Advance preparation for pork en croute?

[satchmo]

Hi all. My wife and I are hosting a small dinner party tomorrow. I'm preparing pork tenderloin en croute as the main entree. My question involves advanced preparation. I had planned to sear the pork and saute the wild mushroom stuffing in advance. Then assemble the whole thing in puff pastry and place in the fridge. This way when company arrives, I can just pop the dish in the oven to finish cooking.

My concern is that due to the refrigeration of the pork, it will take longer to cook. Will the pastry dry out or burn before the pork can cook through? I've made this dish before and it turns out fine, but I've never tried making it several hours in advance like this. The pork is usually still warm from searing when it goes in the oven. I just want to be able to spend time with my guests, not alone in the klitchen.

Any input would be very much appreciated. Thanks guys, and great forum by the way. Wish I had found it sooner.

Kevin

 

[kitchenelf]

mmmmmmmm - these are just thoughts here as I've never made this.

Ok, so your pork is cooked and in the fridge. Can you NOT assemble it until you are ready to cook it? Take the pork out and let it come to room temp for about 1 hour and THEN wrap it? I know that doesn't help much in spending time with your company.

It seems to me the dough would get soggy on the bottom and maybe dry out on top unless you kept a damp dishtowel around it.

Someone will come along who actually knows what they are talking about though - keep checking back. And remember if you keep this screen up to watch click your refresh or reload button occasionally to see if there are new responses.

 

[Andy M.]

Difficult to say without experimentation.

• You could take the assembled piece out of the fridge to warm to room temp.
• You could cook it at a lower temp for longer to allow the interior to cook without burning the dough.
• A combination of the two.

 

[ironchef]

How far in advance you making the pork? If you cook it say, 2 hours ahead of the time you want to serve it, then just leave it at room temp instead of placing it in the fridge. The puff pastry needs to be chilled, so that can stay in the fridge until you need it. If you're cooking the pork, say, 5 hours ahead, you'll need to refrigerate the it. To reheat the pork evenly, place it in a stainless steel mixing bowl or container and reheat it using a double boiler method until it's just warm. Do NOT microwave it. Then, place it in the cold puff pastry and bake as normal

I wouldn't recommend cooking it at a lower temp because the puff pasty may not rise and cook properly.

 

[Claire]

I've made this and would recommend getting all the "parts" ready (cook the loin to just short of how well-done you want it, and whatever you're using for dressing around it), then wrap it together in the pastry at the last minute, then bake. That won't take long to do, and there's usually someone who likes to hang out in the kitchen. BTW, using a tenderloin (or two depending on your crowd, they're usually packed in twos anyway, and I think the pastry sheets are in twos as well) rather than a full loin will aleviate the problem of not getting the entire roast warm in the time it takes to cook the pastry.

 

[satchmo]

Thanks for the responses guys. I think what I'll do, as most of you suggest, is to prepare the parts in advance, but save the assembly until roasting time. You're right Claire, it doesn't take much time to put together. It's just that the sides I'm serving are all able to be partially cooked hours earlier. So they'll all be ready in under ten minutes. I guess I was looking for the same from the main dish.

Again, thanks for the help guys!