Pork Tenderloins

The runner-up in the BPT is in my home-town area of Humboldt, IA!
http://www.humboldtnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=12&SubSectionID=12&ArticleID=4570

Need go visit the place whenever we return to see family, ...

I had the Rustix BPT yesterday on my tear through Iowa. The Larsen Pub tenderloin was definitely better. But the best was not even on the nomination list of 44 this year. More later.

I prepared a very lengthy report on my Iowa breaded pork tenderloin sandwich pursuit and it can be found here on Roadfood.com.

http://www.roadfood.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23122

Restaurants and diners covered were.

The Farmer's Kitchen, Atlantic, IA - 2005 IPPA honorable mention for best breaded pork tenderloin sandwich
Larsen's Pub, Elk Horn, IA - 2007 IPPA winner
Darrell's Place, Hamlin, IA - 2003 IPPA winner
Rustix Restaurant, Humboldt, IA 2007 IPPA second place
Suzie-Q Cafe, Mason City, IA

This is Hank and Sharon's Giant Tenderloins on the East Side of Des Moines: its big, salty, and has lots of crumbs.










I think bigger is not always better, and this 12 ounce jumbo sandwich isn't the best in Des Moines.

trzhotel,

That does look as advertised on their sign, a real tenderloin. It looks as if it was butterfly cut from the tenderloin (not pork loin). Most every "tenderloin" I sampled on my recent trip in Iowa was cut from pork loin. The only one I did not verify was the one from the Suzie-Q Cafe. In fact most breaded pork tenderloins are actually pork loin. I guess you can call them tenderloins if you tenderize them.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

trzhotel,

That does look as advertised on their sign, a real tenderloin. It looks as if it was butterfly cut from the tenderloin (not pork loin). Most every "tenderloin" I sampled on my recent trip in Iowa was cut from pork loin. The only one I did not verify was the one from the Suzie-Q Cafe. In fact most breaded pork tenderloins are actually pork loin. I guess you can call them tenderloins if you tenderize them.

Thanks for clearing that up. I once posted on the other BPT thread that I had seen the TV show on BPT's and they had tenderized pork loin meat. Two posters told me I was stupid and did not know what I was talking about. Having worked in a grocery store meat dept. in high school and having worked summers from college in a meat packing plant, I know something about the subject.

plb,

"other BPT thread"?

Anyway there is probably a good reason the pork loin is used. It is considerably cheaper at least in grocery stores. Pork tenderloins run as much as 50% higher in cost per pound over pork loin including already trimmed cutlets. Most of the diners and restaurants sell the sandwiches pretty cheap. The second reason it is easier to slice a pork loin and tenderize it. The pork tenderloin needs to be butterfly cut to achieve that hang over look.

Davydd,

I have found a place in Richmond, Indiana you can cross off your list to try.

The Powerhouse Restaurant in Richmond, Indiana.

They claim to have the best BPT in the region.... What that region would be I haven't a clue.

The BPT was hand pounded flat (my credit card was thicker than the meat )
Breaded in this half salt, quarter flour & quarter corn meal mixture.
Was dry and SALTY enough I killed a 64 Ice Tea before I choked down half the sandwich.

This was my second attempt at this place. No More!

So Davydd when in the area look fro a BPT else where and skip the Powerhouse.

Maybe the region ended where the driveway met the street.

Half salt? I use little on no salt in my breading but a lot of pepper. Corn meal is also probably the least favorite breading. Joensy's in Solon, Iowa was mostly corn meal and it too was pounded extremely flat to make it fill a platter.

They were doing some street work nearby, maybe they used the steam roller to flatten it out. The breading was twice as thick as the meat was PER SIDE.

You can definately SKIP that one.

Looks like we only have until this Saturday, December 7, to sample the famous (once voted best Tenderloin in Indy by Indianapolis Monthly Magazine readers) pork tenderloin sandwich at The Diner. It's at the Hendricks/Marion counties line on US40. An old RR car diner. I hope someone with some cooking savvy comes to rescue and turns it into something that can be featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives".

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/LOCAL0505/712040441/1006/LOCAL

Greg

quote:

Originally posted by gregsgoatfarm

Looks like we only have until this Saturday, December 7, to sample the famous (once voted best Tenderloin in Indy by Indianapolis Monthly Magazine readers) pork tenderloin sandwich at The Diner. It's at the Hendricks/Marion counties line on US40. An old RR car diner. I hope someone with some cooking savvy comes to rescue and turns it into something that can be featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives".

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/LOCAL0505/712040441/1006/LOCAL

Greg

I caught that and reported it earlier in the Roadfood News board. To be honest I had not heard of the Diner in Plainfield and no one had mentioned it before in an Indy excentric tenderloin thread on another forum. I guess this one got away from me.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the board
A little history: One of the first food memories I have from childhood that I can vividly remember is eating a tenderloin sandwich sitting on a little spinning stool in Woolworth's Dime Store in Illinois when I was around three years old. That was 45 years ago. I ate probably a 1000 tenderloins up home before moving down South. I've been down here in Texas about 34 years now and can't believe that no one has yet opened a restaurant named 'Tenderloins' down here for all of us YANKEES!

Finally after 30 years trying off and on down here in Texas I made the perfect breaded pork tenderloin sandwich this evening!

I've tried various recipes over the years with ingredients such as buttermilk, Japanese Panko bread crumbs and a bit of corn meal, etc. and they NEVER tasted like the ones I grew up on in central Illinois.

Tonight I found the secret.
I bought the pork tenderloin meat that comes 2 in a package.
Cut them into 8 pieces - then butterflied each small piece.
Pound out the pork tenderloin piece to less than 1/4 inch.
Make a batter of regular milk, egg, and a little bit of flour mixed in to thicken the batter just a little bit.
Let the meat set in the mixture in the fridge for a few hours (overnight is not necessary in my opinion IF you have a good piece of meat to begin with)
Heat aprox. 3 to 4 inches of vegetable oil
When you take it out of the refrigerator mix up the batter a little because the flour will settle to the bottom of the container - and make sure the meat is evenly coated with the batter.
Dredge the meat in CRACKER MEAL - Nabisco puts out a box that costs less than $3
I put the meat back into the batter and cracker meal a second time pressing the meat down with my fingers to get it covered well.
I don't have a thermometer so I waited till the oil started to bubble a bit (make sure it is hot enough or the first one will not crisp up enough) then put in one breaded tenderloin at a time and let it fry for aprox. 4 to 5 minutes until 'medium' golden brown (I turned my over after 2 1/2 minutes). The poor little bun looked so tiny - and the tenderloin was almost as big around as the paper plate. I salted mine on the plate and added mustard and a couple pickle sliced to the bun. Then it tasted exactly right!

The texture and taste is EXACTLY like the ones that *Palanskys* (spelling?) distributes to the restaurants in the Ottawa - LaSalle/Peru - Peoria area in Central Illinois.

This really hit the spot since I have not been back up home for four year!

* Using the CRACKER MEAL that is crushed to almost a 'sand' consistency I believe is the secret for success.
Nabisco's is perfect, so my search is over!

Ms. Tenderloin,
Thanks, I'll have to try it.
A Hoosier (the state not that school) in TX

quote:

Originally posted by Ms. Tenderloin


The texture and taste is EXACTLY like the ones that *Palanskys* (spelling?) distributes to the restaurants in the Ottawa - LaSalle/Peru - Peoria area in Central Illinois.

It's Bill Polanicic's Tenderloin Shop in Ottawa, Illinois. Home of the Pork Tenderloin with a giant pig on their billboard. We drive by it all the time, usually on a Sunday when they are closed but we finally stopped a few months ago. Definately an old timey, family run butcher shop, they will cut to order but have many products prepared. I didn't buy Tenderloins there but some chops and a lovely filet. They supply most of the small town local bars with their homemade BPTs.

Bill Polanicic's Meat and Tenderloin Shop
412 West Norris (US Rte. 6)
Ottawa, Illinois
815-433-0324

Ms. Tenderloin,

Welcome to Roadfood.com. You found one of the longest running message threads on pork tenderloin sandwiches. I've tried every which way of making tenderloins. I think we tend to favor what we remember which is true with a lot of things. Recreating what you enjoyed is a great achievement. My taste buds did not have that distinct of a memory and my place of remembrance, the Mug'n'Bun in Speedway, Indiana, completely changed anyway when I tried them last year.

Most every restaurant, especially in Iowa and anyone claiming a platter size tenderloin, is using a pork loin cut. I find the true pork tenderloin a tad better. Few restaurants marinade for any length of time. They mostly dip and fry. I found the longer the marinade the more tender the meat. I've done comparative tests with the same meat to determine that. I go with buttermilk overnight because both Nick's Kitchen and Emeril corroborate that and that's good enough for me. I deep fry in a controlled temperature deep fryer at 360 degrees for about 3 minutes. I find the hotter the temperature and faster the fry the less greasy and more uniformly golden brown the tenderloin will be. For breading I have used corn meal, saltine crackers, commercial breadings of all sorts and Panko. I guess I like a more coarse texture that Panko gives. I may try cracker meal. I had corn flakes cereal on my list to try as well.

I found one place in Houston, Heights Camphouse Bar-B-Que, that actually made a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. They didn't exactly know what it was as they called it a pork burger on the menu. Just for curiosity you should check it out.

quote:

Originally posted by kland01s

It's Bill Polanicic's Tenderloin Shop in Ottawa, Illinois. Home of the Pork Tenderloin with a giant pig on their billboard. We drive by it all the time, usually on a Sunday when they are closed but we finally stopped a few months ago. Definately an old timey, family run butcher shop, they will cut to order but have many products prepared. I didn't but Tenderloins there but some chops and a lovely filet. They supply most of the small town local bars with their homemade BPTs.

Bill Polanicic's Meat and Tenderloin Shop
412 West Norris (US Rte. 6)
Ottawa, Illinois
815-433-0324

kland01s-

Yes that's that place
Ottawa is about a 15 minute drive from my hometown.
My aunt has asked them before if they would ship to Texas but they said no - they said because they don't want to deal with the dry ice, etc.

They are definitely the best tenderloins that I've ever eaten in Illinois. It used to be that you could find them only in restaurants and bars but now you can find Polanicic's Tenderloins in the grocery stores in that area. That is how we found out that they use CRACKER MEAL because there is a little paper inside of the box with the ingredients listed.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

<SNIP> I may try cracker meal. <SNIP>

I found one place in Houston, Heights Camphouse Bar-B-Que, that actually made a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. They didn't exactly know what it was as they called it a pork burger on the menu. Just for curiosity you should check it out.

Davydd, please let us know how you like it with cracker meal when you have the chance to try it.
I recommend Nabisco's cracker meal but that's the only brand I've tried so far.

Two weeks ago when my tenderloin craving started up again I did a bit of research and found out about Camphouse and tried calling and the phone had been disconnected. I called Jimmie's Ice House on the same street and they said Heights Camphouse Bar-B-Que CLOSED DOWN about a month or so ago. So, I never had the chance to try theirs.

Hello, I have visited a couple more Tenderloin places lately. My job should take me to rural iowa in the next couple of months, so i can visit more places on my list.

This is a new fast-food place in a former Wendy's building, now named Iowa Castle. This is more of a "small is beautiful" kind of BPT.




This is from Original Coney Island in the downtown Des Moines Skywalk, it is big:



Davvyd: my browser crashes whenever I try to look at your blog, I think it may be my computer bit i'm not sure.

If there is a larger message board thread about breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches, please direct me there. This one is 28 pages, 828 replies, and 95,000 views. I don't want this thread to die.

There is another pork tenderloin thread that was started in 2002, is 128 pages and 3,182 messages but is Indiana centric since it is on the Trackforum.com board that is primarily Indy Racing League and Indianapolis 500 enthusiasts though they have boards for all other racing as well.

I hadn't seen any videos online of tenderloins,
but I finally found one taken at The Firehouse Cafe in Knightstown, Ind.
- now that a good sized one!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zZWHAZyyf6c

Any others out there?

I've had this one linked from my website for quite awhile. It is an excerpt from Jensen Rufe's documentary, In Search of the Famous Hoosier Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. The actual documentary is about 16 minutes long but I can't post it.

http://www.jensenrufe.com/documentaries/tenderloin/index.html

Also I have a 3-1/2 minute video from the Food Network Food Finds show that goes in full detail in preparing a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich at the Brickyard Crossing Restaurant in Speedway, IN. Food Network will not give permission to post that one.

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

plb,

"other BPT thread"?

Anyway there is probably a good reason the pork loin is used. It is considerably cheaper at least in grocery stores. Pork tenderloins run as much as 50% higher in cost per pound over pork loin including already trimmed cutlets. Most of the diners and restaurants sell the sandwiches pretty cheap. The second reason it is easier to slice a pork loin and tenderize it. The pork tenderloin needs to be butterfly cut to achieve that hang over look.

Speaking of price...

Yesterday I figured out that making my 8 tenderloins at home after adding up the cost of the 'pork TENDERloin' meat $9.98, Nabisco cracker meal $2.59, eggs and milk I rounded it off to $13 -- which comes to approximately $1.62 per each breaded tenderloin plus 15 cents each per bun - grand total of $1.77

In my home town basically the same sandwich (size and type) is priced now in the restaurants and bars for between $5 to $6.

Of course the first thing I will do when I get back home, no matter what the going rate is, is stop and get one [smile]

quote:

Originally posted by trzhotel

Davvyd: my browser crashes whenever I try to look at your blog, I think it may be my computer bit i'm not sure.

If there is a larger message board thread about breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches, please direct me there. This one is 28 pages, 828 replies, and 95,000 views. I don't want this thread to die.

I'm assuming you may be on a PC using Internet Explorer? Try using the Mozilla Firefox browser. It is superior and it is a free download. Internet Explorer doesn't play by all the HTML rules due to Microsoft's arrogance. Internet Explorer has been known to have problems with Apple's .mac websites and I suspect there may be some deliberate competitive ignoring the problem going on.

Davydd-
You are correct, I brought up your blog with Firefox.

The only thing I couldn't read about was an early post titled "Porky's".
I hope its not Porky's Drive In in Des Moines, i could not get out of there fast enough after biting their tenderloin. Its only half a mile north of a great tenderloin in Michael's in Beaverdale.

No it was Porky's in St. Paul. Another one of those drive-ins and restaurants that people bring up and claim to be great only they hadn't been there in the last 20 years to know it had changed.

I recently moved to Fallbrook, in northern San Diego county. I was shocked and delighted to find a place serving breaded tenderloin sandwiches. Since leaving rural Illinois for Calfornia 30 years ago, this was the first time I have encountered a place serving BPTs.

So if you ever in the area stop by the Wayside Cafe and chow down.

ps. I asked the owner how he happened to serve them. He said the original owners were from Indiana which explains how they ended up on the menu.

justmeincal,

Good catch on the Wayside Cafe. I get a lot of email from Californians pining for a bread pork tenderloin sandwich. I have another one to pass on and it will go on my list for the day we go out to California.

Welcome to Roadfood.com.

OK BPT EXPERTS---- What is the ideal thickness to pound the tenderloins out to?? I know that doesn't sound like good English, but I think you know what I mean.

For anyone who lives outside of the "BPT Belt" and is craving a tenderloin, the Town House Supper Club in Wellsburg, Iowa is now selling their "Voted #1 in Iowa" tenderloins in bulk on their website. The way I understand it, is that they can ship them to you on dry ice.

http://www.townhousesupperclub.com/thtenderloins.pdf