Sunday Gravy with yeah right: The Iowa Pork Tenderloin Sandwich!

Good morning everybody!

Hope everyone’s having a good weekend. Next weekend is Labor Day Weekend, which will feature substantial grillage no doubt, then the following week?

Motherfucking football!

Got a real fun one for you today. Super goddamn tasty, pretty damn easy to make and can actually double as a couple of featured menu items. That tasty looking fucker up there? That’s an Iowa pork tenderloin sandwich. Yet it can also be served as schnitzel cuz shit, it’s fucking schnitzel.

Old School Zero knows what I’m talking about. Both OSZ and I are former residents of the Quad Cities. The cities that make up the Quad Cities are Moline and Rock Island Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf Iowa. I actually lived in each city with the exception of Bettendorf during my years there. If that dish is unfamiliar to you then you probably haven’t spent too much time in Iowa.

Hell Indiana makes a claim to this sandwich too but I’m sticking with Iowa.

This is from an episode of Man Vs Food on the Cooking Channel from Indianapolis.

Yes, I watch too much food TV.

Look at that goddamn hockey puck Casey’s holding in his hand.

Now look at the fry basket in the lower right of the screen.

This was a pork tenderloin sandwich challenge that I saw a couple of days after I started writing this post.

I’m not here to denigrate the no doubt fine folks of the Hoosier State. I’ll leave that for the people who live there but that’s one sad ass frozen cow patty if that’s your version of a pork tenderloin.

Get with the goddamn program!

Fun story: I used to own an Iowa drivers license and I was a registered voter there. Voted in my very first presidential election as a resident of Davenport Iowa.

You can find this menu item at pretty much every cafe/diner across Iowa. The origins are very simple and make sense. German immigration to the Midwest. Like I said, the meat is schnitzel, it’s just been “Iowa-fied” by putting it on a bun and adding mustard and pickles – also very German additions. Some places serve with the fixin’s like lettuce, tomato, onion and shit (even mayo!) but this was the one I fell in love with there.

Shit man, even Hardees – the Midwest version of Carl’s Junior for you West Coast folks – featured a pork tenderloin sandwich.

And yes! The tenderloin center is supposed to dwarf the bun it is served on.

Here’s a feature from the Des Moines Register that shows a map in case you want to eat your way across the Iowa Tenderloin Trail. I did NOT make that up.

It’s quick, simple and a right tasty motherfucker. Which also qualifies it as game day football food.

Let’s make one!

Iowa Pork Tenderloin Sandwich!

A pork tenderloin

Some cooking oil – maybe a cup or two

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon of granulated garlic

1 teaspoon of granulated onion

1/2 cup of flour

2 eggs beaten

2 tablespoons of milk mixed into the beaten eggs.

1 cup of panko bread crumbs

For service, hamburger buns, mustard and pickles.

Boosh!

Go ahead and get yourself a pork tenderloin.

Before we go too much further, you may be asking yourself “Has pork tenderloin been featured on Sunday Gravy before?”

Damn skippy it has. And I’m going to be making some glorious porkiness with one real soon because if you remember…

That package contains TWO tenderloins. It’s like porcine Christmas up in here!

We only need one for today so let me show you a proper storage technique for freezing the second tenderloin for future use.

Wrap the tenderloin up tightly in plastic wrap, then wrap THAT up in foil. I always write the contents and the date on the foil prior to freezing.

Handy!

Today’s dish follows the age old frying preparation of “flatten, season, dredge, cook” that all you “Fry Daddys” out there are more than fluent in.

One tenderloin should produce 4 chunks of pork that will be size appropriate for this dish so let’s cut it into quarters.

Now this part actually pains me to confess so I’m going to try to do it without getting emotional.

I….

/c’mon man you can do this

I… I trimmed the fat off OK?!

Goddammit. I did!

It makes sense science-wise what with the structural integrity and the keeping the crust on thing but that doesn’t make it any fucking easier.

Fuck!

Alright. Ready to move on.

Next we’re going to slice each piece of pork down the middle but not all the way through.

Think of it like opening a book. This will double our surface area as well as assist in the flattening.

As you can see I lined my cutting board with some plastic wrap prior to the pounding part. Next take yet another layer of plastic wrap and place it over the top of the meat then get to pounding!

I use the side of the meat hammer to flatten since we don’t need to tenderize the meat. You can even play your favorite drum line while you do this. It’s cathartic! Take out some damn frustrations.

Flatten all four pieces.

You can probably already guess which piece I’ve laid claim too. Get these as flat as possible. Again it’s SUPPOSED to be considerably larger than the bun it’s served on.

Standard operational procedure now requires us to get our dredge station ready. Let’s do just that.

Left to right that’s our seasoned flour then the egg mix, then the panko breadcrumbs. I always season the flour with the same profiles as we are cooking with today. That means it’s got salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder in it. Got to admit that I was real tempted to add some freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano to the panko here – you can even see the wedge of it in that picture. Then I thought – traditional motherfucker! Stay traditional. All this despite the fact that “traditional” Iowa pork tenderloin breading is crushed saltines or even crushed Ritz crackers.

I still have an unopened wedge of that cheese in my refrigerator. And I still used panko breadcrumbs. Tradition only goes so far with me.

Let’s go ahead and preheat up the oil in a large skillet. Plain old vegetable oil for frying. I almost always use canola oil for basic frying.

Medium-high heat here. Give it plenty of time to heat up. If you’re checking the temp shoot for about 360 degrees.

Grab yourself one of them pounded pieces of pork and give it a little seasoning. Same as the flour; salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder.

This step was added after cooking the first piece or “test” piece. Thought that one came out a little bland so I added additional spice. As with anything your first run will usually be the worst run and each iteration after that should continually get better.

Let’s start dredging shit!.

Next step is the seasoned flour.

Coat thoroughly on both sides. Then we’re off to Egg Wash Central!

Again, get both sides. Allow some of the egg wash to drip back into the pan. We want a thorough coating but not an excessive amount of egg wash here. Finally, into the panko you go.

This time it IS key to get plenty of breadcrumbs on there. Again allow the excess to drop off – if only to keep you from sweeping up the goddamn kitchen floor – then into the skillet it goes.

Three minutes! Set a timer. When the three minutes are up? Flip that bastard over.

Oh shit! There’s that golden brown loveliness we’re after. Now just 90 more seconds and this fucker is DONE!

As mentioned before, could we stop here? Maybe make some spaetzle, perhaps a nice mushroom gravy and serve this as a classic German dish?

The fuck you think, Wolfgang?

Fuck me, that was delicious by the way.

Goddamn right you just made schnitzel. A right proper one at that.

However today is not schnitzel day. NEIN!

Today is for making this here.

That’s fucking insane isn’t it? A bit of plain old yellow mustard and a few bread and butter pickles then slap the lid on ‘er.

This baby is ready to take out for a test drive!

I originally planned on maybe making some french fries or even onion rings to serve alongside but then realized colon health is a very serious health concern and I just couldn’t do the double grease action. Those are some salt and pepper kettle chips and they are very fucking tasty. Store bought shit is fine today. My goddamn dogs are tired and it’s been a long season of Sunday Gravy.

Let’s do the quick summation: it’s pretty fucking obvious that this is some tasty shit yes? That pork has an intense crispness to it that can probably be considered more of a “crunch.” You should probably realize that the reason the bun is there is for hand protection and a delivery method so we can shove a big goddamn tasty Frisbee-sized schnitzel strait down your pie hole right?

It is.

The mustard and pickles work perfectly here because of course they do. German remember?

The best part of this meal was the sheer nostalgia factor. I hadn’t had one of these in decades and I’ll be damned if it didn’t take me right back to 13th Ave in Moline Illinois, JUST LIKE THAT.

It’s good. It’s real good and it’s super easy to do.

So give it a go regardless of your familiarity with haute Midwest cuisine.

I appreciate you riding along on this Midwest road trip.

Always a pleasure.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks and I’ll see you next week for the season finale.

 

PEACE!

 

 

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yeah right
yeah right is a fully vaccinated lifelong Vikings fan, food guru and LA Harbor resident with a black belt in profanity.
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JerBear50

If Monsanto could find a way to eliminate silver skin, I’d almost forgive them for everything else. Almost.

Old School Zero

Hell yes. The first one I ever had as a kid was as big as a dinner plate, as thin as a pencil, on a bun nearly made for a slider. It’s a wonder it isn’t found elsewhere. My brother is back in the Midwest this next week dealing with some stuff with my dad and the only two things I’m jealous of there are pork ts and Whitey’s ice cream shakes.

Old School Zero

Nice choice. I might get one at machine shed for lunch, but I can’t resist their fried chicken dinner. It’s too damn good. My top two picks are the 11th street precinct down in the village of East Davenport or the filling station. Can’t go wrong with most pubs, though.

Ross’ 24 hour diner moved to off of 53rd Ave now, so you can still get a magic mountain fix.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

This sandwich is one of the only good reasons to run for president

Wakezilla

United twitter is FINALLY coming for Neville with pitchforks and torches and I’m fucking loving it!

King Hippo

Could be the year Atleti wins it. Barca looks like ASS.

King Hippo

they got better

Wakezilla

Has Messi played yet?

Spur

Spurs fuck Spur

Mr. Ayo

Oy, the lads gave most of us a right rogering today.

King Hippo

ain’t even buy us dinner first ,, smh

Dunstan

MLB Owners: “Ok, we’re going to dedicate a weekend as ‘Player’s Weekend.’ What would you guys like?”

Players: “Well, gosh, thanks for asking. Earlier free agency would be good. An end to teams manipulating service time to maintain control of younger players. An actual livable salary for minor leaguers.”

O: “Ok, monochrome uniforms and cheesy nicknames it is!”

scotchnaut

To be fair, the cheesy nicknames went over like gangbusters in Milwaukee.

Dunstan

And rural Wisconsin was pleased with the idea of all-whites.

ballsofsteelandfury

The same website we use for the AFL and EPL tipping pools runs a pool for the NFL season. Are y’all interested?

King Hippo

Yes? Straight picks or ATS?

Mr. Ayo

Of course. ATS.

bk109

Fuck yeah! Btw, can someone also like organize a survivor pool too?

bk109

Will do and not just for all the ribbing I’ll get for eliminating myself by picking the Steelers in an obvious “playing down to competition” territory 😀

bk109

And In… only hiccup is that apparently sometime in the past, I’ve made an account with ESPN with a burner e-mail, so it’ll be fun as fuck trying to get bk109 back 😀

Horatio Cornblower

Well, Arsenal-Tottenham next week just got real interesting.

King Hippo

folks’ll be mighty tense

tomsellecksmoustache

Gooners take it 3-1 because Jan, Eriksen and Lo Celso start on the bench.

Horatio Cornblower

I haven’t seen someone go down that easily since Traci Lords turned 15.

King Hippo

Wolves get a penno at the death!

Horatio Cornblower

Someone forgot to tell Newcastle that they were relegation favoUrite.

King Hippo

I should have seen a “post-City hangover” coming, but even then I’d think draw, not loss.

tomsellecksmoustache

I mean, Spurs just won’t even attempt to put anything in the box. Stop just playing it wide and then back to Winks.

tomsellecksmoustache

Also, sell Sanchez to a second division side in Bulgaria so I never have to see him again.

Horatio Cornblower

If you send him to Bulgaria he’ll just wind up hacking your team’s computer network and locking it up until they can come up with a million bitcoin.

tomsellecksmoustache

Yeah right, like Levy would ever part with a million for anything.

bk109

As an ex-Bulgarian, I AM OFFENDED BY THIS… OFFENDED I TELLZ YA… He’d be better off in the third tier, where the pitch LITERALLY is a cow pasture most of the time 😀

Dunstan

” just won’t even attempt to put anything in the box”

I can relate. — A. Rodgers

tomsellecksmoustache

Real ass blasting from VAR, there.

King Hippo

yeah, if not giving that, why bother using at all?

Horatio Cornblower

I know the inventor…
comment image

Horatio Cornblower

That is a disturbingly large image.

tomsellecksmoustache

Spurs just look awful out there today. Terminally incapable of moving the ball inside the box on perhaps the worst team in the PL.

King Hippo

Wolves doing likewise home to Burnley. Round 3 has been quite the puzzler.

Game Time Decision

There’s CFL game on. It’s being played out east so would have started at 11 am local time( 10 am DFO). Damn that’s early for a game

Mr. Ayo

and shit (even mayo!)

Woah, personal attack!

Also, “pounding pork” is my dating strategy.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Man, never go back to eating instant oatmeal after you’ve gotten used to the regular stuff.

Game Time Decision

Get the steel cut stuff. Even better

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

“Yeah but how do you keep it from melting when you cook it in the microwave?” – Pete Carroll

Game Time Decision

Toast it first
/seriously
// or use the instant pot that’s taking up valuable counter space
/// or both

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Currently with regular oats I just throw them in the microwave for 6:66 at 40% power.

Game Time Decision

Satan approved cooking time

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I do it because I’m literally so lazy that I am trying to avoid the extra effort it would take to move my finger from the 7 to the 0 if I entered 7:00.

Horatio Cornblower

Douse it in jet fuel, Pete.

Dunstan

What are the chances that Carroll is a Q-Anon guy? 99%?

King Hippo

fuck, that looks good!

rockingdog

found a funny:
I pry open the crab shell but instead of sweet crabmeat I find a tiny, bustling city filled with people who have my face. It tastes terrible

Recovery Whiskey

Anyone else think Hodor’s sudden retirement is karma payback for “Suck for Luck” ??

bk109

Eh, the karma was already there and fired… both karma’s in factcomment image and the mastermind behindcomment imagecomment image

Horatio Cornblower

Seriously, what was the point of that “play”?

bk109

Well, Pat MacAfee had a semi-coherent explanation on the IDEA of the play, but more importantly on the chain of fuckups that caused it… Basically, tho, it was to “confuse” the Patriots into making a mistake (too many people on the field, offsides call… something like that), with the planned worst outcome being a delay of game penalty and kicking the punt from a bit deeper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxFWU3yTRNM

Col. Duke LaCross

Ladies and gentlemen, Chicago’s new defensive playcaller!

Horatio Cornblower

Nothing like spending your Sunday morning beating your meat, amirite?

bk109

Actually there is, lol… Handing off the kids to a b-day party, make some proper meal (hamburg steaks with gravy, potato salad and champignons in creamy sauce), open a bottle of wine and exchange whines about your respective football team with your spouse 😉

Horatio Cornblower

Probably just me then, but to be fair I’ve been rereading David Koch’s obituary.

He’s still dead.

scotchnaut

Who knew that staying dead was one of his strengths?

Unsurprised

He’s a real Gruden Grinder when it comes to being dead.

bk109

Let’s fire his corpse into the sun… just in case… Add the whole funeral party too…

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I wish someone would secretly install a “KochCam” in his casket so we could watch him rot.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Man, that was dark*, even for me.

*as dark as it will be in Koch’s casket. They’ll have to install a light in order to provide a proper viewing experience.

Horatio Cornblower

comment image

ballsofsteelandfury

comment image

Oooh! PICKLES!

scotchnaut

My buddy Kevin The Broom with yet another assist. He’s the fastest to 50 in the history of the EPL and beat the previous record by 18 games.

bk109

Now, if he could only do it for a team that’s not a symptom of what’s wrong in the world of non-salary cap sports 😀
Unrelated:comment image

scotchnaut

“Uh, it’s Terre Haute cuisine, buddy.”

-an Indianian

herodotus450

Did anybody ever notice that the Andrew Luck soldier twitter account is just a cheap rip-off of the JT O’Sullivan character from the website of yore?

Unsurprised

Yeah. Fuck that guy.

JerBear50

I heard someone talking about it on a ffb show last night and thought the same thing.