Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

The pork tenderloin sandwich is the Midwest's answer to the schnitzel: a slice of pork loin pounded until it is wider than a dinner plate, breaded, fried, and served on an ordinary hamburger bun that it overhangs on every side by several centimetres. Indiana and Iowa both treat it as a state dish and run competitions for the best one; Indiana's version is more often pounded thin and fried in oil, Iowa's slightly thicker and sometimes cooked in a cast-iron skillet, and both states have a diner or tavern that claims to have invented it in the early twentieth century, with German and Austrian immigrants' schnitzel the obvious ancestor. Despite the name, the cut is usually boneless loin rather than true tenderloin, because the loin gives the wide, even slab; toppings are the plain ones of the hamburger, pickle, onion, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato, and purists keep them minimal so the meat stays the point.