OT - Tenderloins

[Davydd]

This is my second attempt at making a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Eat your heart out.



Thanks Micki

ps. Just trying to figure out why it works the way it works.

[Davydd]

Here is how I made my breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches. First I cut the tenderloin in four pieces and then butterfly cut each piece like this.

Nex I pounded the loin to end up like this. Unless you want meat pieces flying all over be sure to pound them inside a plastic baggy. I did it both ways to find out the hard way.

Next I salt and peppered each loin on both sides, patted them in flour, soaked them in buttermilk and finally breaded them in a mixture of yellow corn meal and saltine crackers. This is the ready to fry loin.

Here is a loin frying in a pan of about 1/2 inch of canola oil. I'm using my propane gas burner outdoors. Fry about 3 minutes at 375 degrees.

Voila! The finish result ready for the buns.

Now you are ready to eat with lettuce, tomato, pickle and mustard.

[Davydd]

I plan to use a deep fryer like this. This one happens to be the Philips HD6161 that sells at Target stores for about $60.



Another good fryer is the Waring DF200 (about $130 at Williams Sonoma) that Tom Sherping uses.



I looked at them all and these two are the best. I'm not sure why the Waring cost twice as much. The Philips until very recently could only be had in the UK for about the same price as the Waring. Waring has reliable knobs for setting time and temperature and the Philips is all digital. Construction wise they are about identical.

[Davydd]

Here is my third home made BPT effort using the new deep fryer.

[Tom Sherping]

Davy, it appears that we have identical tenderizing hammers. Do you use the smooth, or serrated face? After trying both, I opted for the smooth, as the serrated tended to be a bit "destructive".

Tom

[PHJIndy]

Martha Stewart would be proud of the path this thread has taken.

[Jamski]

I'm hungry. And not a decent tenderloin in sight. So much for civilization in Music City.

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Tom Sherping
Davy, it appears that we have identical tenderizing hammers. Do you use the smooth, or serrated face? After trying both, I opted for the smooth, as the serrated tended to be a bit "destructive".

Tom

I too use the smooth side. I did another photo shoot of the steps to create Sunday's creation. This time I put the loin in a plastic baggy before pounding. Earlier I had tried wax paper on top of the loin but ended up destroying it. On my very first effort I had used a heavy mallet auto body pounding hammer. Should I go back to it or stay refined?

[Davydd]

Originally posted by PHJIndy
Martha Stewart would be proud of the path this thread has taken.

Heck Paul, It is just us outlanders have to survive and sometimes making our own is the only way. My cooking repetoire includes pizza, chili, mulligan stews, beer cheese soup, sloppy joes, meatloaf and spaghetti. I did deep fry a Thanksgiving turkey one year with my beer brewing equipment. Deep frying breaded pork tenderloins is now an expansion of my skills.

[Davydd]

Originally posted by ThingsThatExplode
I'm hungry. And not a decent tenderloin in sight. So much for civilization in Music City.

Explode,

Tom's and my last last resort was to make our own. You ought to try it. It really is not that difficult.

I will say this. I had an Indiana Brickyard Crossing Flag Room loin Wednesday and then made my own Sunday. Quite frankly mine was much better. I probably used a more premium loin than they used, I marinaded it in Bell's Oberon Ale for 5 hours, and I have developed a consensus breading that is pretty good. Also, deep frying correctly at a hot enough temperature (375 deg.) will give you a less greasey loin.

[Davydd]

I'm getting better and more refined at making the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. This was my third effort with a better loin, new deep fryer and better knowledge.

First start out with a good tenderloin. I bought a 1.3 lb. very lean loin from one of our better groceries. Before I had used Hormel pre-packaged loins. This is the package:

I cut the loin into four equal pieces of about 5 oz. each. I did not do a butterfly cut this time. I put them one at a time in a plastic baggy like so:

Then I pounded them flat. These turned out to be about the width of a bun and nearly 8 inches long like so:

This time I marinaded them 5 hours ahead of time in Kalamazoo Brewing Co.'s Bell's Oberon Ale that I had on hand. I'm not sure how this helps but the rest of the six pack did:

I drained the marinade (Oh that hurt!) and then mixed in an egg and milk mixture to coat the loins. I made a breading of 3 parts cracker crumbs to 1 part yellow corn meal and added salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. This phase is like so:

These are the breaded tenderloins ready to fry:

I fried the loins in a deep fryer for 3 minutes each at 375 degrees F. Here is the finished result:

And here is the sandwich with the classic Indiana pork tenderloin sandwich bun overhang on each side:

I hope you are inspired. It is not all that hard.

[Micki]

Good lord, I have created a monster....

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Micki
Good lord, I have created a monster....

Yes you have.

[HopHead]

Hey Davydd,

I had a tenderloin sandwich sighting yesterday. Some co-workers and I went to Frenchman's bar in Richfield for a couple of beers after work. I had never been there before, but it is your typical tiny pub with a couple of pool tables and a small menu of mostly burgers and sandwiches. Right there at the top of the list of the "non burger" menu items was a breaded pork tenderloin sandwhich. Unfortunately, I was only there for drinks and had to go home for dinner, but I will definitely be going there for lunch soon to try their version of the BPT. A couple of guys I was with ordered burgers and they looked awesome. I will post a review of their BPT once I have had one.

[PHJIndy]

You WENT HOME TO DINNER instead of having a loin?? Shame on you!!!!!!

[HopHead]

I knew I was going to get some grief for that. But it doesn't go over real well at my house when I come home from work and announce that I'm not hungry and I don't need any dinner. Especially since I am the cook of the house about 95% of the time.

Also, my wife and I are both firm believers that eating dinner as a family is a very important part of building a strong family. If I would have been thinking, I would have bought four T-Loins to go!

[Jason]

I'm hoping I can pick one up tomorrow night at the Flag room if I get all the furnature moved in time and I can have someone go with me. I don't think I can tackle a tenderloin by myself.

Jason

[PHJIndy]

OK, HH, you're forgiven!

[cheeseczar]

Somebody really should contact Food TV and get "The Best of" crew online to read this thread.....

[Tony Johns]

Just in time for May!

Planning my inaugural trip to the Mug 'n' Bun...

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Jeff Chiszar
Somebody really should contact Food TV and get "The Best of" crew online to read this thread.....

I did contact The Food Network to find out if they were going to re-televize Food Finds "Racing Around Indiana" that featured a segment on the Brickyard Crossing's pork tenderloin. So far it is not scheduled through June and they haven't set their schedule beyond June yet.

Also I found out in 2003 Bobby Flay had a feature on Average Joe's in Broad Ripple and their pork tenderloin sandwich recipe is on the Food Network web site.

Here are a couple of pertinent URLs:

Food Nation with Bobby Flay "Indianapolis"

Food Finds "Racing Around Indiana"

[Davydd]

Originally posted by HopHead
I knew I was going to get some grief for that. But it doesn't go over real well at my house when I come home from work and announce that I'm not hungry and I don't need any dinner. Especially since I am the cook of the house about 95% of the time.

Hophead,

I just gave you two pork tenderloin cooking tutorials. Get busy. Start deep frying.

You would think any good local pub that has a deep fryer for French fries and onion rings would have a little self respect and also make breaded pork tenderloins. There are probably a lot of places like the Frenchman's. They just have to be ferreted out.

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Tony Johns
Just in time for May!

Planning my inaugural trip to the Mug 'n' Bun...

Tony,

You dig deep enough you can find anything on the web.

I know that picture. You can find it here:

The Other White Meat

[Tom Sherping]

Originally posted by Davydd
I too use the smooth side. I did another photo shoot of the steps to create Sunday's creation. This time I put the loin in a plastic baggy before pounding. Earlier I had tried wax paper on top of the loin but ended up destroying it. On my very first effort I had used a heavy mallet auto body pounding hammer. Should I go back to it or stay refined?

Go for whatever works best and nevermind the esthetics.

Tom

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Tom Sherping
Go for whatever works best and nevermind the esthetics.

Tom

This is what I used on my first batch of pork tenderloins that I did not photograph:



It has a lot of history. I first used it in 1959 to pound out dents in a 1949 Volkswagen Beetle. I eventually inherited it from my Dad. Maybe I should continue to pound loins with it 'cuz my wife is not going to let me buy that 1950 Chevy truck for sale right up the road from us.

[Tom Sherping]

Originally posted by Davydd I probably used a more premium loin than they used, [/B]

Most (as do I) use a tenderized loin chop and a true tenderloin would be an upgrade, for sure. I'll be trying that in the near future

Tom

[Davydd]

I went to Culvers tonight and had their pork tenderloin. It wasn't that bad. When ordering I stuttered a tad as I almost changed my mind and went for the walleye sandwich. It too is deep fried and now that the ice is off Lake Minnetonka and the boat is in the water I am getting ideas...

Here in Minnesota we had a controversy this past year. it was discovered that many restaurants that were serving "walleye" were actually serving a European "zander" fish, close cousin and claimed to be no different in taste. Well that is heresy in the state that claims the walleye as the state fish. Rather than call it zander on the menu most restaurants opted to switch suppliers and get true walleye. Only the walleye usually does not come from Minnesota. Commercially it almost all comes from Canada. Nevertheless, there is plenty of walleye to catch and the fishing season opener is coming up.

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Tom Sherping
Most (as do I) use a tenderized loin chop and a true tenderloin would be an upgrade, for sure. I'll be trying that in the near furure

Tom

Tom,

Get the best. You won't be disappointed. Around here in Minnesota, and I noticed the same in Indianapolis, Hormel sells a prepackaged tenderloin of about 1.7 lbs. They sell them plain (original) and in several different flavored marinades. This last time I opted to buy a fresh tenderloin at Lund's, a premium grocery store when it comes to meat and produce. It was better quality and there was hardly any fat to trim off. Now that we know exactly how they prepare the breading at the best Indiana pork tenderloin restaurants and now that we have nearly professional quality fryers, there is no reason we cannot produce a much better tenderloin. You are not going to get the best tenderloin if they are selling them in the $5-$8 range in a restaurant.

I had a better bun on the first tutorial and less quality bun on the second tutorial with the better tenderloin. The next time I will get the best tenderloin and match it with a fresh bakery bun. The pursuit for excellence continues.

[Indycarjunkie]

I had two recent tenderloin try-outs. The first was at the Pacer game last Thursday. The Conseco fieldhouse 'loins were underwhelming. They're not bad but only go for these if you're desperate to cure a tenderloin fix.

The second was at Alibi's near 71st and Shadeland on Indy's NE side. Pretty good, but the breading could have been seasoned more. So far Union Jack is still #1 in my book in Indianapolis.

[Davydd]

Originally posted by Indycarjunkie
So far Union Jack is still #1 in my book in Indianapolis.

Well it looks as if I will be at Grindstone Charleys again the Friday night before the Race for our annual high school reunion. We usually retire afterwards over at the Union Jack for more drinks and we sometimes start out in the afternoon at the Mug'n'Bun. I understand all have pork tenderloins? No, I don't think I will try a double or triple.

There are just so many choices in and around Speedway and now you throw in the Union Jack. What to do, what to do? At least I got the Flag Room out of the way and I will try a Track Loin Race day. Do they sell them near the NW Vista?