Pork Loin Question - Odd Curing Occurring

Brisket_Fanatic

Is it possible to have a pork loin cure in the freezer and/or later in a sous vide bath? So I injected a whole pork loin with a mix of apple juice, salt, sugar, water, Worcestershire and bbq rub (Chris Lilly’s pork shoulder injection). Smoked it until 140, rested to 145, sliced, ate and then freezer bagged the leftovers. Then I pulled a frozen bag out of the freezer and placed it into the SV bath at 140 for about 10 hours until we got home from work. Upon cutting open the bag to serve I noticed the color was quite red and the texture was rather hammy. The flavor was nothing like it was fresh and definitely tasted like dry ham. I’m thinking it’s because of the SV because I’ve eaten some before thawed from freezer and nuked at work and it was great. Still learning the process and obviously it works really well for reheating some stuff but apparently not this. Hopefully you can see the curing from the pictures 

fishlessman

have tasted it with just sous vide before the sear with long times with beef.  if you have any extra try frying up some thin slices for breakfast and see if the bacon taste is there or not.  10 hours seems like a long time for a reheat

Brisket_Fanatic

@fishlessman - i knew it would be a long time for reheat but just wanted to try it out since it was totally frozen in the am. I was just kind of surprised that it had a hammy cured texture. I have another package of the precooked stuff so i will thaw it out and reheat it normally and see what happens. Thanks!

CarolinaCrazy

Yeah, I agree, I think the 10 hour bath was the issue. The the idea that you can keep something warm 'indefinitely' in SV is wrong. for a lean cut like a pork loin it's going to just keep on cooking. 

The Anova now has an ice bath feature that has you put your food in an ice bath and then automatically kicks the SV unit on to the cooking temperature once the temp has gone above 40F.  I haven't tried it yet, but it would be great in this situation, shortening the reheat time significantly. 

thetrim

I agree w the 10 hours.  The longest I’ve done is 90 mins with a great outcome. 

Brisket_Fanatic

Thanks @CarolinaCrazy @thetrim

Cmyachtie

One of the basics of sous vide: do not add salt before,  salt after if you’re doing SV for long cooks and 10 hrs definitely fits that definition.......