the heat and cool.
 
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
 
Place the pork in a baking pan and bake for 10 minutes.
 
Heat the lard to 350 degrees F. Add the pork to the oil and fry until crispy.
While pork is frying, add sauerkraut to a saucepan and heat. Add 1 cup of the pineapple mustard glaze, poppy seeds, salt, pepper, and chives and remove from the heat. In a separate pan, reheat the remaining pineapple mustard sauce.
 
On 4 large plates, arrange sauerkraut and top with crispy pork. Drizzle pineapple glaze on side, and don’t forget the Firecracker Applesauce
 
Firecracker Applesauce:
12 Granny Smith apples, cored and chopped with skins, plus 4, diced, for garnish
2 serranos, chopped, plus 4 whole serranos, for garnish
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 quart apple cider
 
Put all ingredients except for garnishes in a saucepan. Cover and simmer until apples are tender. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf. Puree ingredients in blender or with a hand mixer.
Strain through a fine sieve while sauce is still hot. Add diced apples. Cool applesauce. Garnish with serrano peppers and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, to taste.
 
davidburke & donatella
Crackling Pork Shank with Firecracker Applesauce
(serves 6)
- from David Burke’s New American Classics
(...)
Firecracker Applesauce
6 cups, chopped unpeeled Granny Smith apples
1 cup chopped seedless Serrano chilies
1⁄4 cup cider vinegar
1⁄2 tsp coarse salt
1 whole clove
1 bay leaf
1 2-inch cinnamon stick
2 cups finely diced, peeled Granny Smith apples
 
Combine the chopped apples, chilies, vinegar, salt, clove, bay leaf, and cinnamon stick in a large, heavy-duty saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 15 minutes, or until the apples are falling apart and the mixture has reduced by half. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Stir in the finely diced apples and pour into a nonreactive container. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
 
Gayot.com - New York, NY
Maloney & Porcelli
37 E. 50th St. (Madison & Park Aves.)
New York, NY 10022
212-750-2233
(...)
The seafood is okay, but the crackling pork shoulder with firecracker applesauce is a tour de force—-a glistening piece of meat that is utterly sinful.
   
Gayot.com - Chicago, IL
Smith & Wollensky
Marina City
318 N. State St. (Kinzie St.)
Chicago, IL 60610
312-670-9900
(...)
The house specialty, crackling pork shank with sauerkraut and firecracker applesauce, could give a cardiologist nightmares—-and is big enough for two.
   
Cooks Recipes
Maple-Pepper Chops with Sizzling Applesauce
4 pork chops, 1-inch thick
1/3 cup thawed apple juice concentrate
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons dry sage, crumbled (or 1/4 cup fresh sage, snipped)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
Sizzling Applesauce (recipe follows)
In large self-sealing bag, mix together the apple juice concentrate, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, sage, salt and pepper. Add pork chops and seal bag; refrigerate 4 to 24 hours.
Prepare Sizzling Applesauce while chops marinate.
Prepare a medium-hot fire in a charcoal or gas grill; remove chops from marinade (discard any remaining marinade) and grill over direct heat for a total of 10 to 15 minutes, turning once. Serve with Sizzling Applesauce.
Serves 4.
 
Sizzling Applesauce:
In a medium saucepan, combine 3 large Granny Smith apples (cored and sliced), 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1 whole clove, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 jalapeno chile* (cored, seeded and cut in half). Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until apples are soft. Remove from heat; discard clove and cinnamon stick. Puree mixture in food processor. Cover and let cool at room temperature up to 3 hours or, if making ahead, cover and refrigerate for up to one week.
 
*Wear rubber gloves when handling hot chiles.
Recipe and photograph provided courtesy of Pork, The Other White Meat.
   
New York (NY) Times 
November 1, 1996, Friday
Restaurants
By RUTH REICHL
(...)
Occasionally the gimmicks work. Crackling pork shank, for instance, is an original and delicious dish, a great ball of meat (it weighs two and a half pounds before cooking), deep fried until the skin turns into cracklings, then slowly roasted. The result is an enormous mound of tender pork, wrapped in its own crisp skin and served on an aromatic bed of poppy-seed-sprinkled sauerkraut. It is far more meat than most people can eat at one sitting, but it is every bit as appealing consumed cold the next day. Too bad the firecracker applesauce (in the Mason jar, with a whole chili pepper on top) has the disconcerting texture of baby food.
(...)
Maloney & Porcelli
*
37 East 50th Street, Manhattan, (212) 750-2233
Ambiance: The former Gloucester has been stripped down to a comfortable, wood-toned, masculine room decorated with eagles and filled with lawyers.
Service: Very smooth and professional (although there are few large tables and parties of more than four often have to wait).
Recommended dishes: Crab cakes, shellfish, Caesar salad, salmon pastrami, crackling pork shank with firecracker applesauce, swordfish London broil, grilled rib eye, sirloin steak, steamed lobster, drunken doughnuts, cheesecake, profiteroles with caramel ice cream and hot fudge.
   
Google Groups: alt.vacation.las-vegas
Newsgroups: alt.vacation.las-vegas
From: David Berman

Date: 1998/12/24
Subject: David’s Trip Report - Day 8
   
An especially unique dish is Crackling Pork Shank, which has been labeled by USA Today as its #1 Dish in America. The shank is enveloped in a crunchy fried coating of pork, which makes the normally tough shank very tender. The dish is served with Firecracker Applesauce, which contains jalapeno chilies.
   
All About Food!
Steakhouses nationwide go upscale
Posted on Sep. 19th, 2007 at 01:17 pm
(...)
And David Burke became chef at Maloney & Porcelli in New York. There, he “put the chef’s touch to the steakhouse,” he says, by studding the bedrock chops menu with quirky creations such as jars of “firecracker applesauce,“ salmon pastrami and massive pork shanks.