# Pork Tenderloin "Ham"



## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

A while back on another part of the Internet there was some discussion about a New York Times article, wherein curing pork tenderloin could produce a miniature ham, so to speak:

http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1015786/miniature-home-cured-and-lsquo-ham-and-rsquo.html

Thought I'd give it a try, see what happens. Got some pork tenderloin:





  








t_ham2.jpg




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teamfat


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Dec 23, 2013








Cleaned up some silverskin and such. One of these days I should take a picture of a TENDERLOIN next to LOIN. They are quite different cuts, some people confuse them.

Anyway, boiled up the brine, here it is chillin' on the back porch:





  








t_ham1.jpg




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teamfat


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Dec 23, 2013








Got it cooled, wrestled the pork into a freezer bag, poured in the brine ( most of it ):





  








t_ham3.jpg




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teamfat


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Dec 23, 2013








We'll see what happens when we get back from our Christmas trip to Orange County.

mjb.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Cool idea but the thought of turning beautiful pork tenderloins into mini-hams seems to defeat the purpose of such a tender cut. Still I think it is interesting so please post back the results.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Don't worry, there will be a post or two on the results.  But I tend to agree with you, there are better uses for such a tender cut.  This may likely be the one and only time I do this.

mjb.


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## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

It s/b fun to see how this comes out............


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Okay, back from our Christmas trip, time to finish up the tenderloin "ham" One disadvantage of being away is that the bag of brine just sits there and doesn't get moved, leading to some surfaces not getting full contact:





  








t_ham4.jpg




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teamfat


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Dec 31, 2013








But it didn't seem to be much of an issue with the final product. So the tenderloin is drained, rinsed and dried. The recipe I am following calls for it to be put in a baking dish on a thin layer of onion with some thyme and more of the white wine that went into the brine. I then covered it with foil and baked for about 45 minutes in a 350F oven. Pulled it out and let it cool for a while before cutting into it.





  








t_ham5.jpg




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teamfat


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Dec 31, 2013








Baking in a wet environment gave the outside surface that typical white cooked pork color, but the interior did have a nice ham color. And it really did taste like ham, a mid grade store bought, better than I expected so I was a bit surprised. Nice texture, tender, good salt level, I overdid the thyme but not by that much. It really has me thinking what finishing in the smoker rather than the oven might do for it.

The taste also had notes of Canadian back bacon which reminded me of a certain egg dish. I cobbled up something with a couple slices of toasted French bread, the "ham", some snow crab meat and a poached egg:





  








t_ham6.jpg




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teamfat


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Dec 31, 2013








The picture is really bad, and the hollandaise started to go limp while I was fussing with the camera. A tasty dish, though.

All in all I am happy with it. There are other ways I prefer to use pork tenderloin so I probably won't do this often. But I do wonder what a bit of smoke would do for this.

Tomorrow I'm thinking fresh biscuits, a slice of the ham, some cheese, ...

mjb.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

Cool, thanks for sharing!


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Canadian bacon pretty much, no?


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## maryb (Mar 21, 2008)

Un-smoked Canadian bacon...


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## kokopuffs (Aug 4, 2000)

@phatch and @MaryB: exactly, unsmoked Canadian bacon. And imho much brined meat tastes alike. Ham and Canadian bacon and other meats that've been brined + smoked.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Pretty much the only difference here was in texture, softer and more tender than the usual back bacon I brine and smoke.  I will most likely try it again and smoke after brining, see what that does.  I do want to get into dry curing salami and such, as well as expand my experience with bacon of various sorts.  And do more classic French cooking, and get decent with Chinese and try more Indian curries and Vietnamese and African dishes and ....

mjb.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

My in-laws like this cured smoked turkey. It looks and tastes like ham, not turkey anymore. It's good, but you could just get a ham to start with.


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