All Things Chill

I geeked out @ Bed Bath and Beyond last week and I bought the Polder Cooking Thermometer With Timer And Clock to oven roast meats without risking burning myself to check the internal temperature of foods. The long probe allows me to get a read of the middle of the meat where the temp. counts the most and the heat-resistant cord gives me the freedom of reading an convenient LCD instead of trying to peer through a steamy oven.

From Amazon.com:

Polder’s cooking thermometer with timer and clock rids cooking of internal temperature guesswork. Insert the 7-inch probe and set the alarm temperature–in Celsius or Fahrenheit. The large LCD readout on the magnetized display presents the internal temperature continuously during cooking. The loud five-minute alarm gives you plenty of time to respond. Also, when not in use, the independent timer may be used as a convenient kitchen clock. –Madeleine Miller

Hmmm… now what meat is worthy of my inaugural oven roasting adventure?

Pork Loin. Its a beautiful cut of quality lean meat. You can find it @ your local food market encased in plastic for around $2.50/$3.00 a pound. Its normally comes in three or four pound sizes. It seems like a lot to work with, but with its great versatility of pork’s ’sponge-like’ capabilities, you won’t notice if you eat the leftovers over the course of the week. Its incredibly simple to cook and the meat yields a juicy, ‘comfort food’ atmosphere at the dinner table. Impress your friends with little or no effort!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours

Hardware:
Roasting Pan / Baking Pan
Meat Thermometer
String (Optional)

Software:
Spices - Personal Preferences
3-4 pound pork loin

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put the pork loin onto a baking pan. If you line it with foil, you can reduce cleanup!
3. Optional - Tie up the pork loin to achieve a consistent thickness through out for even cooking/heat distribution.
4. Liberally apply any dried spices that you want to add (Rosemary is not recommended because of its “get stuck in your teeth” characteristic). I added thyme, garlic salt, onion powder, kosher salt and a a generous amount of freshly cracked black pepper. Try to attain 3/4 spice coverage.
5. Insert meat thermometer so that the end of it is centered in the middle of the loin. Make it a point to make sure that it is in the middle. If it is not centered properly, it will read the surrounding temperatures and therefore produce a false “doneness” readout.
6. Stick the loin in the oven for about 1 to 1 and 1/2 hour, until the internal temperature hits 160 degrees.
7. When doneness is achieved, let sit for 15/30 mins for the juices to distribute back into the meat.

Serve with asparagus/broccoli and hollandaise sauce with a rice pilaf.

If you think about it, just season with spices and put it in the oven until its internal temperate is 160. It truly is an easy dinner. What I like about the Polder thermometer is that not only can I set it for a timed alarm, but I can set it to beep with it reaches the internal temp. that I want. And THAT’S the kicker. No more guessing, just good eats Umm… delicious grub. Awesome results with little or no effort! If only all relationships meals were like that!!!

Enjoy!

~Spec

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 16th, 2005 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Recipes, Streaming Conciousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.