Two almost 6 pound (almost 12 pounds total) center pork loin roast with ribs - help with cooking ti

Hi - I have two pork loin center cut roasts (with attached rack of ribs).  I am going to brine them and roast them in the oven with a fresh herb/garlic/olive oil rub and serve with a mushroom ragout.  The roasts are between 5 1/2 and 5 3/4 lbs each. 

The internal temp recommendations on various internet cooking sites are all over the planet - from 130 to 170 degrees.  I want the roasts to be evenly pink (medium rare or a tad more).   Any suggestions for cooking temp and internal temp when I take the roasts out to rest (remembering I want pink meat - not overcooked).  I'm figuring 140 internal temp when I take them out, 375 degrees and 15 to 18 minutes per pound (about).   I plan to cook these roasts together, bone down (or I could cook them standing up).  Should I tie each roast?  So much conflicting info on the internet.

Thanks you for your help.

 

I will try one more time to post here.  Thank you for all your responses - I've read each one and they are all interesting and helpful and I appeciate them.  I tried to post here this morning but got a message that I was new and my post would have to be reviewed....the post has never shown up.

I'm posting the mushroom ragout recipe with a few changes that I have made after making it several times.  As far as brining pork - in looking at rated recipes on epicurious and food network and a few cooking blogs, most of the highly rated recipes suggested brining. 

I made a boneless pork loin (center cut) roast a few weeks ago and it was very moist and delicious.  I let it sit in a marinade for two days (in a paste of olive oil, fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper - no acid).  I cooked it at 350 degrees in an open roasting pan (with sides) and I took the roast out at 138 degrees.  It was perfect - lightly pink throughout and incredibly tender and flavorful. 

I think that reports of tough pork or dried out pork are directly related to cooking method (open roasting pan with no sides dries out pork faster) and overcooking.  I've certainly overcooked pork in the past, but I've learned now to not overcook it.

I will let you know how things turn at the dinner party tomorrow.  I'm making a gratin (potato, fennel) to go with the pork.

Mushroom Ragout (Double this recipe – it is delicious):

1 pound mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, cremini, or white button

2 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium shallot or 1/2 small onion, chopped

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped

1/2 cup Madeira, vermouth, or white wine

1/3 cup heavy cream

Clean the mushrooms by brushing with a kitchen towel or a brush to remove any loose dirt. Remove the shiitake stems and discard. Trim the dry ends off the cremini and white mushroom stems. Quarter all the mushrooms and put in a bowl.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and spread them out evenly in the pan, increase the heat to high. Let the mushrooms cook undisturbed until they brown, then shake the pan to turn them over. Add the additional butter along the sides of the pan as the mushrooms cook if the pan seems very dry. Continue to cook until nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Add the shallot and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Season the mushrooms with the salt and pepper and add the thyme. Pull the pan off the heat and add the Madeira or the wine. Return pan to the heat and scrape up any of the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the heavy cream and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and serve.

Yield: 2 cups

Alternative:  Cook ¼ lb. chopped pancetta and set aside.  Use the grease from the pancetta and the pan to cook mushrooms in – adding appropriate amounts of butter.

 

Well, the dinner party was a huge success as was the dinner.  I used a brine on the roasts consisting of (1 1/2 cans concentrate) apple cider, ( 1 cup) pure maple syrup, brown (1 cup) sugar, 2 large onions chopped, 20 sprigs of fresh thyme mustard seed, peppercorns, Kosher salt, water.  I use the large oven bags with a twisty to hold the brine and roasts and put both roasts on a large cookie sheet and into the downstairs fridge they went for about 26 hours - no weighting the roasts while brining - the roasts were completely submerged in the brine. 

The next day I washed and dried the roasts, made slits in the fat and inserted many sliced garlic cloves and then rubbed the roasts with a fresh herb paste consisting of finely minced fresh sage, rosemary and thyme (more thyme than sage and rosemary), garlic, a little salt and salt-free lemon pepper, olive oil.  I brought the roasts to room temp, started them off in a 475 degree oven for 15 minutes and then loverd the heat to 350 and cooked them until the internal temp was 142 at 350 degees.   

The meat was perfection - juicy, very tender and flavorful.  The only surprise is that the roasts cooked much more quickly than expected.  They were done about 25 minutes before I thought they would be done so next time I would put the roasts in a little later.  Rested the meat (tented) for 35 minutes before carving.  Put individual chops onto a huge restaurant platter and poured the mushroom ragout on top (and served on the side as well) and garnished with big bunches of fresh sage and rosemary.

I've made notes and typed up my recipe and will definitely make this again.  The roasts were bought at Costco - they were about $42.00 total and would easily serve 14 people.  A very delicious and impressive looking dish for not a lot of money (especially when compared to beef tenderloin).