Pork Pretzington
Awhile back I made chicken stuffed pretzels and everyone told me I should call them “chicken pretzington”. Today I have expanded on the idea with this Pork Pretzington. A pork tenderloin wrapped in pretzel dough couldn’t possibly be a bad idea, and the apple honey mustard to go along with it was straight up inspired. While some of my roomates were perplexed, thinking that maybe the mustard was a bit too strong or the pork was undercooked for their liking, I sat quietly, reflecting on the awesomeness that was each bite.
This mixture is mustard seed soaked overnight in vinegar and pickle juice.
Skin and chop the apples.
Then saute them in some butter.
Next add them to the mustard mixture.
This is tasty mustard! It has some subtle apple flavor with a spicy mustard bite.
Sear off the tenderloin and wrap it in your pretzel dough.
As with any pretzel, you have to boil the dough before baking. I slightly underestimated the displacement here and ended up with water all over my stove.
After boiling, brush with egg yolk and toss it into the oven. After about 20 minutes it should look like awesome. This is what awesome looks like if you didn’t know.
Let it rest for a whopping 15 minutes before cutting. When I pulled mine out they registered at 140, and after the 10 minute rest they were a perfect 155
Served with the apple mustard, this pork is fantastic.
The pretzel was the right texture and had just enough pork residue.
Eating everything together was a great mixture of pretzel/mustard, and pork/apple.
Make this you guys! It wasn’t even that hard!
I use Alton Brown’s recipe anytime I make pretzels.
Pork Pretzington
Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup Yellow Mustard Seed
- 1/4 Cup Black Mustard Seed
- 1/2 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
- 1/2 Cup Pickle Juice
- 1 Clove Garlic
- 1 Teaspoon Paprika
- 7 Apples
- 3 Tablespoons Butter
- 1 Tablespoon Honey
- Pretzel recipe linked and described above
- 2 Pork Tenderloins
- Flour
- Egg
Instructions
- For the mustard, ¼ cup yellow, ¼ cup black bustard seeds. Add ½ cup each of red wine vinegar and pickle juice and microwave it for 1 minute. Stir in a smashed clove of garlic and a teaspoon of smoked paprika and stick it in the fridge overnight. Next day saute 7 diced apples(I used honeycrisp) in 3 tablespoons of butter until browned. Add your mustard mix and apples into the food processor with a tablespoon of honey and blend until smooth. Chill and serve.
- Sear the tenderlons on all sides and wrap with the pretzel dough. The dough makes enough for 2 tenderloins. Roll it out thin with some flour and place the tenderloin in the middle, then just roll it up. Brush with a yolk/water mix and bake at 400 for 15/20 minutes. Pull it when the internal is about 145/150 and let it sit for 10/15 minutes before slicing. Be sure to salt everything properly, inside and out!
I can understand your roommates concern that the pork was a little undercooked because it does seem quite pink in the pictures, and I was under the impression that pork, like chicken, needs to be cooked through.
Then again, I eat sashimi, and I like my beef medium-rare, and I’ve eaten chicken prepared the traditional Chinese way where the meat next to the bone is often still red, so it’s not like I’m saying “That pork is not cooked properly!”
Oh. My. God. (in a good way)
That pork looks perfectly cooked. With modern refrigeration and food safety regulations, anything over 140 degrees is safe and anything over 150 degrees (for my taste) is overdone. The antiquated 160+ standard is as dead as the 1/2 thin chops my grandfather used to turn into briquettes on the grill.
Pretzington is totally the food of the day! Great idea!
Sounds like your roommates don’t know what perfectly cooked pork looks like because that is perfect!!! I am so going to need to try to make this. It sounds (and looks) amazing!
I’m with Capn John… I usually think that pork should be cooked to the traditional 160 because of the whole “the other white meat” thing, but this looks amazing.
mmmm Pretzel Pork…
Perfect pork, this sounds like an awesome idea and I cannot wait to try that mustard! Just the sort of inspiration I was looking for.
Looks amazing and the pork is definitely cooked enough.
Remember that the USDA realized it’s silliness and lowered the acceptable temp range for pork to 145 from 160.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/dining/porks-safe-cooking-temperature-is-lowered.html
So some pink is great as long as you are using a thermometer which I know you did.
If you cooked this until it was 160, it might still be okay just because the pretzel is locking in a lot of moisture, but generally it would be overcooked in my opinion.