Recipe ideas
5My silly husband, who does not eat pork, talked me into purchasing 2 12-lb pork loins. How the heck does one cook such a large roast? I usually cook 2-4 lb pork roasts, since only one kid and I will eat it.
We have a family event coming up where I could bring the roast if I wanted to be ambitious!
Or do I just cut it into smaller roasts and be reasonable??
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Any of these recipes work great, also invite me.
@Targaryen you live a bit away… will let you know when dinner is.
I am also thinking shredded pork sandwiches, carnitas style!
I learned to cook on pork loins in Paris in '79. The best approach is a nice roast in a pan with chopped carrots, onions, potatoes, apples, and a sprinkling of rosemary. Some celery is probably a nice addition too, and a dash of white wine won’t hurt a bit.
Rub the loin with oil, salt and pepper to taste, and sprinkle with rosemary. Put it in a roasting pan, surround it with chopped vegetables, and bake for an hour, basting a couple times.
You can eat part of the roast upon completion, but with enough potatoes and carrots you’ve got a nice leftover meal you can reheat and eat all week.
I shouldn’t’ve said “the best approach” - I meant “the best approach for a student with a limited budget and cooking skills sharing a kitchen in a foreign country with lots of other things to do than cook.” Still it’s a nice simple and tasty recipe for a busy week!
OK, setting aside hubby not eating any, I’d start by doing what @moondrake says and halve both loins. Wrap one and freeze it; cut up two of the others into chunks and freeze them separately. I think you’re better off doing the roast first with the fresh pork and using the frozen later for slow-cooking. Now you’re roasting one 6-lb loin for an hour and a half at 350F - in addition to basting you’re going to want to turn it over after about 45 minutes. That’ll give you and the kid about a week of food while hubby reheats his burritos!
24 pounds between two loins? That’s a lotta pig. I don’t have any suggestions, but I do want to see a picture
Zowie I totally misread that - I thought is was 2 2-1/2 lb roasts! I think it’s 15 minutes per pound for more than two pounds, and you’d have to turn it halfway through.
@Moose of the uncooked roasts? they are about the length of my daughter’s leg… so I guess I know I can fit my daughter in the oven!!!
@mikibell Yeah, I tried google just to get a sense of scale but the biggest I’ve found are like half that size
@aetris hehe I thought you might have from the cook times…
@Moose but they were a $1.25/pound… he can’t pass up deals like that!
@mikibell
He gets to cook them, then?
@f00l ha… not if I want to eat it when he is done… he has no skill with cooking anything beyond burritos…
I’d cut them in half, freeze three pieces, and cook the 4th in the slow cooker with fresh pineapple Hawaiian style. Just before serving I’d add sugar, white vinegar, and chopped multi-color bell peppers. Serve with steamed cabbage over rice, with red pepper flakes as a table seasoning. Boil down some of the broth and thicken with a little corn starch for sauce. It’s a sort of home grown kalua pork.
@moondrake You had me until cabbage.
@sammydog01 So skip the cabbage.
/image Porchetta
Carnitas?
Wrap 'em in bacon and roast em.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bacon+wrapped+pork+tenderloin
The cold leftovers make a mean sammich.
Are they bone in or boneless? Either way, you could cut some of it into chops, freeze them individually if you have a foodsaver and just pull them out as wanted/needed. Chops are great marinated and grilled. Or pound the chops thin, bread them, pan fry them and top them with some lemon and caper butter. Or an egg. Or both.
Cut off about a 2lb section. Cut it into as flat a section as you can (kind of like unwinding a cinnamon roll) aiming for maybe 1/2" thick slice. Put pesto, feta, some minced garlic and spinach leaves on it, roll it back up and tie it up. Put some olive oil, salt and pepper on the outside and roast it in the oven (or better yet cook it indirect in a charcoal grill with some wood chips for smoke).
It’s a little late for this, but when I’ve bought loins like that I usually have the meat department cut it down for me into a few roasts and some pork steaks or Iowa chops and some butterfly-cuts as well. Usually they’ll do it for free and I still get the discounted price on the meat.
If you have a big crock pot, you can slow cook one (might have to bisect it) with some flavorful spices and sauce. We’ve done smaller pork loins and roasts with italian or BBQ sauces. Longer cooking will result in a very shreddable texture. If you brown it first (broiler or sectioned then pan-seared) that will add to the favor.
@duodec I was going to recommend slow cooked barbecue too. If you’re lazy like me you can buy a packaged slow cooker sauce.
I would toss 'em in my pellet smoker using apple/cherry/maple pellets.
Set at about 230 degrees for maybe 12+ hrs.
I would spritz apple juice on them occasionally.
I’d wrap the roasts after 3 to 4 hrs with paper.
The timing would depend on getting the internal temp to 145-150 degrees, with an hour rest (in cooler or something) for an hour. That should bring the internal temp to 160+.
Any herbs/spices depend on what you like & the intended use of the pork.
@daveinwarsh 12 hrs for a pork loin? 3-3.5 will get that to 150+ degrees. Shoulder im in for 12 hrs but not a loin.
@pfarro1 I’ve smoked a large shoulder, I’m assuming a 12lb loin would cook about the same time. I always use a remote internal thermometer, but I don’t see how it would cook that quickly…
@daveinwarsh shoulder isn’t done at 150 degrees. You could eat it but it’s gross and tough. And also shoulder is denser and generally thicker. I do loins like that all the time and usually closer to 3 than 3.5 hrs to get to 150. Same reason a 14lb prime rib cooks way faster than a 14 lb turkey.
@daveinwarsh also, the weight is relatively irrelevant when you are cooking something like a loin. Do a three pound piece it will take 2.5 ish hours. It’s long and thin so you have far less meat to cook thru. Also you are cooking a very lean piece of meat so there is no need to get it up around the 170-80 that renders fat as there is virtually none. Akin to the 14ish hours you smoke a brisket vs the short 2-2.5 you would smoke a tritip.
I usually do large meat cuts in my crockpot. I like to do a pulled BBQ pork that way with some chipotles in adobo, onions, and garlic, for a ~6lb I usually do 12 hours on low til it falls off the bone, and freeze most of it for later using as steam bun filling or quick grab dinners. I also then boil down and puree the sauce so that it turns into a kickass BBQ sauce.
I’ve done larger ones with italian herbs, white wine, garlic, roasted in the oven covered in a roasting pan at ~350 for ~8 hours on a rainy day too. Finished off with a bit of lemon juice just before serving, it’s delicious with some boiled red potatoes and asparagus. Pour the juices over it all, you can even add a little butter into that sauce too, boil it down just a touch and it makes a great glaze for carrots if you’re not in the mood for/wrong season for asparagus.
HUNGRY! This thread is so … I can’t even.
Roasting pan in the oven, or large crock pot, or one of those countertop roasters if you have one.
Portion and use the med foodsaver to pack and freeze those portions not eating now.
A slow cooker a can of root beer, a can of water, maybe some spice. Slow cook.
Pull pork
Add bbq sauce on rolls one day, taco seasoning and make tacos or nachos next, ECT. Mmmmm
Love those sales but they are much bigger when you get them home than they were in the store. I cut it into thirds to fit it all in the pressure cooker for pulled pork sandwiches.
Smoker. Stuffed with goat cheese blended with port wine and cherries. It’s the 2nd fastest thing gone at my big shin dig each year. Preferably apple or cherry wood. Also highly recommended would be split and stuffed with some bourbon infused apple butter.
If you’re lazy, cut hunks to fit your crockpot use a grate to keep then out of the slime. Pat them down with season salt, onion powder and garlic powder. Throw them in the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Mop them with your favorite sweet baby ray’s and cook for the last half hour.
But he doesn’t eat pork?