Porchetta cook time

I'm making a Porchetta and had a question about cook time. I have a whole belly that I split into 2 and then put a pork tenderlion inside each one along with the typical stuffing. If it matters, the belly actually came without skin (for which I'm severely disappointed!), but it's too late to get a new one so I had to go with it. Since I'm cooking both together at once (in a Coleman cooler i made for better insulation and reduced evaporation) will the cook time be longer than the 36 hours suggested in the Serious Eats recipe from Kenji? I'm going to be a little short on time. It will start around 11:00am Friday morning and the dinner is Saturday Night. Should I take it out and finish in an oven or something? Thanks for the help!

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

I'm worried that the tenderloin is going to dry out or turn to mush. Belly requires long, extended cooking, but the tenderloin doesn't. Kenji's guidelines for SV pork tenderloin suggest one to four hours cook time. 36 hours is way too long. I looked around and saw that a few people have gone for 36 hours using the pork loin wrapped in belly (but not the tenderloin) but even still, this doesn't seem like a best-practice to me. Both loin and tenderloin are very lean and contain basically no connective tissue. Belly is basically all fat and collagen with a few streaks of protein running through it. Cooking these things the same way isn't going to be ideal. But maybe it doesn't matter. If you're just going to make sandwiches or something with it, that'd probably be fine. Or if you'll be covering it with sauce. Or whatever... maybe I'm being too precious about it.

When it comes time to finish, if you're not going to deep fry (which is what Kenji's recipe calls for), take it out of the bag, pat it dry, and throw it in the fridge (or freezer) for 15-20 minutes to further dry the exterior. Then pop it in your oven at 500F (or higher) with convection to crisp the exterior.

fisher23

+1 with @Brandon_Byrd_40557 . Love the idea but don't think pork tenderloin is the best pairing. Please let us know how it comes out.

torridice_498271

but that's what's recommended in all the Porchetta recipes isn't it? Are you saying it's supposed to be a pork loin and not a tenderloin?

torridice_498271

Can it really dry out in the vac bag though and at the correct cooking temp? i can't remember off hand but it might have been something like 150F. I thought that was the benefit of Sous Vide.

FrankM_3301

This doesn't have any loin...and it is awesome!

Brandon_Byrd_40557

It's not an issue so much of temperature but of time. Tender cuts like tenderloin (beef, pork, or otherwise) typically don't stand up to long cook times; they don't have any connective tissue you need to break down, and are typically cooked only for long enough for the core to come up to temperature. Classic, non-SV porchetta recipes that use belly and loin (or tenderloin) cook it in an oven only for long enough for the center (the tenderloin) to hit 145 or 150F (or whatever desired temp you want on the loin). That's a fine temp for SV tenderloin, but the difference is that with your recipe, you'd be holding the tenderloin at that temperature for, basically, a day and a half. You'd never cook a tenderloin for that long on its own because it would get soft and mushy (and could potentially dry out). Nothing is different, in principle, if you wrap the tenderloin in pork belly.

The problem is that loin and belly are much different cuts. One is tender; one is tough. Tough cuts require long cooking times or much higher temperatures to break down connective tissues. Tender cuts only need to be cooked until their center reaches the desired core temperature; they don't need to be held at that temperature for a day (or more) to taste good. And if you do hold them for extended periods, the texture will suffer. Usually this isn't a big issue with tender cuts -- a pork chop, chicken breast, or beef tenderloin steak will come up to temperature in an hour or two, and an extra hour in the bath won't hurt anything. But you wouldn't want to let it sit there for 24 hours. It takes on a pasty, mushy, gross texture. Kenji discusses this phenomenon in his post on SV chicken breast, which has some images of the bag juices from a chicken breast cooked for 2 hours and another cooked at the same temp for 24 hours. The first looks like normal bag juice; the second sets up like jello because the protein in the chicken has broken down. And the meat itself is so soft, you can touch it and leave fingerprints in the meat. Eew.
At any rate, the take-home point about best SV practices is to cook tough cuts like tough cuts, tender cuts like tender cuts, and not try to cook both together at the same time and temperature.

fisher23

Brandon covered it well below. I am just afraid the tender tenderloin will be over cooked and you won't be happy with the texture.

torridice_498271

This is great info! Thanks for the help to those that replied. Since I already have it put together I'm going to try it. I plan to make some additional tenderloin just marinaded in some citrus blend and grilled in case it doesn't go well! I'll let you guys know how it turns out. I'm also making some cauliflower soup with bacon lardon and a tarteflette with some great local "reblochon" style cheese.

torridice_498271

so just finished the dinner. The tenderloin in the center was actually the only edible part. The pork belly was just too fatty. I ended up with about 24 hours at 155 sous vide. Then I smoked it at 225 for about 3 hours. There were a few good smokey belly nuggets in there. The best part of the night was the tarteflette though. It was delicious. I think next time I'll try all the all belly version as it was written. My main issue was Joule didn't work the morning I was supposed to start it. ChefSteps took care of me though and got a replacement out right away, it just didn't leave enough time to make it per Kenji's recipe. Too much craziness going on with all the cooking for pictures though, so sorry about no visuals.