Hi Ty,

Sorry that you thought the Slow Cooker Ranch Stuffed Pork Loin with Red Skinned Potatoes was a complete failure. Did you try it after it was cooked? How was the flavor? I do admit that sometimes it doesn’t come out looking like a super model pork loin haha but I’ve never had an issue with the flavor. 🙂

Did you flip it half way through? I put both options in directions. If you flip it you won’t get the brown crisp top. The bottom however isn’t going to get brown and crispy ever because of how it’s cooked in the slow cooker. I’ve always thought it was a odd looking pork loin but the flavor makes up for that in our opinion. 🙂

There shouldn’t be too much thick cream cheese inside of the pork after it’s cooked. The finished pork loin is most definitely not stuffed with the cream cheese, the center should mostly just be the cook spinach with maybe a little cream cheese. When Cream cheese gets hot it melts, so it wouldn’t stay thick. It’s mainly there with the ranch to season the pork and then melt down and cook and season the potatoes. The “soup” like mixture is what you kind of want in the bottom, it’s the pork fat and cream cheese melted together. You want that because it makes the potatoes soft and flavorful.

What was the other recipe that was a complete failure? Maybe I can see what went wrong.

Hummm…. let me think. You may be able to use some type of cotton string but I’d wet it first. But to be honest I haven’t used anything other than twine but if it came down to using twine or not making it at all, I’d probably fill it, close it (like a book), sit it down into the slow cooker and then sticking a few wooden skewers (that have been soaked in water for about 30 minutes) into it hold it shut. I haven’t tested that method but if it were me I’d try it haha.

Was is a picnic ham? That’s from the shoulder that’s a different cut of the pig. The Pork loin is from the pig’s back. The roasts don’t come with the twine, you have to buy that separately. 🙂 I normally find twine on the end rack where the kitchen tools are in places like Target and Walmart although some grocery stores may have it especially since ewe’re getting close to Thanksgiving. I cook mine closer to 8 hours, sometimes 8 hours and 30 minutes. I cut it down the long side so that it opens up like a book 🙂

So sorry, one more thing. If I don’t have twine what else could I use to hold the stuffing in place?

I ended up just buying a 5 lb because this looks so amazing and I wanted leftovers but there were different pork loin roasts one of which was called picnic. Which do you buy? I just purchased a 5 lb pork loin roast and it didn’t come with a twine. I hope I bought the right kind. I was just wondering two more things. How long do you normally cook yours for? Was trying to see if it would be closer to 8 or 10 as I do’t want to start it too late. I know cooking times vary but I was just trying to get a closer estimate. Also and this may seem like a dumb question but how did you cut the pork? It looks like just straight down. Thanks for all your help. I’m making this in the morning and I just can’t wait.

As far as the cooking time, if I was going with the 2.5 pound pork loin I would cook it on low for 6 hours and then start checking it with a meat thermometer. Pork should reach an minimum internal temperature of 145F. I am always worried about under cooking meats so I would probably say 6-7 hours on low but I would start checking the temperature after the 6 hour mark just because you don’t want it to get dry but you want it to be cooked all the way too.

Veronica, I don’t see why you couldn’t use a 2.5 pound pork loin but I have not made this recipe with 2.5 pound pork loin. However If I were going to use a 2.5 pound pork loin, I would cut the spinach, ranch and cream cheese in half because the 2.5 pound pork loin wouldn’t be as big at the 5 pound therefore you wouldn’t have as much room to stuff everything into it.