Sous Vide Bone-In Pork Loin Roast Plus Apple-Mustard-Drippings Sauce

Is:  Gluten-free, grain free, Whole30, paleo, nightshade-free.

Yes, I know I said I’d use today to put in two more Greek recipes, but I fear they’re not quite ready for uploading at the moment, so I moved something I’d set for later this month to today’s date.  But I know what I’m cooking later today…

As far as I can determine, all the sous vide pork loin roast recipes out there are to date, boneless.  I ordered my pork-share pork loin roasts from the friendly neighborhood (well, Connecticut) pastured pig farmer’s farm share, with the bones in.  After all, the bones can be saved for making pork bone broth – something I’ll be making this summer for another recipe I am eager to try.  And besides I have found that bone-in meats generally have more intrinsic flavor than that where the bones are discarded.

The completed bone-in pork loin, topped with an apple-mustard-balsamic reduction. That’s not a single serving, although here the pork is still on the bone. This is rich enough for four decent servings.

Another thing to note:  pork loin is not the same thing as pork tenderloin.  Those are the small strips that go along the lower backbone of the pig.  The loin proper is up towards and closer to the head, and is what is often sectioned up and sold as pork chops (boneless or bone-in).  To my mind, a better cut than the tenderloin (although I plan to try sous vide on that rather finicky piece at a later date).

I received 4 sections of pork loin roast from this half-a-porker meat share – they weighed in between 2.5 – 3.5 pounds of roast, including those bones.  I roasted one in the oven, without any intent of blogging about it.  This recipe involves the second portion, and it weighed about 2.5 lbs.  The other two portions remain in the freezer, for later… What I describe here will indeed work for larger – say to 3.5 lbs or so. – portions of bone-in pork loin roast.

In my experience, pork seems to need less salt than beef ever does.  Despite the fact that so often portions of pork (ie, the ham) are heavily salted for curing.  I submit that for the ham, and for the hocks, this works, but this is seriously not necessary for most of the pig. Thus, I suggest you use the small amount of salt in this recipe, and let your guests / family do what they want with their portion at the dinner table.

You WILL need a large sous vide bag to contain your roast.  If you do not have one, you can split the roast into two, with a cleaver.

Sous Vide Pork Loin Bone-In Roast

• 1 bone-in pork loin roast, 2.5-3.0 pounds.
• 1/2 heaping teaspoon coarse-ground sea salt.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper.

Apple-Mustard-Drippings Sauce

• 2 apples, core removed, chopped.
• 1/2 a small yellow or white onion, diced.
• 2 tablespoons reduced balsamic vinegar.
• 2 tablespoons avocado or other cooking oil.
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard.
• 1 heaping teaspoon allspice.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel.
• All the drippings from the sous vide bag(s) once the pork is cooked.

Set up your sous vide device in a sufficiently large stew pot, and bring the temperature of the bath to 137 or 138 F.

Meanwhile, rub the salt and pepper into the bone in pork loin on all sides.  Then insert into your sous vide bag.  I use reusable silicon bags, but you can use vacuum-sealable plastic sous vide bags.  In my case, since I use the immersion technique for sealing my silicon bags – which are not amenable to the vacuum devices – I added a couple of blunt dinner knives to weigh the whole thing down.  In any case, remove as much air from your bag as possible.

Place the pork into the water bath, following instructions for your specific sous vide device.  Set to cook at 137-138 for 4 to 4.5 hours.

Go do something else while your meat does what it needs to do.

Before the pork is cooked, make the basics for your sauce:  add everything but the drippings to a sauce pan, and simmer down for about 20 minutes.  You can mash down the apple pieces further at your discretion.  I kept my sauce chunky.

Remove the pork from the sous vide bath, and remove it from the bag.  Set aside, and pour the liquid juices from this bag into the sauce.  Stir, and set aside on a warm burner.

Now, you can brown the pork proper.  A grill is good, but barring that, you can still do this on a skillet inside your home.  Place the roast, fat side down, on the skillet, and brown it, rendering out some fat.  Flip over, and on the third side when ready.  The process may take 7-10 minutes.

Serve, using a sharp knife or a cleaver to separate the ribs.  Add the sauce to each dish.  Alternatively put the whole roast on a serving platter, and cover with the apple sauce, and serve at the table.

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This post is serving itself a very full plate over at Full Plate Thursdays.

This post is having a small fiesta over at Fiesta Friday.

This post had a pleasant Sunday Supper at What’s for Dinner?

This post used pasture-raised local pork, and is a larder idea at Homestead Blog Hop.