Broiled Pork Tenderloin

Broiled meats have the advantage of cooking very quickly and leaving your meat juicy. It takes a little practise to get them always done to the exact stage you like them, but no more than any other kind of cooking. It's a technique I find myself using more often these days.

Pork tenderloin is a really good choice for broiling, because it is fairly thin, and generally the little roasts are fairly consistent in size. A small household like ours can eat half of it hot, and the other half either cold, in salads or sandwiches or quickly reheated in a sauté pan. When I cook other, bigger, roasts of meat they are a considerably larger commitment of time, money, and repetitious menus.  

This is a very lean cut, so marinating it helps keep it moist and tender, as well as adding flavour. You need to be in the kitchen to keep an eye on it while it cooks, but the amount of effort involved in doing this is extremely minimal. You will want to run your ventilation fan on high.

3 to 4 servings
1 to 8 hours marinating time
30 to 40 minutes - including time to rest and carve

Make the Marinade:
6 thin slices of ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons apple cider OR rice vinegar
500 grams (1 to 1 1/4 pound) pork tenderloin

Scrub or peel the ginger, and cut it in thin slices. Put it in the container in which the pork is to be marinated, and add the remaining ingredients.

Put the pork in, turn it to cover, then close the container and put it in the fridge. Marinate for 1 to 8 hours.

Cook the Pork:
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Be sure the top oven rack is in a good position so that when the pork goes in, it will be about 4" or 5" away from the flame. Turn on the broiler and allow the oven to preheat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the pork from the marinade. I did not blot it, but I did hold it and let it drain for a minute. Place it in a broiler-proof pan - if you don't want the smoke detector to go off, an actual broiler pan with a little water to cover the bottom is a good choice. I used a metal bread pan, which worked fine but the smoke detector did go off for the last minute of cooking.

At any rate, brush your pork with the sesame oil and sprinkle it with some pepper. Do the least attractive side of your pork first, and it must be arranged so as to be as apparently even in thickness as possible; in other words, tuck up the thin end to make a blunt end not too different looking from the middle of the roast.

Broil the pork for 7 to 10 minutes, then turn it over with tongs, season with a little more pepper, and broil it for another 7 to 10 minutes. Cover it, with a lid or with aluminum foil when it comes out of the oven, and allow it to rest for 7 to 8 minutes. I cooked mine for 8 minutes each side and was satisfied with the results, which gave a meat thermometer reading of 140°F. This is as low as is desirable (can go up to 150°F), but I suspect my thermometer reading of being low, as usually seems to be the case when I attempt to use one. It was certainly cooked, but with a bit of pink juiciness which seems to me to be about ideal. You should be prepared to adjust the time slightly, though, if you think your pork tenderloin is a little thinner or thicker than average, or if you want it done a little more.

As soon as the resting period is done, slice the pork and serve it. If there are some un-carbonized juices in the pan by all means drizzle them over it.





Last year at this time I made Oyster Mushroom Chowder with Saffron. 

Posted in: Ontario Food