One large piece of meat can yield several inexpensive, great tasting meals. Knowing how to cut up a pork loin can save you money now, and time later.
I have watched the prices of meat steadily climb over the past year, in part from demand and drought. I have mentioned in previous posts that I often buy last-chance sale meat from the grocery store to save on my grocery bills. But also, every few months, I will buy a whole pork loin from Costco to break down and portion into zip-lock bags for future meals. At $2.19 a pound, I can get about 7 meals, with left overs, from one whole pork loin. I'll show how I trim my whole pork loin, and add links to the posts in which I used the pork.
By the way..... I started this post way before I started to learn anything about taking pictures (look at the date on the package!). Please don't be critical about the horrible photos - the information is good.
Breaking down one whole pork loin... here we go!
At the end of portioning the Whole Pork Loin, I had:
- one 2-pound pork roast
- two bags of thickly cut pork loin for Stuffed Pork Chops (12 pieces total)
- two bags thinly cut pork loin for Pork Picatta (12 pieces total)
- two bags of cubed pork loin for Green Chile Stew and Carne Guisada.
My Favorite Pork Loin Meals:
Stuffed Pork Chops
Pork Carne Guisada (working on a photo re-do)
Pork Loin Cordon Bleu
Shish kebab
Marilyn says
Why did you put vinegar in the bags?
Kim says
Hi Marilyn, I read on the Weston A. Price foundation that pork can cause the blood platelets in the body to clump together or coagulate. The article mentioned that traditional preparations of pork used brines and that the use of acids and brines before or even during cooking counteracts the clumping action. This post is 4 years old and I will remove the mention of the vinegar. I don't think people are interested in it and a real brine would be tastier than straight vinegar anyway. -Kim
tina says
why the vinegar? do you know if the vacuum seal smithfield pork loins from bj's include the chain?
Kim says
Hi Tina. Great question. Some people believe that pork will cause blood to clump together in the veins for a while after eating. The vinegar is supposed to counteract that. I think I linked to the Weston Price Foundation for that? I can't get to my blog at the moment to see. I have no experience with purchases from Sam's club. It's pretty easy to remove and great for long marinating or braising. -Kim
Laurell says
Hi, Kim! Love your site! I found pork loin today at Sams Club for $1.88 lb.! Only problem is - I've never cooked pork loin! So I'm really appreciating this post! My question is why do you add vinegar to the bags of meat? I plan on vacuuming my meat w/ a Food Saver before freezing. Was just curious what the purpose of vinegar was?
I'm excited to try your recipes! Thx in advance!
Kim says
Hi, Laurel. What a great price! It was $2.98 on sale at Albertsons today and I bought one too. Wish I had looked at Costco first!
Great question! If you Google Weston A Price and then type "pork vinegar" into their search box, a few articles will come up. One is a study conducted on pork. Since sausage has been a traditional food of many cultures, scientists wanted to do a study to see how pork affected the red blood cells in humans - I can onl imagine because pigs are so genetically close to humans. What they found out is that it indeed causes the red blod cells to clump up. That could affect some people. If the pork was marinated in vinegar first, the scientists did not see the effect (or it was greatly diminished - I can't remember). That particular piece of information was way towards the bottom of the study if you go to read it. It was interesting to me because I like that stuff. Anyway, good luck breaking-down your pork loin. It's not that hard after you've done it once. Have a nice week!