January 30, 2009

• The Pork Tenderloin: Iowa’s edible icon

  Tender is the Loin

  The pork tenderloin sprawls over Iowa’s identity like the sandwich’s meat overlaps its bun. Adored in every county in the state, it’s pretty much unknown beyond the Twin Cities to the north, Indiana to the east and Iowa to the west and south. Tenderloins come to the table with more context than condiments; they’re served in some of the state’s most distinguished restaurants as well as in convenience stores, gas stations and ice cream parlors. As popular in our cities as in our rural areas, pork tenderloins the darling of some of the state’s finest ethnic kitchens and the backbone of some beloved drive-ins and taverns.

  

  “It’s the food most identified with Iowa and with which most Iowans identify,” explains Iowa Arts Council Folklife Coordinator Riki Saltzman, who has spent years researching “place-based foods” in the state.

  While Iowans can be possessively provincial about this state icon, the tenderloin travels the world under other names. It barely differs from Lombardy’s cotoletta di miale, Emilia-Romagna’s orecchia d’elefante, Japan’s tonkatsu, Austria and Germany’s schwein schnitzel and the Czech Republic’s smažený řízek. Other parts of America know it as breaded pork cutlet or chicken fried pork but Cooks.com refers to it as the Iowa tenderloin and several Milwaukee restaurants call it the Iowa skinny. And that’s not even the most confusing thing about its name.

  

  “Most ‘pork tenderloins’ aren’t even made with the tenderloin,” says partner-butcher John Brooks of the 87 year old B & B Grocery, Meat & Deli in Des Moines’ Sevastopol neighborhood.

  “That’s why we advertise ‘real pork tenderloin.’ We only use real tenderloin from pure pork. Other places just tenderizes the entire loin and a lot of them use pork that’s been chemically injected, like the stuff is at the big supermarkets,” Brooks explained.

  

  B&B’s whacked and stackey tenderloin

  A pork loin has three parts: a fatty blade end closest to the shoulder; a bony sirloin end closest to the rump; and a lean tenderloin from the middle which is the smallest and most expensive part. Most pork tenderloins weigh three quarters to one and half pounds and yield four to five servings. Brooks says he usually only gets three. That’s why most “pork tenderloins” are made from the entire loin and why they need to be tenderized – so that textures remain somewhat consistent.

  Czech or Hoosier?

  

  In Indiana lore, Huntington’s Nick Frienstein invented the breaded pork tenderloin in 1904. However, Nick’s Kitchen’s website says that Frienstein didn’t even begin his pushcart business until 1905 and that he didn’t open a café until 1908. Still, Indiana’s claim

  has been repeated by national writers. That rankles folks from the Czech parts of Iowa. Cedar Rapids’ Charley Krejci scoffs at the idea pork tenderloins were a Hoosier invention. He says that he was eating them in Iowa’s largest Czech community as long as he can remember.

  “And that’s a long time, I was born on Labor Day 1909. My mother was born in America, in South Dakota, and my Dad came to Iowa in 1894. It cost less to raise and feed hogs than it did to raise cattle, in Iowa and in Czech country too. So pork was the mainstay. Mom was a great cook and I always remember her making pork tenderloins. It’s best with potato dumplings and sauerkraut. All Mom’s recipes were handed down from her mother and they all go way back in history,” Krejci said on behalf of all territorial Iowans.

  Iowa’s pork tenderloin uses recipes similar to Austrian schnitzel and Czechs have always used more pork than Austrians, so Krejci’s belief that pork tenderloins were common in Cedar Rapids in the late 19^th century seems likely. Besides, Iowa can’t have an icon that was invented in Indiana. Former Iowan Jon Yates of the Chicago Tribune elaborated .

  “ We Iowans love our pigs, and we love our small-town diners. The tenderloin is the quintessential intersection of the two. It’s a point of pride which diner sells the largest tenderloin. Why? Because Iowans don’t go for ritzy, expensive entrees where the plate is huge and the food tiny. We like things the other way around. We fail to see why anyone wouldn’t,” Yates explained in Tempo magazine.

  

  Some of the best tenderloins in Iowa are served in places with long histories. In the Mount Pleasant area, The Brownstone, once an Underground Railroad stop, has been decked out in Victorian splendor. It’s a place one expects, and finds, little old ladies lingering over tea and cards. But they don’t order crumpets so much as tenderloins. Just outside Mount Pleasant, in free spirited, unincorporated Oakland Mills, Butch’s River Rock Cafe takes over a former rail station on a state park, by the Skunk River. The flood-plagued river drove out the towns button factory, it’s grist mill and even the railroad, but locals like Butch Bittle, long time chef at the much loved but long gone Iris Cafe, stuck around.

  

  Butch’s tenderloins are wide and thick.

  Fighting Words

  In Iowa, towns argue over which restaurants serve the best pork tenderloins too. Realizing that such arguments were good for marketing, the Iowa Pork Producers (IPP) threw their aegis into the ring. IPP has declared at least one “best pork tenderloin” every year since 2004. Nelda Christian, who heads up the judging panel for that distinction, explained how hard it is to pick a winner.

  “A place can win twice, just not in consecutive years. But no place ever has. There are so many good places,” she said. So far, IPP “best” distinctions have been won by Darrell’s Place outside Hamlin, Dairy Sweet in Dunlap, Townhouse Supper Club in Wellsburg, Suburban Restaurant at Gilbert Corners on US 69 and Larsen’s Pub in Elk Horn. Winning has been a marketing bonanza.

  “The place in Wellsburg went from selling 3500 a year to selling over 15,000 the year after it won,” Christian explained.

  Taste in tenderloins is obviously subjective. A Des Moines Register readers’ poll cited 26 different best places for tenderloins. Former Register columnist Chuck Offenburger, who probably has tried as many different tenderloins as anyone, says that ToJo’s in Jamaica makes the best.

  “It’s as big a sandwich as it is a good one, and you barely have room for French fries with it,” he declared.

  At least two writers have web sites devoted to Iowa tenderloins. Tyrgyzistan describes himself as a “part-time amateur tenderloin anthropologist hoping to gain widespread critical and academic recognition for pork sandwiches.” At our press time, the tenderloin at Indianola’s Crouse Café rated higher than any other place on his blog (http://www.xanga.com/FoodIowa/691072380/item.html). Marketing creativity consultant Allen Bukoff of Michigan published “Stalking the Wild Breaded Pork Tenderloin” (www.allenbukoff.com). He admits that “the last breaded pork tenderloin sandwich (or the next) I had in my hand is my favorite,” before explaining why tenderloin judgments are fickle by nature.

  “Part of the appeal of a breaded pork tenderloin – to those of us who love them – is it’s quirkiness. How far is this one going to stick out of the bun? How irregular will its shape be? Is it going to be juicy or dry? How thin is this one going to be? How bumpy and wavy? What’s the breading going to be like (crunchy, thin, even or clumpy)? It’s all part of its great unique personality,” Bukoff told us.
  

  Susie’s in Stanton grills them on a flat top and serves them on homemade rye

  With tenderloins, status is easier to determine in other categories. Joensy’s in Solon and Center Point has been advertising “the biggest pork tenderloin in Iowa” for decades and it’s hard to imagine a wider loin. Their Solon bar has surely done the most to proselytize for the sandwich as its location near the University of Iowa helped it introduce generations of out-of-state students to their first tenderloin. Baker’s Fuel & Food at exit 96 on Iowa Highway 5 undoubtedly serves the best hand breaded gas station tenderloin. At Stanton’s Susie’s Kok, they are served “home style,” which in that Swedish town means double breaded and grilled on the flat top. Their grain is longer than any other I found in Iowa, similar to that of flank steak, and their texture is marvelous. Susie Johnson serves them with home made rye bread, a signature item.

  Porky’s in Des Moines promotes the biggest tenderloin special events. That 1950’s style drive-in built its business around motorcycle nights and ten different styles of pork tenderloin. Des Moines chefs Enosh Kelley (Bistro Montage) and George Formaro (Centro) have done the most to take the tenderloin upscale. James Beard Award nominee Formaro prepares them only with Niman Pork’s free range loins. Kelley has made them a special at his stylish bistro. Gateway Market in Des Moines leads the state in upgrading loins for home cooks by selling ready-to-fry Niman tenderloins, breaded with Formaro’s recipe, in their butcher shop.

  The Tenderloin Corridor

  Amidst all the disputes surrounding the sandwich, one thing seems clear – Iowa’s tenderloin culture is geographically centered in Audubon, Guthrie and Carroll counties roughly between state highways 44 and 141. Here hand cut, hand breaded tenderloins completely outnumber the frozen, mass market cutlets that predominate in the rest of the state. Within twenty one miles east to west and the same distance north to south, one can find eight different tenderloin outlets that have been highly praised by experts – Larsen’s Pub in Elk Horn, ToJo’s in Jamaica, Darrell’s Place outside Hamlin, Shack’s Lounge in Bayard, Fifth Avenue Diner in Coon Rapids and three places in Panora – The Links, P.J.’s Drive-in and Coyote Grill. Saltzman thinks this “Tenderloin Corridor” might have sprouted from ethnic roots and a livestock tradition of good stewardship.

  “That area was traditionally a German and Danish part of Iowa. It’s always been good hog and pork country,” she offered, reminding us that area companies AMVC and IPP-II are heavily involved with farrow-to-market hog farming and sustainable agriculture. Those are both lost arts in a state that now imports 17 million weaned piglets a year for finishing in giant confinements. There is a direct connection. Darrell’s Place owner Jeff Munch and Larsen’s Pub owners Brenda and Neil Larsen all worked many years raising healthy, happy pigs for AMVC.

  

   Brenda Larsen thinks that the stiff local competition keeps everyone‘s tenderloin game sharp.

  “Particularly because we are so close to Darrell’s Place, we get people coming in all the time to compare us,” she said.

  ToJo’s owner Tommie Jo Scheuermann agrees that the competition is positive. She sells 200 tenderloins a week, in a town with a population of 275.

  “That’s the first I thought of it that way. Someone’s holding out I guess,” she joked.

  Tenderloin 101

  Pork tenderloins are quite simple. Take a piece of pork loin (usually 4 ounces, though Shack’s reach 10 ounces), pound it to a tenderness and shape that suits your fancy. Dip it in egg wash and then in seasoned (or unseasoned) flour and/or cracker or bread crumbs. Fry it in vegetable oil or lard. Serve it on large (Tojo’s insists on corn-dusted) buns with a choice of condiments.

  Iowa’s pork tenderloin has many relatives. Schnitzel is German for a fried cutlet, usually veal. Wiener schnitzel refers to the style of Vienna where the meat is pounded thin, breaded in flour and bread crumbs and fried in lard. In the Czech Republic, this is known as smažený řízek except that it is made with pork or chicken and almost always served with mashed potatoes. Cotoletta is Italian for cutlet and cotoletta alla milanese is a classic preparation of Milan, usually made from suckling calf loins fried in butter with the bone-in and then served with fresh squeezed lemon. Cotoletta di maiale means pork instead of veal.

  Pork tenderloin’s closest relatives are: cotoletta a orecchio di elefante (“elephant ear cutlet”) which uses a large, deboned cut of meat that is tenderized prior to frying; and tonkatsu, a tenderized Japanese pork cutlet that is coated in Panko and fried.

  The following styles are applied regionally to pork tenderloin’s foreign cousins.

  Alpenschnitzel - topped with a mushroom gravy and melted Swiss cheese.

  Jägerschnitzel – hunter-style includes a dark mushroom sauce. In the Amana colonies, it’s on the menu at Ronnenburg restaurant.

  Zigeunerschnitzel – gypsy-style means with tomato sauce.

  Holsteinerschnitzel - Holstein-style is topped with a fried egg, anchovies, capers and lemon slices.

  Naturschnitzel – “natural” means unbreaded and sautéed.

  alla Marchigiana – style of Le Marche means natural but heavily salted.

  Parmo – from northeast England, this amounts of deep fried pork and chips smothered in Bechamel sauce, topped with grated cheese and finished in a pizza oven.

  alla Toscano - Tuscan-style means cooked in garlic, fennel and olive oil and served with bell peppers reduced in white wine.

  alla Siciliano - Sicilian-style means garlic, parsley and Pecorino are included in the breading.

  Tenderloin Corridor Contacts:

  Shack’s Lounge

  306 Main St, Bayard, 712-651-2451

  Coyote Grill

  108 W Main St. Panora 641-755.3255

  The Links at Lake Panorama National Resort & Conference Center
  5071 Clover Ridge Rd., Panora, 800-879-1912

  PJ’s Drive-in

  600 E. Main St., Panora, 641-755-4264

  Darrell’s Place

  40101 1st St., Hamlin, 712- 563-3922

  Larsen’s Pub

  4206 Main St., Elk Horn, 712-764-8026

  ToJo’s

  408 Main, Jamaica, 641-429-3007

  Fifth Avenue Diner

  Highway 141, Coon Rapids, 712-999-2281

  An original version of this story was first published in The Iowan magazine.

   

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