Half Cooked Pork Roast

[Holly Moore]

I had to interupt a pork roast at about 130 degrees F.  I wrapped it and stick it in the refrigerator.

So now what?  My thought is to slice and sautee as opposed to re roasting, but I'm open to suggestions.

[Jason Perlow]

slicing it and sauteeing it or some kind of asian stir fry is probably your bet.

Anohter thing you could do is slice it , toss the meat in a hot cast iron pan, and make cuban sandwiches from the meat -- its sliced roast pork loin, deli ham, swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles, which is smash-grilled on a cuban loaf, which is essentially french bread.

[helenas]

what about some pork au gratin?

[Rachel Perlow]

You didn't say what kind of roast it was, but I know that tenderloin roast only has to get to abotu 145 F. If you want to serve it as a whole roast at the table, just reheat at 300 for about a half-hour.  Start checking its temperature at about 20 minutes, it should be perfect.

Actually, you may want to at least check the doneness before reheating. If you took it out at 130 and wrapped it while hot, it may have finished cooking.

[Bux]

I trust you didn't wrap it too tightly while it was still warm or that it cooled off quickly once wrapped. I'd go along with reheating the roast depending on how fatty or dry a piece of meat it was. Trichinosis shouldn't be a problem around 140 degrees F, actually a bit lower, but 145 gives a better margin for error assuming you may have missed the least cooked spot. Taste and texture improve for me at a bit higer temperature, but most people overcook pork.

A good Cuban sandwich is an excellent use for left over roast pork.  It needn't be the loin, but a not too fatty part is best. Jason's "smash-grilled" is descriptive. A good panini press is usefull, but a heavy pot on top of the sandwich on a flat griddle is fine. It's essential to not that you need a loaf that will collapse and not a good crusty loaf for the authentic effect.

[Fat Guy]

Restaurants often "hold fire" on roasted meats and finish cooking later. It has little ill effect so long as the meat isn't allowed to dry out. That being said, from a food-safety standpoint, I'd probably not refire the roast. I'd feel better dissecting it and using it in various cooked-all-the-way-through formats. By cooking to such a low temperature and then cooling, the meat probably spent more time in the "danger zone" (as they teach it in cooking schools, these are the moderately warm temperatures at which bacteria really thrive and multiply) than it should have. Chances are the interior of a roast is well protected, and I'm the last person to give in to food-safety hysteria, but it's probably not worth the risk.