As noted elsewhere, a while back I bought an 18 lb pork tenderloin
because it was on sale so cheap. Usually, I would cut and rewrap
something like this before freezing, but I was busy, so just froze the
whole entire thing.
I should note there are only two of us here. And my husband is gone
for a couple weeks at a time driving a truck. So lotsa times there's
only one of us. So... 18 lbs of meat is a lot!
Also, we are not big on pork in general. We like bacon, ham and
sausage, but I rarely make a pork roast or chops or anything. We
mostly prefer cured pork.
So... since we're not terribly fond of anything we'd done previously, I
scouted for recipes. I found a bunch with different flavors, different
cooking styles, etc. I adjusted each recipe to a 3 lb loin, as I
planned to cut mine into 6 approximately equal pieces so as to try
several things.
Basically, I spent half of one day and a couple hours the next cooking
pork loins, sampling them, and storing the rest of the food for future
meals.
Here's the recipes with my comments, sorry there's no counts:
PORK LOIN WITH HERBED PEPPER RUB
3 lb boneless pork loin
2 TB freshly cracked black pepper
2 TB grated Parmesan
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried whole rosemary
2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350 F. Pat loin dry with paper towel. Combine all
other ingredients in a small bowl, and apply to all surfaces of the
loin. Place in shallow pan and bake for approximately 1 - 1 & 1/2
hours to an internal temperature of 160. Let loin sit 10 minutes
before slicing.
COMMENTS:
This was the first recipe I made. The amount of ingredients was way
off... I had easily twice as much herbs as I needed to completly coat
the roast. It didn't smell too appetizing as it was cooking as some of
the Parmesan ended up in the bottom of the roasting pan and burnt and
smelled icky. It turned out pretty yummy though. It was moist and
flavorful, but I found it a bit *too* peppery. If I were doing it
again, I'd half all the non-pork ingredients except pepper, which I
would quarter.
ORANGE SOY PORK LOIN
3 lb boneless pork loin
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 TB dried whole rosemary
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 large red onion, sliced
Preheat oven to 350 F. Place loin in a covered roasting pan, mix all
other ingredients and pour over, cover and bake for approximately 1 - 1
& 1/2 hours to an internal temperature of 160. Let loin sit 10 minutes
before slicing. Serve with some juices drizzled over.
COMMENTS:
This was my second roast and it turned out just utterly scrumptious.
I wouldn't change a thing.
GARLIC, ROSEMARY & WINE PORK LOIN
3 lb boneless pork loin
6 cloves garlic, pressed
2 tsp dried whole rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
Preheat oven to 350 F. Crush garlic with rosemary, salt and pepper to
make a paste. Make several parallel slices in loin about 1/3 of the
way through and fill with about 1/3rd of the paste. Turn loin over,
and make more slices perpendicular to first set of slices, and fill
with about 1/3 of the paste. Put loin in roasting pan. Mix remaining
paste with olive oil and pour over the loin. Bake for approximately 1
- 1 & 1/2 hours to an internal temperature of 160, basting with pan
juices several times. Remove loin to plate and deglaze roasting pan
with wine. Serve sliced loin with wine sauce.
COMMENTS:
This loin was pretty good too. Moist and yummy.
HERB, GARLIC & BACON PORK LOIN
3 lb boneless pork loin
1/2 TB olive oil
1/2 lb bacon
1 can chicken stock
1/2 TB dried rosemary
1/2 TB dried thyme
6 whole basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried sage
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 large white onion, sliced
Preheat oven to 350 F. Rub loin with olive oil and place in a
roasting pan. Drape bacon over top. Combine the rest of ingredients
and pour over roast. Cover and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake an
additional half hour to crisp up the bacon.
COMMENTS:
I didn't care for this recipe so much. All the previous recipes came
out moist, this one with all the extra liquid just seemed sorta soggy.
On the other hand, it was the fourth recipe I cooked in one day, so I
might just have been tired of pork by the time I sampled it.
Nevertheless, with the other recipes being so much better, I'm unlikely
to ever do this again.
The next two recipes required being marinated, so I made them the next
day.
PORK TENDERLOIN WITH APPLE JELLY SAUCE
3 lb boneless pork loin
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 TB fresh ginger root, minced
3/4 cup apple jelly
2 TB dry sherry
1 TB soy sauce
Place loin in gallon-sized ziplock and add next six ingredients.
Marinade overnight in fridge, turning over a few times.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Place loin in uncovered roasting pan. Boil
the extra marinade. Bake for approximately 1 - 1 & 1/2 hours to an
internal temperature of 160, basting several times with the extra
marinade. Let loin sit 10 minutes before slicing.
While roast is sitting, heat jelly, sherry and soy sauce in a saucepan
to make sauce.
COMMENTS:
I substituted 1/2 cup apple butter thinned with a few TB of water for
the apple jelly as I had some on hand that I'd canned a few years ago
on. This was highly spiced stuff with a lot of ginger and cinnamon and
such in it. I was afraid it would overwhelm the other flavors, but it
didn't - it made a nice sauce.
I liked this loin very much.
CHINESE PORK LOIN
3 lb boneless pork loin
3 TB minced fresh ginger root
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 TB sugar (or equivalent sweetener - I used Sweetzfree)
Place loin in gallon-sized ziplock and add rest of ingredients.
Marinade overnight in fridge, turning over a few times.
Preheat broiler and adjust oven rack so loin will be roasted
approximately 5 inches from broiler. Place loin on rack in roasting
pan and add water to bottom of pan (so roast is not sitting in water).
Boil the extra marinade.
Broil loin with oven door slightly ajar for about an hour (to an
internal temperature of 160), replenishing water if pan gets dry. Turn
loin and baste with marinade several times while broiling. Remove from
oven, cover and let sit 10 minutes before slicing.
COMMENTS:
I've never broiled with the oven door ajar like this. Note that the
top of your stove gets very hot! Don't leave plastic utensils on top
while doing this.
In spite of the water in the bottom of the roasting pan. the outside
of the loin gets relatively crunchy. It didn't look appetizing at all.
However, the loin was moist and yummy and the crunchy outside added
something to it that made it really, really good. This turned out
really, really good and it was an interesting departure from the rest
of the loins. I would definetly try this again.