Home-Cured Pork Tenderloin ‘Ham’
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 5 days’ storing
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1cup kosher salt
- 1cup sugar
- 12cups boiling water
- 1teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½teaspoon allspice berries
- ½teaspoon cloves
- ½teaspoon dried thyme
- 2bay leaves
- 1teaspoon curing salt (sel rose)
- 1cup dry white wine for brine, plus ½ cup for cooking
- 4pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each
- 2medium onions, thinly sliced
- 1small bunch fresh thyme
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)
132 calories; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 15 grams protein; 516 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Put salt and sugar in a large nonreactive bowl (stainless steel or glass). Add boiling water and stir well to dissolve salt and sugar. Add peppercorns, mustard seeds, allspice berries, cloves, thyme and bay leaves. Leave to cool completely.
- Step 2
Add curing salt and 1 cup white wine to cooled brine. Submerge pork tenderloins in brine. Place plate directly on top of pork to keep it submerged if necessary. Cover container and refrigerate for 5 days.
- Step 3
Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Discard brine. Spread onions and thyme sprigs on bottom of a large shallow baking dish. Add brined tenderloins in one layer, then add ½ cup wine. Heat oven to 350 degrees; as it heats, bring meat to room temperature. Cover dish and bake for 45 minutes or until pork registers 135 degrees with an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven (meat will continue to cook and reach 140 degrees as it rests). Let cool before cutting into thin slices. Serve with buttermilk biscuits. May be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 1 week.
Private Notes
Comments
It was really tender and tasty, but WAY too salty. Is it safe to reduce the amount of salt called for?
What is curing salt and how is it different than other salt?
Soak it a couple of hours or overnight in clean water in the refrigerator. That removes excess salt.
I used the cure to prepare the whole ham - kept it in brine for five days, then rinsed it in clean water for some time (30min) and then baked it with some onion, carrots, thyme and rosemary. I made a mixture of aromatic vinegar and honey, and poured some of it over the ham, then during baking, and the rest at the very end of baking. Ham was perfect.
This came out so good. I was busy so I let it brine for 6 days. Gave it a couple hours of light smoke on my pellet grill. It was delicious.
This was a huge hit with my family for Easter brunch! I halved the recipe and used the spices I had on hand, so no cloves and some things were powdered instead of whole. Served with ATK’s dead simple cream biscuits, a thrown-together sauce of hot honey, dijon, cream and shallot, and the wine-braised onions it cooked with, this ham was much raved about and folks were fighting over the leftovers.
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