Ingredient of the week: Pork loin

The Seattle Kitchen Show staff often talk about complex recipes, but this week they focused on a simple way to cook great pork loin.

“It’s the leaner cuts that we’re used to in today’s world that pork loin is really hard to cook,” says Seattle Kitchen Show host Tom Douglas. “And it’s the number one complaint I get from people: “I can’t make a moist pork chop!”

The biggest mistake is that people overcook the pork, which is easy to do with such a lean meat.

“Well, if you take the fat out of pork, you basically have taken a lot of stuff out of the pork because the fat is what gives it a lot of flavor,” says co-host Thierry Rautureau.

Thierry’s solution is to take the whole loin and stuff it with garlic and spices. To cook Thierry’s moist pork loin, sear it in browned butter, roast it the rest of the way in an oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 250 degrees until the center gets to 135 degrees.

“You need to make sure that it rests when it comes out of the oven, it’s going to be at 138,” says Thierry.

Katie O notes that, although your pork will be done after resting for 20 minutes, the center might be pink. The consensus, though, is that the pink color is fine to eat.

“A lot of people are pretty squeamish about it,” says Katie.

After letting the meat rest, Thierry says to slice it in thin pieces and put it back in the oven at 250 degrees to warm it up. It won’t dry out the pork, but it will warm up the meat so it is delicious and ready to serve.

“That takes away my ability to be the manly-man and carve at the table,” says Tom.