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Pork Tenderloin Marinade

post #1 of 12
1/1/07 at 1:30pm
Thread Starter 
Should you cook the tenderloin in it's marinade sauce? Or should it be discarded? Or.... should you boil it and use it to baste the tenderloin while it is cooking in the oven?
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post #2 of 12
1/1/07 at 1:42pm
Tenderloin is not best suited to braising. Nor would I baste it. Of all these things, I'd inject it with a flavorful solution, then roast.

Phil
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post #3 of 12
1/1/07 at 1:48pm
Welcome to Chef Talk, AButler.

What's in the marinade? I wouldn't cook either type in its marinade but then I don't know every recipe for making it either. :D

If you want the tenderloin to be roasted, take it out of the marinade and pat it dry. You can put a bit of oil on it (olive or vegetable depending on the flavors you're using), put it in a baking/roasting pan and bake it.

If you're grilling it you'd do the same. I don't turn the meat until the first side looks like I'd want to eat it. Then I turn it over and check the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer to be sure it's not overdone.

If you cook it in the marinade it's likely to have an undesireable texture (mushy maybe?) and might be over-flavored.
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post #4 of 12
1/1/07 at 1:49pm
Let's put it this way: if you cook the meat in its marinade, you'll steam it, not roast it. Not very pretty. Even if you drain the meat, dry it, brown it, and then add the marinade back, as Phil says you'll be braising it, which is indeed not the best way to treat tenderloin.

What's in your marinade? That can make a difference as to whether -- or how -- you can use it once the meat is out.

Best thing to do is drain off the marinade and dry the meat (paper towels). Then you can quickly brown the meat on top of the stove before sticking it in the oven to finish cooking. Since pork tenderloin cooks so quickly, you might not have enough time to baste it: iirc, raw marinade used to baste has to cook for at least 15 minutes. If you boil the marinade first, it will be safer, but still might not really add much to the meat.

If you strain the raw marinade and use it as part of a pan sauce (deglaze the pan after you remove the meat and set it aside to rest), you'll still have to cook it long enough to take care of any bad stuff. But then you may have a problem with the proteins in the marinade (in the form of meat juices that leached out of the tenderloin) clumping up and turning ugly-looking. So you might just as well discard the marinade after all.
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post #5 of 12
1/1/07 at 1:59pm
Thread Starter 
These are the ingredients that are in the marinade:

Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry red wine
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 green onions (green parts only), chopped

And here are the instructions for roasting..... not too informative. I'm just not sure what to do with the marinade. Thanks for your help!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 45 minutes or until meat is 145 degrees F when measured with an instant-read thermometer.
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post #6 of 12
1/1/07 at 2:20pm
AButler, that sounds delicious! Suzanne and Phil nailed it: take it out of the marinade before roasting.

Let us know how it comes out!

Mezzaluna
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post #7 of 12
1/1/07 at 4:33pm
If you tried to use your marinade as a sauce you'd probably find that, because of the protein it picked up from the meat, your sauce would be cloudy. Personally, I wouldn't try to use the marinate recipe you describe here for a sauce.
Even though a marinade can be used as a basting liquid or sauce, it must be cooked thoroughly to kill destroy bacteria it might have picked up from the raw meat. But, as others have pointed out, I don't believe you'd want to braise or stew a pork tenderloin. There is a French dish that uses its marinade for stewing (Boeuf en Daube) but it uses beef, not pork, and the marinade is boiled for an appropriate length of time to destroy bacteria before it is used to stew the meat.
I've seen some recipes where the marinade was used to baste meats whild BBQing but, here again, the marinade is boiled for an appropriate length of time to kill any of those nasty bugs before it is used as a basting liquid.
Remember too that you have a lot of sugar in this marinade recipe. Sugar burns so, even as a basting liquid, it would only be used during the final stages of cooking to prevent burning.:chef:
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post #8 of 12
3/4/07 at 5:14pm
One of my favorite Chinese recipes is for Barbecued Pork which uses marinade in the cooking process.

CHINESE BARBECUED PORK

2 wholepork tenderloins (about 12 ounces or 340 g each)
1/4 C (60 ml) soy sauce
2 T (30 ml) dry red wine
1 T (15 ml) brown sugar
1 T (15 ml) honey
2 tsp (10 ml) red food coloring (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green onion, cut in half.

Remove and discard fat from meat.

Combine soy sauce, wine, sugar, honey, food coloring, cInnamon, garlic and onion in large bowl. Add pork, turning tenderloins to coat completely. Cover and let stand at room temperature 1 hr or refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally.

Drain pork, reserving marinade. Place pork on wire rack over baking pan.

Bake in preheated 350 degree F (180 degree C) oven until done - - about 45 minutes. Turn and base frequently during baking.

Remove pork from oven. Let set 10 minutes and cut into diagonal slices.

You can also cool the tenderloin and garnish with gereen onion curls making about 8 appetizer servings.

This recipe is from the Consumer Guide Chinese Cooking Class Cookbook.
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post #9 of 12
3/4/07 at 5:39pm
Yep, that's Cha Shu/Char Sil and many other spellings. It's better though with pork butt/picnic as it has enough fat to stay moist. You do have more prep work to trim it to an appropriate shape before cooking. The boneless country style pork ribs are a good compromise. Plenty of fat, and already in an acceptable shape. Just not evenly shaped.

If you find the Lee Kum Kee Char Shu marinade, it's a great shortcut to this roast "barbecue".

Phil
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post #10 of 12
3/4/07 at 6:44pm
I use a simple marinade that a Greek chef taught me and I always discard it after marinading (usually 4-8 hours). You might give this a try: Great for grilling. I use it for pork and chicken.

1/2 Olive Oil (Notice I DID NOT SAY EVO? LOL)
1/2 fresh lemon juice
alot of fresh garlic
pepper
and 1/2 cup oregano (I know it seems like a lot but it's right)
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post #11 of 12
3/5/07 at 4:50am
I've used a similar recipe like before and it is tasty. I tried it b/c it was kinda like souvlakia, but i wanted to do bigger pieces of meat, not skewers.
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post #12 of 12
6/15/07 at 11:23am
I'm not going to add too much more on the subject of what to do with your marinade. I think it's pretty well been covered what you ought to do with it & how to treat your tenderloin. Just wanted to make the suggestion of brining. You can use all yoiur marinade ingredients with the addition of h2o & an *** load of salt. Makes poke really succulent.
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