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Pork Tenderloin Roast

A roasted pork tenderloin with dressing, vegetables, and potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Tenderloin Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roast

  1. Split the pork tenderloin lengthwise.

  2. Place a layer of dressing between the two pieces.

  3. Bind or sew the pieces together.

Assemble the pan

  1. Chop the carrot and onion.

  2. Lay them in the bottom of a baking pan.

  3. Place the tenderloin over the vegetables.

  4. Add slices of fat pork or bacon on top.

  5. Arrange the peeled Irish potatoes around the outside of the pan.

Bake

  1. Bake until the meat is tender, ensuring the potatoes are uniform in size for even cooking.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pork tenderloin
Forms the main body of the roast, becoming tender and juicy as it cooks through.
Fat pork or bacon
Lays fat over the meat, adding moisture and savory flavor as it renders during baking.
Dressing
Sits inside the split tenderloin, adding flavor and moisture to the meat.
Irish potatoes
Cook in the pan juices around the roast, absorbing fat and soaking up savory flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until the meat is tender. Pork tenderloin is lean and dries out quickly if overcooked. Cooking to tenderness, rather than to a fixed time, keeps the meat juicy, and uniform potato pieces cook at the same rate as the roast.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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