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I know that the crockpot is not the best device to cook a pork loin but I found myself in this situation. The meat did reach 62C then was left to rest first in the "keep warm" mode of the device then removed and kept in foil for some hours. So, unless the keep warm mode carried on the cooking, we can think it was pot-braised.

At this point, I tried to slice it and it was pink inside as I wanted. Then I had the unfortunate idea to broil it for some minutes in the hope of obtaining a bit more crust since at the beginning the searing was not very good.

Then after slicing it turned out to be as dry as a spoonful of nails. Was the few minutes broil that killed it or perhaps it had been dry all the time?

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When the meat reached 62C (145F) it was done. The "warm" setting on most crock pots is between 74C and 80C (165F to 175F). So, any time spent in the warming mode, then the broiler, continued to over-cook cook your pork. In this case, you were not "resting" the loin, rather, you were continuing to cook it. The dry, tough end product was less the result of the method (though, in my opinion, I am not sure a crock pot is best for pork loin), and instead the result of being cooked too long and far exceeding the desired final internal temperature.

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  • You also need to consider carryover cooking. You need to remove the protein before the desired final temperature. See: blog.thermoworks.com/thermometer/…
    – moscafj
    Commented Jul 24, 2022 at 10:07
  • but since before the broiling the meat was still pink this is why I think the broiler killed it and not much the warming mode. Could have been interesting to measure the temperature before broiling though. Expected of course >62C but perhaps still below the dry bar. Anyway not worth broiling since I didn't even get a nice crust!
    – David P
    Commented Jul 24, 2022 at 10:08
  • Looking at the color is not an accurate way to measure. Pork that is cooked to medium rare (62C...see the link in my answer for a visual) is safe, but pink. Maybe next time, consider roasting.
    – moscafj
    Commented Jul 24, 2022 at 10:11
  • edit: moscafj beat me to the punch - blog.thermoworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/… , meatscience.org/docs/default-source/publications-resources/rmc/…
    – borkymcfood
    Commented Jul 24, 2022 at 10:18
  • @DavidP without pictures it is hard to tell what you mean with pink. Pork is pink at 62C yes. But it would still be pink at 70C, albeit a lot less. Add on the broiler and you got yourself pork at 72-75C which is way over done
    – SirHawrk
    Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 12:38

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