How to Make Pork Two Ways: Pan-Seared Pork Tenderloin Steaks and Crispy Slow-Roasted Pork Belly

today on America’s Test Kitchen Beckymakes Bridget perfect pan-seared porktenderloin steaks Adam reveals his toppick for air fryers and Dan makes Juliathe ultimate crispy slow roasted porkbelly it’s all coming up right here onAmerica’s Test Kitchen[Music]pork tenderloin what can we say about itI mean it is no bacon that’s for sureit’s mild flavor it’s got a little bitof fat but not a lot so it’s leaning itcan dry out but Becky’s here and she’sgonna turn all of this on its head she’sgonna show us pork tenderloin that’sjuicy flavorful and fork tender right Ipromise you it’s gonna be so good thetenders already built-in right it’s atenderloin it is very tender all rightbut we’re gonna hand all the otherissues is excellent and it’s actuallyvery simple great the key is to use twocooking methods first we’ll cook thepork in a low temperature oven nice andslow then we’ll transfer it to thestovetop for a quick sear okay soundsgood so I have two one-pound tenderloinshere and when you’re shopping you wantto look for tenderloins that are evenlysized so that they’ll cook at the samerate and we also prefer unenhanced porkenhanced means that the pork has beeninjected with a salt water solutionright it’s similar to brining they’vedone it there and it’s seasoned throughbut it can be a little webby almostspongy yeah kind of Bunji texture sortof ham like right not crazy about it sothis is unenhanced and I’m going topound the meat a little bit so that Ican create a nice flat surface area andthat will help me get better browning soI’m pounding 1 inch thick here just alittle bit to go crazy that looks goodI don’t do the other one here and Ithink we just about have it there sothis will serve for people I’ll cut thisinto four steaks so I’m gonna seasoneach one with about 1/2 TSP of koshersalt here both sides and now we’ll do aneighth of a teaspoon of pepper on eachsteak now we like pork cooked to 140degrees at that temperature it’s just alittle bit pink on the insideit’s juicy it’s tender and so the goalwith this recipe is to try and get theexterior temperature the same is thatinternal 140 degree temperature so youhave even cooking from edge to edge sothe way that we’re gonna do that iswe’re going to bake the steaks in a 275degree oven and then we’ll sear them onthe stovetop we’re going to put the meaton a rack here this rack has beensprayed with vegetable spray so itdoesn’t stick and we’re just lifting themeat up off the hot pan a little bitagain to prevent that overcooking okayso we’re going to bake the steaks at 275degrees for 25 to 35 minutesagain we’re looking for 137 240 degreesso the pork is in the oven it’s justabout done and while it finishes cookingI thought we’d make up a nice scallionginger relish to go with it and thatsounds greatyeah really good it’s nice and brightit’ll complement the mild flavor of thepork so I have a quarter cup ofvegetable oil heating up on the stoveokayjust want that to simmer a little bitlet’s start with two teaspoons finelygrated ginger oh love fresh ginger oh Ido too and really nice with the scallionthat’s a great combination so this issix scallions just the white part okayput those in nice and thin and 1/2 TSPlime zest in there and 1/2 teaspoon ofwhite pepper now you don’t want to useblack pepper here white pepper is isreally quite different it’s not as spicyso kind of a floral earthy almost fruityyes yes describe it it’s really uniquebut it’s really nice perfect flavorespecially with ginger so good yeah soyou can see our oil is just starting toshimmer there sure is a little movementin the bottom of the pan right so thatwas over medium heat now it’s ready togolet’s put this over our scallion mixturenice so the hot oils gonna draw out someof that flavor that’s right it’s notgonna cook the scallions it’s just gonnawilt them just bring out that niceginger flavor mmm you can smell allthose flavors the lime and the gingeryeah there’s some of the flavorcompounds especially in ginger and thepepper that are oil soluble so by addingoil anyway it’s gonna help to bloom thembut the heat just really amps it up yeahso let’s set this aside for 15 minuteswe want those flavors to have a chanceto get to know each other let’s go grabthe pork because I think that should bedone well that looks um interestingBridget trust me give me a chance herewe’re not doneso we’re looking for 137 to 140 andlooks like we nailed it so I’m justgonna slide all the pieces over to oneside here because I want to put the meaton some paper towels our next cookingmethod is going to be to sear these in askillet and I want these to be as dry aspossible Moisture is the enemy ofbrowning so we’ll let these sit for tenminutes all right nice little papertowel blanket in the meantime let’sfinish up that scallion relish it soundsgood now that’s been resting for about15 minutes cooling down that’s rightokayso it’s nice and cool now so nowgoing to add the green parts from thescallions all right here’s the otherhalf to the six and the Greens have anice grassy fresh flavor won’t preservethat that’s why we didn’t cook those inthe oil so now I have two teaspoons ofsoy sauce and two teaspoons of freshlime juice hmm so really nice fresh mmmbright flavors there we’ll let that sitfor about 15 minutes while we finish upthe port okay so I have two tablespoonsof oil here heating over medium highheat we’re gonna get that to a niceshimmer and when we start to see somesmoke coming up that’s how we know thepans ready right let’s get our porkready here there it is Thunder it’s nicepaper towels for a while I’m just gonnagive them an extra Pat here because Iwant them super duper dry the drier theyare the better they’re gonna brown andthen you’ll be happy all right yeah I’llget a nice crust and they lookattractive so you can see a little bitthe smoke is starting to come up heresure so I’m gonna turn the heat to highI want to cook these really fast allright just one or two minutes per sidebecause they’re basically already cookedthat’s right we’re just browning theexterior here so it’s been about aminute let’s take a peek and see what’sgoing on over hereoh nice brown color now you’re like thatright yes that looks gorgeous I like thewhole heck of a lot better that’s whatwe wanted then I got that nice crustthat nice sear because they were superdry yeah we have a really hot panthere’s another minute on this side allright and we should be good to go soundsgreat all right let’s take a peek on thesecond side all right babies out of thepan put them on our carving board hereso that looks pretty simple right thatwas the quickest makeover I’ve ever seenokay so we’re just gonna let the meatrest for five minutes give those juicesa chance to make sure they stay insidethe meat and we’re gonna come back andwe’ll dive in perfect can’t wait so thepork has been resting for five minuteslet’s place it up here you can see howjuicy it is super juicy look at thatcome on come on so juicy it’s gorgeousit’s a little bit pink even color yeahbeautiful even from edge to edge yes Icut those into nice three-quarter inchthick slices and there’s the relish thatwe made can I serve you some of thatladies that would be greatI love that it’s independent of the porktoo so you could make itwith anything and everything it would begreat with chicken yep all right timefor tucking in that’s not porktenderloin you switched out somethingelse for pork tenderloin is that not thebest seriously the best pork tenderloinit actually has so much flavorI’m completely suspicious at this pointthe baby has put in a little bit of porkshoulder here it’s so good so flavorfulreally well seasoned incredibly juicythe relish is still bright citrusy theginger the scallion Becky thank youyou’ve changed pork tenderloin for meand I’m sure everyone out there mypleasurewell no more dried out pork for us wellfirst you start by pounding then slicingpork tenderloins in half season and bakethem in a even low oven rest the steakson paper towels and sear them over highheat and in the meantime make a quickrelish by pouring hot oil every scallionwhites ginger and lime zest let thatcool in then stir in scallion greenslime juice and soy sauce slice thosesteaks and serve with that tasty relishso from our Test Kitchen to your kitchentasty juicy flavorful and tenderI’d say perfect – pan-seared porktenderloin steaks you got to make theseand don’t forget the relish[Music]airfryer’s are the hot new thing they’reselling like gangbusters in eating upsocial media with all sorts of fan pagesabsolute AG airfryer but today Adamsgonna give us the lowdown on thisrelatively new piece of equipment theseare pretty exciting and they make somebold promises Julia hmm they won’treally deep fry food these are air friedbut they promise nicely fried foodsusing a lot less oil sometimes as littleas a tablespoon or less they’re alsosupposed to be pretty quick and they’rea lot less messy than oven frying orcertainly deep frying so we tested nineof these units the price range was 60dollars and 20 cents to $249.95 okaythat’s a big spread so you do get to asort of investment territory with someof the prices and let me tell you aboutthe tests that we did we tested eachextensively by cooking a lot of frozenfrench fries homemade french frieschicken wings and lighter chickenparmesan and we compared all of theresults with counterparts cooked in aconventional oven using 80 K recipes foroven frying testers also measured eachunits height and footprint and evaluatedhow easy and safe it was to load withfood set the time and temperature toremove the food and to clean I told youthere’s a little bit of a learning curvewith these things but as testersmastered the techniques all this foodcame out surprisingly well and I want tooffer you some oven fries from our airfryer I won’t say no never say no tofrench fries mmmhe’s turned out pretty good now thesewere frozen fries these are frozen friesthey came out of the air fryer they’repretty crisp on the outside kind offluffy on the inside we’re better thanmost evident fries I’ve had and thechicken wings were nice and juicy thechicken parmesan was crunchy and nicelybrowned so the food was actually reallygood out of these things that comparedquite favorably to the conventional ovenoven fried foods so testers moved on tolook at the design and the features nowthere are a couple of kinds of controlssome of them like this one here havedigital controls this one just has plainold-fashioned analog dials and initiallythe testers responded better to theanalogbecause they’re just intuitive and easyto use but there were a few instancesduring the testing where when they wereputting food in taking food out moving afryer they would accidentally change thesetting using these analog dials that’snot goodand they came to actually prefer thedigital’s because that eliminated thatpossibilitytesters also measured these things as Isaid and you can see they’re pretty bigsome of these things are like the sizeof a full-size food processor or biggerso they take a lot of counter space buteven though they have a pretty bigfootprint they don’t hold a whole lot offoodall of these maxed out at one pound offrench fries or chicken wing that’s nota lot of food so not great if you’refeeding a crowds but good if you’re justserving two people if you want toexercise portion control which I neverdo to me a pound of fries is a singleserving in terms of accessing the fryingchambers there were two styles of accessI’m going to step around here and showyou this one has the drawer style whereit’s just a drawer in the front that youpull out in the frying inserts right inthere seems nice to go back over hereyou can see the second type which is theflip top type and that one you just pullthe top up like this now there were acouple of issues with this one well Isaw the bass come right off the tablewhen you first pulled the top off it’skind of unevenly weighted this thing canreally flop around if it’s underneaththe kitchen cabinet the top can banginto the bottom of the cabinet and theworst thing the test has found is thatthe heating element is mounted in thislid and a little loose they reallythought that the thing could come downon your hands ah that’s for putting foodin and out that’s definitely not goodnon-starter so testers were pretty soldon these as a category and they wereespecially sold on the winter which isthe Philips turbo star air fryeradvanced digital model it was the mostexpensive one at $249.95 so it’s aninvestment but it made great food it hadthose digital controls that were easy touse it has the drawer style access thetesters really liked it has an automaticshutoff it kind of stole the shelvesthere was however a Best Buyoh good that’s this one it’s the go wiseus a 3.7 quart seven in one airit’s a little bit taller than the winnerit’s a little bit wider than the winnerand the controls aren’t quite asintuitive but it’s also less than athird the price at seventy-five dollarsand 15 cents so it’s a great sort ofentry level air fryer it’s a bargain yesthere you have it air fires are worththe money and if you’re ready to investcheck out the Philips turbo star airfryer advanced digital model at twohundred and forty nine dollars andninety five cents or if you just want totest the waters with something a littleless expensivecheck out the go Weis us a 3.7 quartseven and one air fryer just 75 dollarsand fifteen cents crispy pork belly is arestaurant dish that’s gotten a lot ofgreat attention over the past few yearsand for good reason it containsalternating layers of well marbled meatbuttery fat and it’s topped the piece ofskin so that when it’s properly cookedit is pure pork heaven and it’s gottenso popular in fact that you can now findpork belly at your local supermarket sotoday Dan’s gonna show us how to cook itat home so I think properly cooked isthe key element here right there’s a lotof things that can go wrong with thiscut if you get it all right great butthere’s a ton of collagen the skin canbe kind of tough so a lot of this startswith it shopping for pork belly okay sowhat we’re gonna look at right now istwo different cuts just so this is acenter cut piece of pork belly which isexactly one it’s three pounds here is acut that is not from the center so itcan be anywhere else on the belly theproblem here is this would make nicebacon right it’s got a ton of fat andyou’re gonna render a lot of that outit’s just because they got any meat onit gotchaso we really want that balance and youcan see beautiful alternating layers offat in me here and that’s ideal you wanta perfect ratio of both so that’s animportant thing to realize is that youknow this is the cut that we get baconfrom and we’re gonna do a couple thingsthat kind of are in the vein of bacon sowe’re gonna season it up nicely so thisguy is three pounds about one and a halfinches thick which is perfect so I’mgonna cut it into three slabs here youwant a really sharp knife for this wholerecipe so I’m gonna break it down into afew pieces and we’re gonna score it sothis really easy comes serving time soI’m going to make quarter inch deep cutsevery half inch and make these reallyperfect little portions gonna makeslicing later on really easy so you wanta really sharp knife for this and you’resewing back and forth very gently shewent through the skin but not down thatfarexactly yeah we just want to go about aquarter inch deep there so that’s aportion size yep exactly yeah I bet thatalso helps to have the fat render out ofit exactly and so one of our bigchallenges is gonna be getting the skinto get nice and crispy so being able tokind of get inside there with some hotoil it’s gonna make all of that skin getcrispy as opposed to just the top partokay that is the last one there so nowwe’re gonna do some seasoning so I’mgonna put this skin side down we’regonna treat the skin in the meat alittle bit differently because at theend we’re gonna try and get the skin topuff yeah we don’t want anything butsalt on it so I’m gonna season the fleshside here with a combination of twotablespoons of salt and two tablespoonsof dark brown sugarwell you mentioned a little bacony andthis is certainly looking a littlebacony with the sugar there’s somethingabout pork sweet that just goes so welltogether you see it across the world andso I’m gonna take advantage of that hereas well okay so that’s nice and combinedI’m gonna get it on all of the flesh sothat’s the top here and then also thesides the salt and sugar are gonna helpseason it they’re also gonna help itretain moisture as it cooks you arebeing very careful not to get any ofthat mixture on the skin that’s rightI’m gonna pull it right up there I’lltransfer it over here so we get sugar onthe skin and then we go to cook it overhigh heat later on it’s gonna burngotchathat’s why I’m being really careful hereso we don’t want any sugar on the skincuz it could burn but we want some saltwhich is gonna help draw moisture and sothis is a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher perstrip here what we’re really trying todo is get a pork rind layer on the topof this pork essentially so we want todry these out so that we have you knowroughly 10% moisture in there as wellno salts gonna help that okay so nowthis is gonna go into the fridgeuncovered because we want more dryingand dehydrating effect on the outsidefor anywhere from 12 to 24 hours okay sothe pork is out of the fridge it was inthere for 12 hours you can go up to 24and you can see that the skin has driedout really nicely mmm that’s good we’regonna continue drying in the oven soI’ve got that preheating right now totwo hundred and fifty degrees whilethat’s happening let’s build a sauce forthis okay this is inspired by kind ofSouth Carolina mustard barbecue saucewhich I absolutely lovethis is two-thirds of a cup of Dijon andthen a thirdof apple cider vinegar I’ve also got aquarter of a cup of dark brown sugar atablespoon of hot sauce mmm more vinegara little heat and a teaspoon ofWorcestershire sauce so this also has alittle bit of acidity but really it’sabout that um mommy that really savoryquality it’s got some anchovies in thereto get that so this is super simplesauceyou literally whisk it all together Ilove it so I’m gonna set this aside ringin our pork I’m gonna transfer this to awire rack here I’ve added a little bitof cooking spray just so that fleshdoesn’t stick to it so we’re gonna roastthis really low and slow so 250 degreesfor anywhere from three tothree-and-a-half hours it is low insulinis low and slow and the reason is we’rebasically looking at three big pieces ofcollagen here so we don’t cook it lowand slow we don’t convert that collagento gelatin it doesn’t tenderize the meatand fat and it doesn’t take any rice theskin enough that it can then puff andcreate that beautiful crisp skin okay sothese been there for about three and ahalf hours and it should be 195 degreesand right there 196 I’ll take it so I’mgonna transfer these over to this platehere we’re actually gonna use the fatthat’s under here so I’m just gonna pourit off into this measuring cup oohliquid gold right there so the finalsteps of this is getting that skin tocrisp right and that needs to happenpretty rapidly we don’t need to deep-fryit we can shallow fry we’re gonna useabout a cup of oil in that skillet soI’ve got really nice amount about 3/4 ofa cup of it is that beautiful pork fatand I’m just gonna add some vegetableoil to a cup that’s perfect transfer itover here to my 12-inch skillet thereare so many things I want to fry in thatpork fat right now so I’m gonna transferthis skin side down before we heat it upso it’s this kind of magical moment wheneverything heats up that moisture turnsto steam and expands and you don’t wantit to happen just on the surface becausethat puffs away then the bottom doesn’tget cooked as well all at the same timeright so we’re gonna put this overmedium heat and it’s gonna take a littlewhile but we’re gonna start to see somelittle bubbles form around there that’sa great sign I’m gonna start tilting theskillet every now and then to eventhings out we’re gonna fry from anywherefrom 6 to 10 minutes and you’re gonnasee a really dramatic transformationokay and only on the skin side we’re notfrying any other parts everything elseis done and beautiful this is gonnatastebacony and sweet so we’re justconcentrating on the skin okay I’m notwatch okay so I can see it starting topuff along sides there it’s likeclimbing up a little bit getting somegood height to it and let’s turn thatover oh that is perfect beautiful turnoff the heat and transfer these over tothis cutting board now that is exactlywhat you want to see tons of tiny puffsall over the top there that’s gonna beinsanely crispy oh my goodness thissmell is out of this world so this looksfantastic we’re gonna let it rest for afew minutes and then we’re gonna dig inalrightso Dan mentioned that we tried to getthat skin crisp in a hot oven and alsounder the broiler but it didn’t work theonly way to get it crisp was using hotoil now let’s take a look at what’sgoing on there even though it’s been inthe oven for a few hours our pork skinstill contains water at this point whenyou fry pork skin and oil at a highenough temperature it applies heatdirectly to the skin so that the waterinside turns to steam rapidly expandsand escapes leaving pockets behind theprotein Network that was holding on tothe water is forced to expand by thatescaping steam and then it becomes rigidresulting in a crispy Network full ofair bubbles which puffs and crisps thepork skin pork skin will dry out in theoven too but just not fast enough topuff up that protein Network which setsinto a crisp crust instead it just driesout and gets leathery and that’s whyfrying an oil is key to getting thatperfectly crisp pork skin all right soI’m gonna move these out of the way andwork on just one at a time because wemade these nice score marks beforeobviously help the skin Chris but it’sgonna make slicing really easy so I liketo turn on its side like this and youhave that as a guide do you hear thatpop yes so you’re just gonna follow thatright down and drop that hello that isgorgeous Dan what do you think I’mspeechless actually can I give you alittle song yes please I’m just gonna goover just the meat hereall right I’m going in I’m not I’m nothesitating I’m going right for the skingo gothere is nothing like that flavor unlikebacon which is really smoky and lovelythis is just all about the pork flavorand that crunch is just I mean fat canget really crispy on a roast but skin isthis next level yep it’s so rich youneed all that vinegar and the hot sauceeverything in there to bounce that sauceis lovely on it I think the meat picksup a lot of that sweetness and the saltfrom the rub mm-hmm thank you forshowing me how to make this my pleasureso if you want to make this you trust meyou really want to make this start bybuying a three pound piece of center-cutpork belly after slicing the cork intothree strips make shallow cuts crosswisethrough the skin rub the meat with amixture of salt and brown sugar andseason the skin with just saltrefrigerated overnight uncovered thenroast in a 250 degree oven using therendered pork fat fry the skin untilit’s golden and crisp then let it coolfor 5 minutes before serving with atangy mustard sauce from the TestKitchen to your kitchen a cool newrecipe for crispy slow roasted porkbelly better slow down I know this isrich it tastes so good I don’t want tostop with youthanks for watching America’s TestKitchen what you think we’ll leave acomment and let us know which recipesyou’re excited to make or you can justsay hello you can find links to today’srecipes and reviews in the videodescription and don’t forget tosubscribe to our Channel see you laterI’ll see you later