For hundreds of years, the world’s culinary traditions have met and advanced within the Midwest. As a magnet for immigrant populations and their hopes and goals, with extra cultural flexibility than the long-settled East Coast and South however a stronger sense of group than the wide-open West, the area is a real melting pot—“probably the most American a part of America,” to borrow a phrase from the Midwest historian James Shortridge.

The Midwest is a spot the place cooks dare to ask questions like, “What if we served our Greek meat stew over spaghetti and piled cheddar cheese on high?” or “Might we flip Ozark hen and gravy right into a Chinese language dish?” or “Who’s to say that Particular Okay wouldn’t make a scrumptious dessert?”

And that intuition for experimentation can actually repay, like when somebody on this closely Germanic and pork-loving area requested, “What if we put schnitzel on a bun?”

Based on heartland legend, that somebody was Nick Freienstein of Nick’s Kitchen in Huntington, Indiana, opened in 1908, which claims to be the birthplace of the Midwestern breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Is it actually? I’ll depart that to the lecturers. Whoever got here up with it, it was a good suggestion, which is why it’s now a staple in Iowa and Indiana, the 2 states which have the strongest claims to the custom, and on menus nearly all over the place else within the area. 

Crisp, tender, and constantly satisfying, the Midwestern breaded pork tenderloin sandwich is a Midwestern cousin to the Southern fried hen sandwich that’s now a high vendor at quick meals chains like Chick-fil-A and Popeyes. 

It’s additionally a fantastic visible gag—one which represents heartland bounty and a very good worth. Not all pork tenderloin sandwiches are enormous, however the plate-size variations are iconic.

“The bigness is the wow issue,” says Julia Spalding, an editor at Indianapolis Month-to-month who’s been consuming and writing about tenderloin sandwiches for many years. “There’s some enjoyable in determining the way you’re going to eat it—fold it over, make a triple decker, eat across the edges, or lower it in half and take half residence… The bun is nearly like a punchline. It’s sort of humorous, simply sitting there on high of a large sandwich.”

The Key Parts for Frying the Pork Tenderloin

The breaded pork tenderloin is a simple sandwich. To make it, you pound a chunk of pork till it’s solely a couple of quarter- or half-inch thick, brine it (which it’s best to), bread it, fry it, and put it on a bun. There are limitless alternatives for experimentation inside these easy tips.

To begin the recipe improvement course of, I created a kind of breaded pork tenderloin matrix, itemizing out the assorted potentialities, from selecting the lower of pork to pounding to breading to frying to meeting. Total, I needed a sandwich that was juicy, salty, and intensely savory, with a transparent distinction between the crisp, crunchy crust and the ridiculously tender meat inside. I’ll stroll you thru just a few of a very powerful concerns.

The Finest Minimize of Pork for This Sandwich

A breaded pork tenderloin sandwich ought to begin with tenderloin, proper? Not essentially. Most of the Midwest’s most iconic restaurant variations, together with the purported unique at Nick’s and almost all these plate-size variations, are constituted of tender loin, not tenderloin. 

It’s logical for eating places serving up tons of of sandwiches a day to pick loin over tenderloin. Pork loin is bigger, extra reasonably priced, just a little bit fattier, and fewer more likely to collapse when thwacked with a meat mallet. After it’s been completely tenderized, it actually isn’t all that totally different from tenderloin, anyway. It’s extra sensible in a restaurant setting.

That mentioned, by a number of rounds of side-by-sides, a slight distinction was evident, and it mattered. For cooking the sandwich at residence, the “ridiculously tender” possibility was tenderloin, certainly. Whereas shut in texture, pork loin nonetheless retains a slight chew even when tenderized. That may very well be a optimistic for many who like a extra assertive fillet, but it surely isn’t what I’m going for right here. The one texture I would like contained in the crisp layer of fried breading is tender.

As residence cooks, now we have extra flexibility in our elements than eating places extracting skinny margins from tons of or 1000’s of sandwiches per week. I don’t fry pork sandwiches at residence usually, however after I do, I’ll spring for the tenderloin.

Why a Brine Is Important for the Finest Tenderloin Sandwich

In my first spherical of assessments, it was instantly apparent that skipping the brine wasn’t an possibility. While you’ve pounded a pork loin into submission, it cooks shortly—inside only a minute or two. Even a tenderized tenderloin can dry out and get robust earlier than you’ll be able to pull it out of the scorching oil. A brine provides taste and helps the pork keep juicy and tender. I examined a line-up of brining choices:

• Buttermilk
• Pickle juice
• Salt-and-sugar
• A mixture or buttermilk and pickle juice
• A mixture of buttermilk, salt, and sugar

I believed buttermilk could be the reply, but it surely added a particular tang that distracts from the meat-and-potatoes attraction of this easy sandwich, even when diluted. Identical for the pickle juice brine. These skinny, pounded-out cutlets take up taste quickly and completely, and I needed them to style like pork, not buttermilk or pickles. A salt-and-sugar brine accomplishes that, boosting fairly than overwhelming the meaty taste of the primary ingredient. 

You could be questioning why I’m utilizing a moist brine right here, when Critical Eats has written that dry brining is one of the simplest ways to brine meat. As that piece acknowledges, there are exceptions. 

While you’re coping with a centerpiece-worthy piece of meat, like a turkey or a beef tenderloin, dry brining saves house. It means you don’t should contaminate a wonderfully good cooler with gallons of uncooked meat tea. The alternative is true when working with these wafer-thin cuts. You would dedicate a shelf in your fridge to 4 pounded items of pork tenderloin laid out on a wire rack, or you may stuff them right into a zipperlock bag and wedge them right into a nook.

Most of the advantages of dry brining don’t apply right here. We’re browning and crisping the breading, not the meat, so the floor of the tenderloin itself doesn’t should be dry. Drying out the floor of the meat is usually a destructive, really, if you’re pounding it so thinly that it’s nearly all floor. The residual brine left on the fillets, even after patting them dry, helps the breading adhere. Flour received’t stick with a chunk of tenderloin with the outer texture of beef jerky.

Dialing within the Breading for Most Crispiness

In researching common variations of fried tenderloins, together with on the remarkably lively Pursuing Pork Tenderloins Fb web page, I got here throughout 5 fundamental breading choices that piqued my curiosity for testing: saltines, varied different crackers (Ritz, Cheez-It, Membership, City Home), cereals (corn flakes, Rice Krispies), potato chips, and panko. I went to the grocery store and loaded a cart with packing containers of crispy snacks and cereals. Saltine crumbs are the most well-liked selection, however I needed to imagine that I might discover a higher various—one thing that added bonus crunch and taste to the sandwich. 

After a number of rounds of assessments, I ended up again at saltines. As soon as once more, I needed to showcase the flavour of the pork, and saltines gave me one of the best crunchy however comparatively impartial breading, which I might taste with my very own mix of spices. 

If impartial is the objective, why not simply dredge in flour? Right here’s why: Cracker crumbs are coarser than flour, and their irregular floor traps tiny pockets of air throughout frying. Because the moisture contained in the crumbs evaporates, steam pushes outward, increasing these pockets and making a shattering crunch. Additionally, as a result of crackers are already baked, they’re decrease in free starch content material than flour, so that they take up much less oil. Which means a lighter, much less greasy crust. And at last, they’re a part of the breaded pork tenderloin custom! That counts for one thing.

The Seasoning and Frying Oil

In step with my objective of constructing a sandwich that was easy however intensely craveable, I added what I consider as basic fried hen sandwich seasoning—black pepper, paprika, a contact of cayenne, and (non-compulsory) MSG, for further mouthwatering attraction. There’s nobody approach to season a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, however I believe the appropriate method is to go only a little additional than simply salt and pepper, including taste to a comparatively bland lower of meat with out distracting from it. (I had a incredible chorizo-spiced tenderloin not way back, with a chunky tomato salsa on high. I assist having extra enjoyable along with your spice combine, however that is meant to be a foundational recipe.)

I arrange a regular dredging station, seasoned every layer of the dredge for whole taste saturation, and fried in peanut oil at a excessive temperature, so the crust would brown earlier than the pork inside overcooked. I selected peanut oil for its smoke level of 450°F. In the event you can’t use peanut oil due to an allergy, search for one other oil with an equally excessive smoke level, comparable to soybean or sunflower.

Constructing the Sandwich

As soon as your tenderloin is cooked, assembling it’s simple, however if you wish to keep true to custom, you do should take a facet the place toppings are involved. “It’s both lettuce, tomato, and mayo or mustard, pickle, and onion,” Spalding instructed me. “These are two totally different camps.” The cultural divide is actual. I’m often a mustard, pickle, and onion individual, however I don’t decide.