Sawbones: I hope you've made some great decisions about your dry pork loin by now and are happy with the results. This quandary qualifies you for membership in what might be the culinary community's biggest club -- Those Who Have Overcooked Pork! I'm absolutely convinced that anyone who has cooked pork and is honest is a member! What great company that is!
For the next time, here are a few tips that you might find helpful. Allowing meat to come to room temp before cooking is always helpful. Then, a meat thermometer is your best friend, but don't follow the guidelines on that thermometer blindly. For decades, the USDA required that pork be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, and many meat thermometers are labeled accordingly. In 2011, after a lot of dry pork, the USDA formally recognized that pork cooked to 145 degrees could be eaten safely, and restaurant chefs rejoiced. Keep in mind that most meat benefits from resting after cooking to allow juices to redistribute, and some cooking continues during the resting. So, depending on how you like your meat, removing from the heat a little before it reaches 145 might even be best, as it will still get to 145 degrees during resting. I have yet to see a meat thermometer that reflects these updated guidelines. I hope this helps, and I hope you're game to try again!
I received lots of really good suggestions. I did slice it thin and put it in pork gravy and had no complaints, and good appetites! Also yes, I did cook it to 165 Lyndie, and you are so right. I just couldn't figure out what had gone wrong. I will know next time. Oh I love this cooking site!
I'd do like Lyndie and re-purpose it, where the dryness isn't so noiticeable. Sliced thin, cold roast pork loin makes a great sandwich - layering it with a soft-ish cheese, mustard/chutney, and so on will offset the dry. Or make a Cubano sandwich - once you add the Swiss cheese, pickles, ham, mustard and cook it in butter, I promise nobody's complaining about dry pork!
Roast pork is also great slivered, or cut into small thin slices, and used in stir fried Asian noodles, fried rice, or noodles soups (e.g., Ramen.) This overcooked pork roast is an opportunity to play around with some delicious things!
Agree with Lyndie. Whatever you wind up doing, I would say that cutting it very small or slicing it very thin will help to downplay the toughness that comes with the dryness.
While it is certainly true that you won't be able to add moisture back into the meat itself, you might be able to give the meat a "reinvention" that downplays the overcooking. For example, you might chop/shred it, mix in some bbq sauce, and use it for pulled pork sandwiches. Or, depending on the seasonings you used, perhaps it could be cubed and added to a pasta or rice salad.
If you have overcooked your pork, there's nothing that will help it. After all, humans have been cooking pork for millennia and there's no "here's what you do when you overcook pork" easy solution.
If there were, you probably wouldn't be asking this question, it would be a well-known solution and few people on this planet would worry about cooking pork correctly.
Sadly, that is not the case. Your batch of pork will be dry regardless of what you do with it. Once you cook the moisture out of meat, you can never really get it back in again.
Well then, go ahead and try with a small piece. You will have to accept that a piece of roasted pork that is floating in soup is no longer roasted pork. If you're cool with that, then godspeed.
I've cooked enough meat (and other things) in my life that to know that when I bungle something like this, there's no graceful exit.
Again, if there were, you would never get an overcooked piece of meat *EVER* at a restaurant: no hamburgers ordered medium-rare that are served medium-well. You could magically sprinkle some liquid/pixie dust and all the problems would go way. But that's a dreamworld that doesn't exist in this reality.
What happens when you send a medium-well burger back to the kitchen? They cook another burger medium-rare. They don't wave a magic wand or pull out a syringe full of unicorn tears.
Sorry, wish I could tell you otherwise, but if I could then someone else would have told you this ten thousand years ago.
I guess I should also say that I have had dry pork in broth before. Sometimes my own botched pork, sometimes someone else's. Yeah, you can add a bit of moisture back, but it really doesn't work great.
That's why I care about cooking meat correctly. That's why most people who cares about meat tries to cook it correctly.
I'm commenting from experience. I've made my share of errors and I have not found any satisfactory workarounds, at least to my quality standards. Some people might say "Just pour a bunch of ketchup on it, no one will notice." That may work fine for them, but it does not work for me.
You are the one who is going to serve/eat it. Ultimately you will need to figure out what level of shortcoming you will put on a plate.
9 Comments
For the next time, here are a few tips that you might find helpful. Allowing meat to come to room temp before cooking is always helpful. Then, a meat thermometer is your best friend, but don't follow the guidelines on that thermometer blindly. For decades, the USDA required that pork be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, and many meat thermometers are labeled accordingly. In 2011, after a lot of dry pork, the USDA formally recognized that pork cooked to 145 degrees could be eaten safely, and restaurant chefs rejoiced. Keep in mind that most meat benefits from resting after cooking to allow juices to redistribute, and some cooking continues during the resting. So, depending on how you like your meat, removing from the heat a little before it reaches 145 might even be best, as it will still get to 145 degrees during resting. I have yet to see a meat thermometer that reflects these updated guidelines. I hope this helps, and I hope you're game to try again!
Roast pork is also great slivered, or cut into small thin slices, and used in stir fried Asian noodles, fried rice, or noodles soups (e.g., Ramen.) This overcooked pork roast is an opportunity to play around with some delicious things!
Voted the Best Reply!
If there were, you probably wouldn't be asking this question, it would be a well-known solution and few people on this planet would worry about cooking pork correctly.
Sadly, that is not the case. Your batch of pork will be dry regardless of what you do with it. Once you cook the moisture out of meat, you can never really get it back in again.
thanks anyway,
I've cooked enough meat (and other things) in my life that to know that when I bungle something like this, there's no graceful exit.
Again, if there were, you would never get an overcooked piece of meat *EVER* at a restaurant: no hamburgers ordered medium-rare that are served medium-well. You could magically sprinkle some liquid/pixie dust and all the problems would go way. But that's a dreamworld that doesn't exist in this reality.
What happens when you send a medium-well burger back to the kitchen? They cook another burger medium-rare. They don't wave a magic wand or pull out a syringe full of unicorn tears.
Sorry, wish I could tell you otherwise, but if I could then someone else would have told you this ten thousand years ago.
That's why I care about cooking meat correctly. That's why most people who cares about meat tries to cook it correctly.
I'm commenting from experience. I've made my share of errors and I have not found any satisfactory workarounds, at least to my quality standards. Some people might say "Just pour a bunch of ketchup on it, no one will notice." That may work fine for them, but it does not work for me.
You are the one who is going to serve/eat it. Ultimately you will need to figure out what level of shortcoming you will put on a plate.
Good luck.