Will pork, by any other name, still fill my grill?

Now for the ceremonial changing of the grill.

Each year, about this time, I roll my charcoal grill from its wind-sheltered winter quarters in front of my garage to its summer position on the back patio. A whiff of fresh cut grass. The first neighborhood kid in a swimsuit. I know it's time.

It's a ritual that has endured. But not all is unchanged in grilltopia.

Last month, the National Pork Board announced that several cuts of pig are getting new names. Apparently, according to exhaustive consumer research, shoppers get confused by names such as “pork rib chop” or “pork loin chop” or “top loin chop.” Shoulders shrug at the “Boston butt.”

So pork, which once claimed to be the “other white meat," will now borrow its cut names from beef. The loin chop becomes a “porterhouse chop.” Rib chops are “ribeye chops” and top loin becomes a “New York chop.” New York pork?

That big ‘ol punch line of a pork cut, Boston butt, becomes a more refined “Boston roast.”

Cook chops like steak, pork producers insist.

Agreed. But what will become of our famously thick “Iowa chop?” Symbol of our pork supremacy.

Could presidential candidates visiting the Iowa State Fair really prove their Midwest bone-a-fides by flipping something called a porterhouse? Would Iowa face the same fate as Kansas City, which watched its famous strip steak go all New York? Will RAGBRAI's “Mr. Pork Chop” have to alter his smoky siren's song?

“We're still calling it the Iowa chop,” said Ronald Birkenholz, spokesman for the Iowa Pork Producers. In Iowa, at least, the one-and-a-half-inch thick center cut loin chop will continue to go by Iowa chop, as it has since the 1970s.

Still, it seems like an odd time to make pork sound more like beef.

We're in the midst of a pork renaissance. A number of producers are returning to Iowa's farming roots by raising Berkshire hogs and other traditional breeds on smaller farms. Great restaurants are gobbling up their delicious cuts, by any name.

Chefs across the country are going full nose to tail, preparing dishes from parts I didn't even know were edible. If pig tails, for instance, catch on, what do we call them? Flank twists? America, at last report, remains wrapped in bacon.

And with our right wing and left wing girding their loins for endless battle, isn't a center cut chop exactly what America needs?

Remember, marinate liberally. Grill conservatively.

Also, here's a recipe

for Bourbon-brined pork chops. Good stuff.