Cooking time advice
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Don't put them too close together on one shelf. Better to put two on each of two shelves if they will fit.
Kayelle
Chef Extraordinaire
In addition to what Andy said, I'd also rotate the pans from front to back. Cook it to 145 degrees with a thermometer, and don't over cook.
This is an important link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/dining/porks-safe-cooking-temperature-is-lowered.html
This is an important link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/dining/porks-safe-cooking-temperature-is-lowered.html
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Pork loin is very lean. That can lead to dry meat if they are overcooked.
I recommend three preventative steps:
1. brine the loins overnight then rinse them off and dry them before roasting.
2. 145ºF is the recommended doneness temp for lean pork. However, you should take the loins out 5-10ºF before that temp as the interior temperature will continue to rise from carry-over cooking.
3. Let the meat rest, loosely covered for 15-20 minutes so juices can be re-absorbed into the muscle cells resulting in a juicier roast.
While the meat is resting, make a delicious gravy with the pan drippings.
I recommend three preventative steps:
1. brine the loins overnight then rinse them off and dry them before roasting.
2. 145ºF is the recommended doneness temp for lean pork. However, you should take the loins out 5-10ºF before that temp as the interior temperature will continue to rise from carry-over cooking.
3. Let the meat rest, loosely covered for 15-20 minutes so juices can be re-absorbed into the muscle cells resulting in a juicier roast.
While the meat is resting, make a delicious gravy with the pan drippings.
Kayelle
Chef Extraordinaire
Excellent point about brining Andy. Today's lean pork absolutely needs to be brined. The difference is stunning.
jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
Personally for something like brining, table or kosher salt both work equally well. , IMO.
You just have to get the salt/water ratios right, as they are very different for table vs. kosher salt.
You just have to get the salt/water ratios right, as they are very different for table vs. kosher salt.
jennyema
Chef Extraordinaire
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
Exactly what I was going to point out until I reached reading your post. I did some roast pork a couple weeks ago and for some reason the continued warming increased much more than I expected, and the pork was disappointingly dry. Coincidentally I'm having a roast, stuffed pork chop tonight and I'm definitely removing it at 135ºF, maybe even 130ºF.
Salt is salt is salt, NaCL, sodium chloride. In solution there is absolutely NO difference in different types of salt, except such as "gourmet" or "specialty" salts which are chosen for their unusual impurities, or flavored salt.
Interestingly (or not, you decide) ALL salt is sea salt! Unless it came in on a meteorite all salt has its ultimate source as an ocean, whether a prehistoric ocean that became folded into the layers of the Earth's crust and mined, or of course what is usually called sea salt which is evaporated salt water from an ocean.
But admittedly I'm being picky, picky. "Sea salt" usually refers to salt made by filling a basin from the ocean, then closing the channel and waiting until the sun evaporates the water.
I have a conundrum regarding salt from dry lakes such as found in Death Valley and similar dry lakes in the Owens Valley and other locales. I suspect it is geologic salt eroded from the mountains around the valley enclosing the lake that was dissolved by rain and snow melt and eventually deposited in a basin with no outlets.
I'm wondering the same myself. My tonight's pork chop is stuffed... I think I'll stick the thermometer in the meat and cook as I described above.
If you wish to be doubly careful you could possibly nuke the stuffing to 145ºF, which is the FDA's generally accepted food serving safety standard. However, actual food safety in the real world depends not only on temperature but time at that temperature too.
For example, I use my Sous Vide ("water oven") to cook steaks to a done temperature of 120ºF, way below the 145ºF, but the cooking cycle is 3-4 hours, and temperature over time kills bacteria as well as a short exposure to 145ºF.
Kayelle
Chef Extraordinaire
I think you missed the point Jenny was making about any salt for brining. Different salts simply measure differently. A brine recipe with the right ratio of a specific salt to water is crucial.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Right, Kayelle. The grain size is different among table salt, Mortons Kosher Salt and Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. As a result, a cup of table salt is equivalent by weight to 1.5 cups of Mortons and 2 cups of Diamond Crystal.
Kayelle
Chef Extraordinaire
Wow, that's a huge difference Andy. Thanks. My go to brine for pork is 1/4 cup of Morton's Kosher, and 4 cups of water. I don't even have table salt anymore. Sometimes I add herbs, but most times I don't.
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
You measure salt by volume??? In a marinade or brine???
Sheesh, I measure by what fits in my hand. I measure by what looks right.
Maybe in baking you need measures. (You do.) But there are so many recipes where your eyes or your hand are more than adequate.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
No need to take that attitude. Different strokes...
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
Actually, eons ago, those areas were sea bottoms. That's where the salt came from.
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
Yeah, that's what I said. 
Kayelle
Chef Extraordinaire
The subject at hand on this thread is salt brining, not marinade or baking.
Liberty can be taken with salt in marinade, not with brining. Yes, measurements on the ratio of specific salt to water in brining is necessary. I'm very surprised you don't know that. Just saying.
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Cooking Goddess
Chef Extraordinaire
True, Kayelle. When I was working through my pickle recipe this summer, I learned that there is a huge difference between 1/2 cup of Kosher salt and 1/2 cup of pickling salt. (Keep in mind I haven't pickled anything since I last helped my Dad make dill pickles before I was married...in 1974.) Since I always have Kosher on hand, and it doesn't have any additives, I used that for the pickles the first time. Not really enough salt. I decided I needed a box of pickling salt. The 4# box of pickling salt was noticeably smaller than the 3# box of Kosher salt! It was easy to see how fine the pickling salt was compared to the flakes of Kosher salt. Thankfully, using pickling salt was just what was needed to achieve the proper salinity in the brine.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
Yeah, that's what I said.
So what is the conundrum?
Greg Who Cooks
Executive Chef
I'm very surprised you don't know that. Just saying.
Oh pshaw!
Beats the heck out of me. If I knew I'd tell ya!
