How do I cook a pork tenderloin without it going dry?

Pork tenderloin — also sold as pork fillet — is the muscle that runs under the spine and does almost nothing all its life. It is the most tender cut on the pig and the least forgiving, because there is no fat, no connective tissue and nothing to hide behind.

What you'll need

• Pork tenderloin or pork fillet
• An instant-read thermometer
• An ovenproof frying pan
• A thin, flexible boning or filleting knife

Step by step

1. Remove the silverskin.There is an iridescent silvery membrane along one side. It is collagen that does not break down in a short cook and it contracts hard, bowing the fillet. Slide a thin knife under one end, angle the blade slightly up towards the membrane, and slice along in strips. Losing a little meat is fine.
2. Deal with the tapered tail.One end is much thinner than the other and will be overcooked by the time the thick end is ready. Either fold the thin end under and tie it with string to make an even cylinder, or cut it off and cook it separately as strips.
3. Season, and consider a short brine.Salt it at least 40 minutes ahead if you can — on such a lean cut, salt is doing real work holding moisture. A short wet brine of 30–60 minutes in a 6% salt solution also works well and buys you a few degrees of margin.
4. Sear the whole fillet hard.Dry the surface, then sear in a very hot pan with a little high-smoke-point oil, turning to colour every face. Three to four minutes total. Because the fillet is thin, this is a meaningful part of the total cooking, not just colour.
5. Finish in the oven at 200°C and probe from the end.Eight to fifteen minutes depending on thickness. Insert the probe horizontally into the thickest part from the cut end so the tip sits in the centre. On a cut this size the probe placement matters more than the oven setting.
6. Pull it at about 62–63°C.Cooked to that point, whole-muscle pork is juicy and faintly rosy in the middle. Carryover will add two or three degrees during the rest. Above about 70°C the muscle has squeezed out most of its water and no resting will bring it back.
7. Rest, then slice into medallions.Rest five to ten minutes — long enough to matter, short enough that a small lean cut does not go cold. Slice into rounds about 1.5–2cm thick, across the grain. Any juices on the board go over the top.

Tips

• Tenderloin takes a marinade or a spice crust better than most pork because it has so little flavour of its own. Something with acid, sweetness and heat suits it.
• Cut into medallions before cooking and it becomes a five-minute pan dish — sear both sides, remove, build a mustard and cream sauce in the pan.
• Wrapping the fillet in bacon or pancetta adds the fat it does not have and buys you a little more margin for error.
• Two fillets of similar size cook far more predictably than one thick and one thin, so pair them if you are cooking for a crowd.

Common mistakes

• Confusing tenderloin with pork loin — Loin is the big cylindrical roasting joint from the back; tenderloin is a small muscle weighing a few hundred grams. A loin recipe applied to a tenderloin will destroy it.
• Cooking it until there is no pink at all — By the time an intact pork fillet is uniformly white it has passed 75°C and lost its moisture. Whole-muscle pork at 63°C is properly cooked and slightly pink.
• Leaving the silverskin on — It shrinks in the heat, curls the fillet into a banana so it cooks unevenly, and leaves a chewy strip in every slice.

Questions people ask