Honey And Mint Glazed Pork Tenderloin I Made It

Honey And Mint Glazed Pork Tenderloin

pointsevenout 12 years ago
Recipe by Keni: Honey And Mint Glazed Pork Tenderloin/saved
A goodly amount of flavor and not dry.
One observation. Pork tenderloin is referenced in the title and title blurb but the list of ingredients calls out boneless pork loin, a different animal, so to speak. Leastways a different cut of meat.
Being the el cheapo that I am, I sprung for the pork loin. Half a pork loin is 4.5 lbs. If I had bothered to think it through I would have bought the tenderloin. Your recipe calls for 2 whole loins. That's 18 pounds of pig! Naaaaah, I didn't think it through.
Trimmed the half loin and sliced it in half longitudinally to make it look like the tenderloin.

The rest of the story is not on Keni's recipe. It is on me. We talked about trying to do this in the microwave to save on power consumption and residual heat. Here is the result, round one:

Salt and pepper first then rubbed the marinade on. Let it dwell for an hour. Seared 2 minutes on a side, 8 minutes total in a stock pot. Got it out of there just as the marinade was starting to burn but got a nice coloration of the meat. Doing this for presentation purposes only, as meat cooked wholly in a microwave tends to look more like cadaver.
Inserted a temperature probe to the center of the loin and set the microwave to cook to 135F in a microwave proof container with a rack and w/vented lid. It didn't even take 15 minutes to get there. Wish I had started a timer to be more precise. Shut off the microwave and let all rest for 15 minutes before continuing, to let the juices and heat distribute more evenly.
Stuck an instant read thermometer in the center of the loin which measured 165F.
The loin felt firm to the cut as well as the chew was on the firm side, but it was juicy.

I have options here, next time I try nuking a loin, as I have the other quarter of the loin in the freezer. I can set the nuke temp to lower than 135F or nuke it at a lower power setting. There might be a problem with calibration of the different monitors too but I can't do a side by each comparison in the microwave because of the composition of the instant read thermometers.
The microwave option is a qualified success, in that, very little power was used to cook the loin and residual heat to be adsorbed by the room and the crust had good coloration and was not dry in the least even though it was somewhat overcooked.
Served it up with crowder peas w/bacon bits. Poured some of the juices that did manage to escape the loin, back over it when plated.
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Good4U 12 years ago said:

Points, You are One Brave Man with a microwave. I think I have tried most things in a microwave some recipes work some do not unfortunately. I don't think I would attempt what you are trying to do though! Good luck with it.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cooking.html
I found a few sites on appliances consumption of power. In this one a toaster oven was equal to a microwave' consumption. I am not sure how accurate it is but from what I know so far they are pretty close. The toaster oven could also be moved outside to avoid residual heat.
I bookmarked the recipe to make as intended by Keni. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I don't know how I missed this post. Nice pics and once again applaud your perseverance with this recipe.
Keep us posted. As The Pork Turntable Turns:-)
Now I will go find out what crowder beans are. I noticed in one post you said you were having butter beans which are lima beans right?

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pointsevenout 12 years ago said:

Butter beans and Lima beans are actually two different beans, very closely related, but most people use the two terms interchangeably. Crowder beans are AKA cow peas, field peas, and Texas peas. They grow so big in the shell that they are most often misshapen because of crowding each other in the shell. Puts a relative spin on the term as close or alike as two peas in a pod.

I find myself going back to munch on another slice of this loin often. So any toughness is not keeping me away from the flavor.
Might as well pull the other quarter piece out of the freezer to get it prepped for a second go at this recipe.

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pointsevenout 12 years ago said:

Just took a peek at the website you referenced. The time to cost comparison ratio in the table is not consistent from cooking method to cooking method. It is not a fair comparison. And is that Tiny Tim's picture in the upper left corner of the page? I suspect a hidden agenda.

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Good4U 12 years ago said:

Pleased it has good flavour:-)
Interesting on the beans and peas. We see lima beans here. Not the peas:(
We see normal green peas, snow peas, sugar snap peas and a type of white dry pea used in soups. Oh yes and black eyed peas and more. Never laid eyes on the types you have mentioned? I will ask around this little town. Thanks I like to learn something new everyday.:-)
Hope you nail it on the second round!

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frankieanne 12 years ago said:

That's a nice looking marinade recipe. Nice experimenting with the microwave. Not many actually do any real cooking with it, just reheating and making popcorn. Before I had an outdoor grill, I had the best recipe for "bbq" country style pork ribs in the microwave. I made them all the time. Lots of babysitting to turn and baste and turn again, but they were always moist and delicious. I should dig that recipe out....
That crust on the loin is gorgeous, pso.

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mrpiggy 12 years ago said:

Thats a great looking roast/loin, Points. I agree with G4U on being brave with a nuker. I can barely bring myself to try meat in a regular oven let alone even considering a microwave. I would like to try this recipe but would probably grill it. Dont have mint, though.........

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pointsevenout 12 years ago said:

Round 2 in the stomach. Better result. Nuked it to 135F again but used the 70% power range. Still came out a little firm but less so. Fifteen minutes rest and temperature probe is 155F. So it dropped 10 degrees from last attempt. Think the internal meat coloration went from an all white to just barely a shade of pink. Or that could have been my stomach playing tricks on me. Also only seared the meat for 1 minute per side to keep the marinade from scorching. Still got a good sear color.
Upped the red pepper flakes to 1 tsp. Don't think I can go any higher than that without ruining it for mother's tastebuds. Used Kosher salt and large ground black pepper this time.
I can taste the heat and sweet but not sure about the mint.
Will be doing this again and dropping the power range even further.

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