Soaked Pork Loin

Pork Tenderloin

How about another recipe that calls for Pork Tenderloin? I think Transylvanian Goulash is quite good.

FWIW, PVD555, you do realize that pork loin and port tenderloin are different cuts? As with all animals, the tenderloins are comparatively small (on a pig they average about a pound to a pound and a quarter), and are the tenderest parts.

Pork loins typically run 9-11 pounds for the whole piece. Most markets divide that into "roasts" running roughly 3-5 pounds.

One way I like making pork tenderloin is to butterfly it, and stuff it with a mixture of sauteed onions and roasted red peppers. Retie it, and sear in a hot pan. Then coat with a peach salsa to make a glaze, and finish in the oven.

I get the salsa in jars from a farm stand in North Carolina. But you can do something similar by cooking down peach nectar until it thickens, and spicing it up to your taste with chopped chilies and other spices.

It's easy to overcook tenderloins, particularly as modern pork has been bred to be less fatty than in the old days.

Pork tenderloin also lends itself to a variation of Veal Oscar, in which you stuff the butterflied tenderloin with a crabmeat mixture.

You can cook the loin whole, or divide it further.

Here's one treatment for a whole loin I learned from the chef at The Forest Retreat, a country inn now defunct. You'll have to play with quantities, because I don't have any:

Governor's Pork The Forest Retreat

1 boneless pork loin
garlic powder
dry mustard
ground cloves
ground allspeice
Salt & pepper
Dash ground ginger

Sprinkle roast liberally with the spices.

Toast at 350F about 45 minutes, fat cap up, until the fat and spices are browned and slightly crusty. Lower heat to 300F. Add 1" water to the pan, cover tightly with foil. Let cook until tender, about 20 minutes or so.

Serve with cherry raisin sauce:

3 cups apple juice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup dried cherries
2 tbls Kirsh
Cornstarch to thicken

Bring all ingredients except cornstarch and Kirsh to boil. Simmer until fruits puff. Thicken with a cornstarch/Kirsh slurry. Serve warm.

You can divide a pork loin into other cuts. For instance, boneless loin pork chops are, in effect, the loin cut into slices 3/4 to an inch thick. So, one thing to keep in mind, is that a pork loin can be sliced that way and used with any pork chop recipe.

For example, I recently made an adaptation of Rachael Ray's recipe for Bourbo-Mustard Glazed Pork Chops by doing that very thing.

One of my favorite methods of cooking sliced loin, however, is as:

Hazelnut Crusted Stuffed Pork Chops

6 slices pork loin, about 3/4 inch thick
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and ground
1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
Heavy pinch each dried thyme and white pepper
6 garlic cloves
1 small to medium onion
3/4 tsp dried sage leaves
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 tbls dry white wine

Cut pockets into chops almost to the point of butterflying them.

Combine nuts, crumbs, tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper in a flat plate.

Mince the garlic, onion, and sage. Then, using the flat of your knife, or a mortar & pestle, crush them to form a paste. Divide into six portions and spread each portion inside the pockets.

Mix the mustard and wine. Coat each chop with the mustard mix and press into the nut mixture, coating thoroughly. Lay in a single layer in a shallow, buttered baking pan.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes, turning once.

Pork Loin

You're right, I should correct myself and say tenderloin would not be appropriate for Transylvanian Goulash but loin or shoulder is. Thank you for the recipes. I especially think the Governor's Pork sounds good.

Too bad

The posted (Schimm) recipe was really for a marinade only. In particular a long "soak" in a beer marinade. I've got to wonder whether either thought is sufficiently engaging for Chef's Talk readers. And those were the high points.

There was no discussion of how to "grill" a 3 pound section of pork loin, other than to baste frequently. While I know how to do it, a lot of people don't. And, to my mind, marinade and seasoning take a second place to learning how to cook a small roast on an outdoor grill. Presumably, the favored thechnique includes low direct, or medium indirect heat in a covered gas or charcoal grill. But how would I know that?

The one part of technique mentioned, "baste frequently," was either poor or wrong advice. When cooking in a covered grill, the lid should not be lifted more than absolutely necessary, because it creates temperature fluctuations and massive moisture loss. Good barbecuers know that frequent "mopping" or basting is emblematic of inexperienced and nervous cooks.

The best way to cook the roast would probably have been to sear it briefly on all sides, then cook indirect at a steady, moderate temperature between 275F and 300F at the food location (not at the hood thermometer). To promote even cooking, and allow a glaze to build up, the cook might open the hood no more often than every twenty minutes, mop the roast, turn it 1/4 turn, and get the lid back on as soon as possible. It's probably better practice in most girlls, if the cook bastes the roast just once during the cook.

Finally, the cook can baste the roast and run it briefly over the live fire to set the glaze before removing and resting the meat.

Very disappointing,
BDL

I read your post in the wine thread. You seem to be on have a major goulash Jones going on.

Loin isn't a good choice for goulash, or for long simmering in general, either. It's too expensive, and the muscle structure is wrong. The meat is tender before it cooks. When you simmer it, it will toughen when it goes into the pot and begins to cook, become increasingly dry and tasteless as it cooks through, and finally get stringy and fall apart. Between the last two is a brief transit through tender and flavorful, but it's hard to time. If you must use loin for a soup, stew or other similar application it should be for something which comes together quickly. Chile verde for instance.

For goulash, shoulder is best, especially a piece of the picnic called "cushion meat." "Country spare ribs" work nicely as well.

Loin is best cut into large pieces and roasted, "steaked" into chops, or cut as escalope, cutlet, or schnitzels.

Something you might like:

Prepare a goulash using inexpensive meat on the bone. Strain the sauce, and discard the herbs and vegetables. Return the strained sauce to the pot with fresh vegetables of your choice (for instance, carrots, mushrooms, and bell-pepper and onions already softened in butter), but no potatoes. Then simmer just long enough to cook the vegetables through to crisp-tender.

Meanwhile, truss, season and pan roast a pork tenderloin to medium, about 145F. Remove the tenderloin and allow it to rest. Deglaze the pan with some red wine -- an Egri "Bull's Blood," would be a good choice. Add the goulash sauce to the deglaze.

When the tenderloin has rested, carve it on the bias. Cover a plate with some of the sauce, and shingle a few slices of tenderloin on it. Nap a line of sauce over the tenderloin without covering it completely. Garnish the plate with buttered pasta. Sprinkle chopped herbs over all.

BDL

This thread helps me alot I have a Tenderloin in the fridge and now I know exactly how I am going to prepare it.