THE ULTIMATE SOUS VIDE PORK TENDERLOIN GUIDE

Inleiding

Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin Basics

It may seem obvious to say, but pork tenderloin is like the beef tenderloin of the pork world, and it comes along with all of the same features, both good and bad. On the good side, it’s extremely tender — the tenderest cut of meat on the hog. On the bad side? Well, as a muscle that is rarely used during the pig’s lifetime, it is extremely mildly flavored, to the point of nearly being bland. It is also very lean, which makes it difficult to cook evenly — lean meat conducts heat faster than fatty meat, which leads to a higher chance of overcooking. Moreover, because of its leanness, overcooked tenderloin is particularly unforgiving: dry, chalky, and tough to swallow.

Cooking sous vide — whether in a water bath or an Anova Precision™ Oven — solves both of these problems. Flavor-wise, it’s easy to add aromatics or spices to the sous vide bag along with the pork, building that flavor right into the meat (You can reinforce the flavor with more aromatics when you subsequently sear the roast). As for texture, with sous vide cooking, overcooked meat is a thing of the past. Sous vide cooking allows for perfectly even edge-to-center cooking with complete control, whether you like your pork pink or gray.

Traditional sous vide pork tenderloin consists of an easy, two-phase cooking process:

1. Afdichting the pork tenderloin in a plastic bag using either a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method and koken tot de gewenste eindtemperatuur in een waterbad met temperatuurregeling.
   1. The temperature of the sous vide bath during the initial cooking phase is what determines the final texture of your pork tenderloin.
2. Searing the tenderloin to develop color, flavor, and textural contrast.

If you’d prefer to introduce new sous vide techniques into your arsenal, you can also use the Anova Precision™ Oven to prepare sous vide pork tenderloin. Because of the way we’ve designed the temperature sensors and humidity control, the oven will precisely maintain the cooking temperature you set.

You can choose to bag and cook your tenderloin in the Precision™ Oven just as you would with a Precision® Cooker, or you can use the oven’s food probe to tell you exactly when the core of your tenderloin has hit your desired temp.

Just like traditional sous vide, using Sous Vide Mode in the Anova Precision™ Oven typically is a two-stage cooking process: First, bring the pork tenderloin to your desired internal temperature, then sear or broil in the oven to create a flavorful crust.

While eating any meat cooked to a rare doneness poses health risks, particularly for the elderly, pregnant, or very young, these days pork is just about as safe to eat rare as it is to eat beef. That is, so long as you are working with properly-stored, cleanly cut meat and are searing the exterior before serving, the risk of illness from consuming rare pork is very minimal.

With sous vide cooking, you have another advantage: pasteurization. At 130°F (54°C), bacteria are being actively destroyed on the surface of that pork. Every moment that it is in the cooker, it is becoming safer to eat. At higher temperatures, the rate of destruction is even faster. Because of this, sous vide is a great introduction to the wonderfully juicy world of rare pork. (The United States Department of Agriculture recommends cooking pork to 145°F with a three-minute rest.)

Temperatuur en timing

When cooking quick-cooking meats like steaks, pork chops, or pork tenderloin, the texture and juiciness of the finished product is directly related to the temperature to which it is cooked. Pork starts to firm up and expel moisture around 120°F (49ºC) or so, with its firmness and dryness increasing as the temperature goes up. With sous vide cooking, you have complete control over exactly how cooked your pork ends up, so pick a desired temperature, and go!

With traditional high-heat cooking methods, it’s necessary to cook at the exact right temperature for the exact right amount of time to achieve the doneness you’re after. With sous vide cooking, the timing is much more forgiving. Temperature is by far the overriding factor. By adjusting the temperature of your Precision Cooker or Precision Oven, you can cook your pork tenderloin anywhere from a pink, juicy medium-rare (130°F / 54°C) to a firm but still moist well-done (160°F / 71°C).

Bear in mind that the hotter you cook, the more moisture you’re going to squeeze out of the pork. Here’s a breakdown of the texture and juiciness you can expect at various temperatures:

Medium-Rare (130°F / 54°C)

Your meat is very soft. Muscle proteins have not started to contract much and will have a slippery, wet texture. The meat will be extremely juicy, but it’ll be hard to break down muscle fibers between your teeth.

Medium (140°F / 60°C)

Muscle proteins have begun to tighten and firm up. You lose a bit of juice due to this tightening, but what you lose in juice you gain in tenderness. This is our favorite temperature for pork tenderloin.

Medium-Well (150°F / 66°C)

The muscle fibers continue to toughen up and expel juices. The pork will still be flavorful but loses a lot of its tenderness by this stage.

Well Done (160°F / 71°C)

The meat is completely well-done with a texture that is chewy and tacky, albeit juicier than if they were cooked via more traditional methods.

It’s true that timing for sous vide cooking is much more forgiving than with traditional techniques — your window of well-cooked meat opens up from seconds or minutes to hours — but even so, it is possible to over or undercook meat.

Our general rule of thumb is to allow around 15 minutes of cooking time per half-inch of thickness, adding on an extra 10 minutes or so just to be safe. This is enough time to allow the meat to achieve thermal equilibrium and be cooked through to the same temperature as the water bath. Beyond that time, meat will not lose much juiciness, but eventually, as muscle proteins break down, will become somewhat mushy, shredding as you bite rather than tearing.

At four hours the meat has begun to lose some of its resilience and by eight hours it is tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. We limit cook times for pork tenderloin to under four hours.

So long as you’re cooking at above 130°F / 54ºC, there are no real health risks associated with prolonged sous vide cooking.

Traditionele sous-vide

Sous vide express

How to Cook Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin, Step by Step

Stap 1

Attach an Anova Precision® Cooker to a water bath and heat to your desired final doneness temperature or preheat the Precision Oven to your desired temperature.

Season the pork generously with salt and pepper on all sides. If you are planning on leaving the un-cooked pork in bags for more than a few hours before cooking, skip the seasoning step and instead season them just before searing.

Stap 2

If vacuum sealing, add to a bag with aromatics like thyme or rosemary sprigs if desired. Seal the bag with a vacuum sealer. If using the food probe in the Precision™ Oven, insert the probe into the center of the tenderloin.

Stap 3

Drop the bag in the water bath or place into the oven and attach the probe. Cook according to your desired time and temperature or until the probe reaches its target temperature.

Remove the pork tenderloin from the bag or oven and place on a paper towel-lined plate. Pat dry very carefully on all sides. If you did not season before cooking, season generously with salt and pepper.

Stap 1

Turn on your vents and open your windows. Place a heavy cast-iron or stainless steel skillet with 1 tablespoon (15ml) of neutral oil and 1 tablespoon (15g) of butter over high heat until it starts to very lightly smoke.

Stap 2

Lay the tenderloin in the skillet, using your fingers or a set of tongs. Cook, turning occasionally, until browned on most sides, about 2 minutes total.

Stap 3

When pork is mostly browned, you can boost flavor by adding another tablespoon of butter along with some thyme, rosemary, garlic, and/or shallots. Spoon the butter over the tenderloin as it cooks.

Stap 4

Transfer pork to a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and pour the drippings on top. Allow to rest for 1 to 2 minutes, then slice and serve.

Stap 1

Pas de oventemperatuur aan voor dichtschroeien: Schakel de sous vide modus uit en stel de oven in op 482°F (250°C) met 0% stoom met behulp van de verwarmingselementen Boven+Omlaag.

Stap 2

While the oven is heating, brush the surface of the tenderloin with neutral oil.

Stap 3

When the oven has reached temperature, return the tenderloin to the middle rack. Roast until the tenderloin is browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on the meat — it can go from perfectly golden to burnt in a short time.

Stap 4

Remove the tenderloin from the oven and serve.

Stap 1

Make sure to have your grill preheated before your tenderloin is finished cooking sous vide. Light one chimney full of charcoal (about 5 quarts). When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate.

Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Alternatively, set half the burners on a gas grill to the highest heat setting, cover, and preheat for 10 minutes. Scrape the grill grates clean with a grill scraper, then oil the grates by holding an oil-dipped kitchen towel or paper towels in a set of tongs and rubbing them over the grates 5 to 6 times.

Stap 2

Place the tenderloin directly over the hot side of the grill and cook, turning every 15 to 30 seconds, until a deep, rich crust has formed, about 1 ½ minutes total.

Stap 3

Transfer the tenderloin to a cutting board or serving platter and serve immediately.

A Closer Look at Seasoning Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin

Do I need to brine sous vide pork tenderloin?

Brining — the process of soaking meat in a saltwater solution in order to help it retain moisture better in the future — is entirely unnecessary when it comes to sous vide cooking. Your pork will still come out plenty juicy.

When should I season my pork tenderloin?

If we’re putting the tenderloin straight into the cooker or oven, we’ll season it before bagging and cooking it. If, however, we are going to bag it and let it sit in the fridge for a day or two before cooking, we’ll bag it unseasoned. Salt can interact with pork muscle fibers giving it a cured, smooth, almost ham-like texture. This is not entirely undesirable (ham is delicious, after all), but it’s up to you whether you want that texture or prefer a more traditional meaty texture.

Can I add aromatics to the bag?

Yes! Aromatics added to the bag can give the pork great flavor. Just be aware that sous vide cooking tends to concentrate the flavor of spices and herbs so go light. Fresh sprigs of whole herbs like thyme, rosemary, or oregano are great, as are alliums like garlic and shallots or spices like paprika, cumin, coriander, and black peppercorns (either whole or sprinkled on ground). Feel free to experiment.

Maaltijd bereiden en vooruit koken met sous-vide

One of the big benefits to cooking sous vide is that, because you’re portioning food in individual bags, it can lend itself well to meal prep. But there are a few things to keep in mind, especially if you’re planning to reheat your food.

It’s true that given a high enough temperature (130°F / 54.4ºC or higher) and a long enough time period (several hours), the contents of a sealed sous vide bag should be close to sterile, which means that rapid chilling via an ice bath followed by rapid reheating should pose no health risks, though we still strongly recommend against it whenever avoidable: it’s not doing any favors for the quality of your pork. Moreover, it takes just as long to reheat an already-cooked sous vide pork tenderloin to its final serving temperature as it does to cook that same pork tenderloin from scratch so you really aren’t saving any time by doing it.

Word of warning: Never chill and reheat any food that has been cooked or held at a temperature lower than 130°F (54.4ºC). These temperatures are not hot enough to destroy dangerous bacteria.

On the other hand, you can seal seasoned, ready-to-cook pork tenderloin in a sous vide bag and stack it in the freezer. When ready to cook, pop it directly in the water bath or oven and allow an extra hour of cooking time to fully thaw before you begin timing it for doneness.