Pork loin steaks are the midweek pork equivalent of a 6oz beef steak: thin enough for a pan, thick enough not to dry out if you time them. We pack them in fours, and in flavoured 4x and 16x packs, so you can cook tonight or fill the freezer. Start with pork loin steaks and pork steaks if you want the wider pork steak range including the boneless bulk packs.
Pan and oven times
Pork Loin Steaks 4x 135g are four steaks, about 135g each. Pan: medium-high heat, 4 minutes first side, 3 to 4 minutes second side. You are aiming for 70°C in the centre, then 3 minutes rest. The old habit of cooking pork until it is grey and dry is how loin steaks get a bad name. A blush of juice is fine once it has hit temperature. Oven: 180°C for 18 to 22 minutes on a tray, turning once. Useful when you are cooking all four at once and the pan will not take them.
Garlic Pork Loin Steaks 4x 135g and the piri-piri 4x cook to the same times. Because they are already seasoned, do not add extra salt until you taste. Watch the garlic steaks in a fierce pan; the marinade can catch. Medium heat, not smoking, is kinder on flavoured loin.
BBQ and air fryer
BBQ: direct heat, 4 minutes a side, then a minute on the cool side if they are not at 70°C. Air fryer: 190°C for 12 to 14 minutes, turning once. The air fryer is the cleanest way to cook a 4x pack on a week night with potatoes in the same drawer on the rack below, or a tray of vegetables in the oven while the steaks finish.
Bulk packs and flavoured steaks
When pork steaks are a weekly habit, the 16x boneless packs in bulk pork steaks and boneless pork steaks work out cheaper per plate. Cook from frozen only if you add time and still probe; better to defrost in the fridge. Loin steaks are not chops: they have no bone to protect the meat, so they cook faster and dry faster. Pull them at 70°C, rest, and serve with something wet — gravy, a mustard sauce, or a pile of onions.
If you are new to pork steaks, cook two from the 4x pack tonight and freeze the other two, separated by baking paper. They defrost overnight in the fridge and cook from fridge-cold in the same 4 minutes a side; do not cook them half-frozen in the middle. A mustard or onion gravy on the plate makes up for how lean loin is compared with belly.
Four steaks, one pan, twenty minutes including rest. That is the job loin steaks were cut for.