Sous vide pork loin chops and roast

Pork loin is my favorite part of a pig. And I say that with the utmost respect to pork belly and pork tenderloin, which are right up there. Cooked sous-vide, pork loin gains an incredible amount of flavor from the spices that it cooks in, yet the low-temperature cooking makes sure the loin is not dried out. In fact, pork loin is a very non-trivial piece of meat to cook without sous vide. Chops are a bit easier, but I frankly do not have the skills to prepare a juicy loin roast without using a sous vide machine.

This was evident last summer when we had friends over for a visit, and we made a loin roast in sous vide. The sous vide setup was hidden from the view, so the guest had no idea how the meat was cooked. They thought we used some kind of a foil to prevent the meat from drying out. We explained that the critical factor is the temperature - at around 140 the proteins start squeezing the moisture out, and the meat becomes tougher and tougher.

I highly recommend buying an entire boneless loin - surprisingly inexpensive in the US. Then you are facing a choice - to chop or not to chop. I slice off two longer pieces for the roast, and I cut the rest of the loin into chops, just under an inch thick seems to work well.

I put a piece of meat in a metal bowl using tongues. This way my fingers stay clean and I can reach for spices freely. I season quite liberally with salt, then I grind pepper, sprinkle some gochu, the driend korean chili, some garlic powder, and some cumin. I make sure all sides of the the meat are seasoned. Clearly, I use more spices for the roast than for the chops. Because the chops are smaller, I usually season three at a time.

The meat then goes into a bag, and I add a tablespoon of dried onion flakes. Of course, one piece of the roast goes into one bag. For the chops, I put three in a bag - two for a dinner, and one for lunch the following day. I lay the chops flat next to each other - this way I get one rather thin layer that cooks much faster. Optionally, one can also add some coconut oil to the bag. The coconut oil is a good choice, because it is not liquid and will not make vacuum sealing more challenging than it should be. At the end, I vacuum seal the packages at a normal setting - with nothing wet in the bags, there is no need for special adjustments.

We usually use one package right away, the rest go in the freezer. So when we want to have some delicious pork loin, we first defrost the meat in a bowl of cold water. It goes really fast that way - or one can leave the meat in the fridge for a day or so.

With sous vide, one has to decide how long and at what temperature to cook, and it all depends on your preferences. Here are ours:

Pork loin chops: 45 to 60 minutes at 139F
Pork loin roast: 4-5 hours at 139F

After the pork is cooked, one can torch it to sear the outside, or one can sear the outside quickly in a hot pan with some high-heat oil, such as avocado oil.

There will be some liquids in the bag. These are tasty and can be used as an ingredient in a sauce.