Pork Loin Recipes

Food & Wine’s Laura Rege stuffs her pork loin with a tasty combination of toasted rye bread, apples and pumpkin seeds. To serve the juicy roast, she drizzles it with luscious unrefined pumpkin seed oil.

Christian Delouvrier, the chef at the luxurious Lespinasse, uses soy sauce to balance the sweetness of the ketchup and honey in his version of barbecue sauce. The sauce is also delicious on duck breasts and chicken.

Your butcher can butterfly the pork loins for you (slice them in half lengthwise almost all the way through, leaving a hinge of uncut meat).

Ryan Hardy first tasted a version of this succulent pork from a street vendor in Siena, Italy. "It changed the way I thought about food," he says. "It was fatty and sweet, spicy and succulent, smoky and salty--all at the same time." Hardy uses the rub on other kinds of pork cuts, including the shoulder and leg, but the bone-in pork roast is the most dramatic; he often wraps a piece of pork belly around the side to make the meat extra juicy.

Efisio Farris's sister Angela uses her own homemade saba (reduced grape must) to add tangy-sweet richness to a glaze for pork tenderloin. "The saba and Mediterranean herbs combine to give a deep traditional flavor to this 'modern' cut of pork," Farris says.

Taylor Boetticher, founder of the Napa charcuterie company Fatted Calf, roasts this bone-in pork loin the best way possible: by cutting the loin off the rib bones (which any butcher should be able to do), rubbing the meat with a bright mix of fresh herbs and garlic, then tying the bones back on. The ribs themselves help to keep the meat moist in the oven. They also become especially crisp and succulent; pass them alongside the roast for guests to eat with their hands.

At Casa Oaxaca, chef Alejandro Ruiz Olmedo makes this recipe with suckling pigs; here he uses pork loin, roasting it in fresh orange juice steeped with herbs. When infused with pan drippings, the juice becomes the base for a tangy sauce.

Scott Conant says this recipe is a perfect reflection of his heritage: The molasses harks back to his father's New England background, and the balsamic vinegar is a tribute to his mother's Italian roots. The marinade is a syrupy glaze that Conant slathers over the pork so it can soak up the flavor before roasting.

Tory Miller works with the Uplands Cheese Company's co-owners, Mike and Carol Gingrich, to raise pigs that taste of Wisconsin terroir--they're fed local apples, hickory nuts and acorns, as well as whey and cream from the dairy. The addition of brown sugar and mixed spices to the brine for this pork loin enhances the meat's natural sweet, spiced flavor.

Chef Ignacio Mattos prefers eating meat with mustard. "I can be very polite if I'm in a restaurant," he says, "but when I'm by myself, I really like mustard." Here he spreads it on simple but beautiful pork roast before cooking, sprinkling the meat with coarsely ground black pepper to create a pungent crust.

The flavor-packed brine for this pork loin features shichimi togarashi, the seven-spice Japanese seasoning, made with red chiles, orange peel, sesame seeds and ginger.

The Earl Grey tea that coats this pork has an almost citrusy flavor that infuses the meat as it roasts. The apples in the pan get so tender that they're almost applesaucy.

A big, bold, garlicky marinade, made with a whole bunch of fresh rosemary, flavors this juicy roast from Ethan Stowell.

Erika Nakamura, butcher and owner of White Gold in NYC, uses the pork skin for her standing rib roast to seal in the juices during cooking. The best part is that the skin puffs and crisps, creating irresistible cracklings to eat with the meat.