Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin

Small enough to cook relatively quickly, but large and elegant enough to make a centerpiece roast, pork tenderloin is the kind of dish to pull out when you're feeling extra fancy on a weeknight. Cooking it sous vide is the most foolproof way to get it on the table with consistently great flavor and a buttery, ultra-tender texture.

Why Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin?

It may seem obvious to say it, but pork tenderloin is the beef tenderloin of the pork world, and it comes with all of the same features, both good and bad. On the good side is the fact that it's extremely tender—the tenderest cut of meat on the hog. On the bad side? Well, as a muscle that's rarely used during the pig's lifetime, it's extremely mildly flavored, to the point of being nearly bland. It is also very lean, which makes it difficult to cook evenly—lean meat conducts heat faster than fatty meat, which leads to a greater chance of overcooking. Moreover, because of its leanness, overcooked tenderloin is particularly unforgiving: dry, chalky, and tough to swallow.

Cooking sous vide solves both of these problems. Flavor-wise, it's easy to add aromatics or spices to the sous vide bag along with the pork, building that flavor right into the meat. (You can reinforce the flavor with more aromatics when you subsequently sear the roast.) As for texture, with sous vide cooking, overcooked meat is a thing of the past. Sous vide allows for perfectly even, edge-to-center cooking with complete control, whether you like your pork pink or gray.

Temperature and Timing for Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin

When you're working with quick-cooking meats, like steaks, pork chops, or pork tenderloin, the texture and juiciness of the finished product are directly related to the temperature to which it is cooked. Pork starts to firm up and expel moisture around 120°F (49°C) or so, with its firmness and dryness increasing as the temperature goes up. With sous vide cooking, you have complete control over exactly how cooked your pork ends up, so pick a desired temperature and go!

Is Pink Pork Safe?

While eating any meat rare poses health risks, particularly for older people, pregnant people, or very young people, these days pork is just about as safe to eat rare as beef is. That is, so long as you are working with properly stored, cleanly cut meat and searing the exterior before serving, the risk of illness from consuming rare pork is very minimal.

With sous vide cooking, you have another advantage: pasteurization. At 130°F (54°C), bacteria are actively being destroyed on the surface of that pork. Every moment that it's in the cooker, it's becoming safer to eat. At higher temperatures, the rate of destruction is even faster. Because of this, sous vide is a great introduction to the wonderfully juicy world of rare pork.

What About Brining?

Brining—the process of submerging a piece of meat in a heavily salted bath—can help meat retain more liquid as it cooks. However, I find meat that's been brined tastes a little watered-down, and with the gentleness of sous vide cooking, there's really no need for it. The other downside to brining, particularly with pork, is that it can give the pork a ham-like texture and flavor. If anything, I prefer a bit of light dry-brining. By salting the meat, bagging it, and letting it rest in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight, you get similar juice-retention effects without the watering-down of flavor that traditional brining can bring.

Can I Add Aromatics to the Bag?

Yes! Aromatics added to the bag can give the pork great flavor. Just be aware that sous vide cooking tends to concentrate the flavor of spices and herbs, so go light. Fresh sprigs of whole herbs, like thyme, rosemary, or oregano, are great, as are alliums like garlic and shallots, or spices like paprika, cumin, coriander, and black peppercorns (either whole or ground). Feel free to experiment.

What's the Best Way to Sear?

Once your tenderloin comes out of its sous vide bag, it is technically completely cooked, but it will not be very appetizing. Without some degree of high-heat cooking, it won't have any of the wonderful brown color and flavor that come with traditionally roasted meats. You need to add that sear after cooking.

The best method for searing indoors is to start by drying off the surface of the pork with paper towels. It takes a huge amount of energy to evaporate surface moisture, and until that moisture is gone, no browning can take place. After drying, I use a heavy skillet, high heat, and a combination of oil and butter. I start by heating up the oil until it's almost smoking-hot, carefully adding in the pork, then cooking it, turning occasionally, until it's browned on most sides. I add butter just for the last few minutes of cooking in order to prevent the milk solids dissolved in it from burning excessively (a little bit burnt is okay!).

For extra flavor, I add aromatics to the pan at this stage—shallots and oregano or thyme are a great match for pork—tilting the pan and using a spoon to baste the pork with the flavorful fat.

How About a Sauce?

To be honest, pork cooked sous vide is so darn juicy on its own that it doesn't really need a sauce, but, if you'd like one, you can build a simple pan sauce by emptying out the skillet, sautéing some aromatics, deglazing with some booze and the liquid left in the sous vide bag, then mounting it all with some butter and mustard.