The Time Capsule | Roy Marshall

Hoosiers claim the tenderloin sandwich was created in 1904 by a restaurant owner in Huntington, Ind. Some from our state say the time frame is about right, but the first was served at an ethnic establishment near Cedar Rapids.
Grandpa Pete’s story has them both wrong. He seemed pretty sure that in the 1890s he had wiener schnitzel on a bun at a German restaurant in Harlan in Shelby County, where his parents lived at the time. The schnitzel sandwich, he said, was a tenderloin by another name. That boyhood experience started him on a lifetime relationship with the tenderloin, and it became a family thing.
Food purists would argue that schnitzel is not tenderloin. Traditional Austrian schnitzel is veal; tenderloin is pork. Both get a similar egg bath and breading, but schnitzel is sautéed while tenderloin is deep fried. A schnitzel can be the same size as the bun. A tenderloin must overlap – preferably by a generous amount.
Gramps had business dealings in real estate, livestock, and some murky enterprise that once brought a pair of FBI agents to town to ask him a few questions. This caused quite a stir, but didn’t seem to interrupt his business. Once a month he’d make a trip, looking at cattle or property and calling on banks and farm credit institutions in various southwest Iowa towns. By the time I was in high school his eyesight was such that he needed a driver. I was glad to oblige, gunning his big green Hudson wherever he wanted, knowing the payoff would be a tenderloin. He knew where the good ones were.
Although Gramps is long gone, his tenderloins are with us still. He has descendants in the western and southeastern parts of the country. They return for reunions and, without fail, make tenderloins part of the visit. They talk about the old man and the fact that his beloved sandwich is not sold where they live. At least one of them, before setting out, does an on-line search for Iowa’s best.
Opinions are easily obtained. Magazines, newspapers, bloggers and TV food shows make their “top 10” lists. The Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA) has an annual contest with a website showing past winners.
Last June, relatives went to a pub in Elk Horn, a 100-mile round trip. The year before, it was Templeton, which is farther. They’ve been to Carroll and Corning and Lenox. They tell me the only Montgomery County place they find listed is an IPPA Honorable Mention for the restaurant at Viking Lake, but that award was given more than 10 years ago.
If they’re wrong about this, if a Montgomery County tenderloin made a recent statewide top 10, let me know and I’ll pass it on.
Regardless, I’m going to be trying restaurants closer to home, looking for any that offer a tenderloin that’s cut and pounded and dipped and hand-breaded using that establishment’s recipe (as opposed to a processed, frozen, out-of-the box cookie-cutter). My intent is to find them, nominate the best for the IPPA contest, and save the relatives some miles next summer.  

Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.