Matt wrote:

Head's Red BBQ wrote:Matt - my point was that this cut does not have the high volume of internal fat that needs to be rendered out over a long period of cooking time so IMO I dont see any advantage to cooking this lean of a meat low and slow
if you can achieve the same results grilling indirect at a higher cook temps with some wood chunks.
anyone give it a shot and post some results

Head's Red -- I figured it would be more of a indirect-with-smoke type of cook (as opposed to true low and slow) and perhaps should have clarified that, as I've had it done that way before (but have never done it before). You are correct that there is little internal fat; what fat there is is more of a fat cap on the rack. Actually your proposal of 325-ish seems to be consistent with what a friend who has smoked a rack of chops before used (and I tried the end product, which was quite good) -- 300-325 for about 3 hours, to an internal temp in the low 150s. I should also mention I will be doing this on a Big Green Egg, which is arguably more forgiving of these cuts of (non-traditional BBQ) meats than traditional smokers because of the ceramic and the way the air circulates. We'll see how it goes; perhaps I will try to chronicle it photographically if I can find our camera.

yes ..cooking temp was what I was getting at...
Im going to bet thats going to come out just perfect on an Egg..sounds great Matt!

Matt,

Similar to what Head Red said I use a hotter smoker temp, ie Smoke Roasting, with naturally tender meat such as bone-in pork loin roast, prime rib, turkey etc. With a WSM, which is what I believe you are using, I would go direct, no waterpan, rotate the roast every ten minutes and cook to an internal temp of 140 degrees. 140, with carry forward as the roast rests, yields moist tender pork loin.

Fill the charcoal ring half full and use two of smallish chunks of wood, apple is terrific with pork. Smoke Roasting will impart a kiss of smoke to the bone-in loin, a nice crisp to the exterior and allow the tender flesh to shine.

Here is a post on Smoke Roasting a prime rib, same method, different cut of meat.

Enjoy,
Gary

Caputo's had some fancy BB's last night for $3.99/lb. "no hormones, chemicals, and fed a vegetarian diet". Small 2# slabs. Went with them instead of the spares they had for $1.49/lb. Curious to see if there is any difference.

Almost grabbed some pork belly as well, but will get that some other time.

Matt wrote:I should also mention I will be doing this on a Big Green Egg, which is arguably more forgiving of these cuts of (non-traditional BBQ) meats than traditional smokers because of the ceramic and the way the air circulates. We'll see how it goes; perhaps I will try to chronicle it photographically if I can find our camera.

Matt,

Big Green Egg, thought you were using a WSM for some reason, no matter, just as easy on an Egg. If you are an experienced Egg man, and have a device such as the home-brewed Raised Grid or one of the setups from the Ceramic Grill Store that allows you to raise the grate up to the felt line without using the Plate Setter then by all means go direct on the BGE. If you don't have a device that raises the grid use the Plate Setter in leg-up position and run the BGE in the 350 range.

Please do not overcook the pork loin, 140, with carry forward as the roast rests, is the perfect temp.

As a matter of curiosity, how big is this bone-in pork loin?

Good luck, have fun and please let us know how it turns out.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary -- thanks for the advice on the temp; will not exceed 140. I do not have/have not made any of the BGE mods (it is a fairly recent acquisition -- a gift (and a generous one at that) from my parents to reward me (although they would never say it) for being the one child of their four who does not come around regularly looking for handouts of the monetary/plane ticket/clothing variety). Bone-in loin roast is just over 4 pounds -- so relatively small.

Matt wrote: Bone-in loin roast is just over 4 pounds -- so relatively small.

Nice gift!

Just use the plate setter in the leg-up position, build a smallish fire with lump charcoal, toss in a smaller than your fist chunk of apple a minute or three before you put on the meat and peg the BGE at 350. Use an instant read thermometer and take out at 140. Let rest, slice, eat, repeat.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

Matt wrote:I should also mention I will be doing this on a Big Green Egg, which is arguably more forgiving of these cuts of (non-traditional BBQ) meats than traditional smokers because of the ceramic and the way the air circulates. We'll see how it goes; perhaps I will try to chronicle it photographically if I can find our camera.

Matt,

Big Green Egg, thought you were using a WSM for some reason, no matter, just as easy on an Egg. If you are an experienced Egg man, and have a device such as the home-brewed Raised Grid or one of the setups from the Ceramic Grill Store that allows you to raise the grate up to the felt line without using the Plate Setter then by all means go direct on the BGE. If you don't have a device that raises the grid use the Plate Setter in leg-up position and run the BGE in the 350 range.

Please do not overcook the pork loin, 140, with carry forward as the roast rests, is the perfect temp.

As a matter of curiosity, how big is this bone-in pork loin?

Good luck, have fun and please let us know how it turns out.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary -agreed on the end temp of the meat..i was going to mention that 160 is a bit high but lot of people still think they need to cook the hell out of pork and im not meaning you Matt..just people in general

pork loin rubbed with a wet rub of brown sugar, sage, cayenne pepper, cajun seasoning and cherry peppers:



some "green" BB's, hope they were worth $3.99/Lb. will be getting rubbed with my rub, and smoked.





should be a good day, pork loin is for sandwiches tomorrow for the NFL games, ribs, ABT's, and beans are for tonights O.U. vs Miami game @ 7:00.

LTH,

Fresh Farms had fresh picnic pork sholder for .79c/lb, just could not resist.

Fresh Picnic Pork Shoulder



Made up a rub, studded the picnic on all four sides with fresh garlic.




Light coat of mustard, so the rub will stick, and into the Big Green Egg with lump charcoal and apple wood chunks.



Fresh picnic is currently on hour 5, I will take a few pics and post.

Enjoy,
Gary

Fresh Picnic Pork Shoulder 5-hours on Big Green Egg

6.5 Hours, done, sliceable, delicious






Still a lot of energy in the BGE, beet roasting time.

ribs turned out really good(not because of how the pigs were raised/processed imho). My new rub is sweet and hot, very little salt.





Pork loin was killer, caribbean "jerk" like flavor, Will be awesome for the Smoked pork Hoagie with broccoli rabe, provolone, and herbeb mayo I have planned for lunch today.




Full house:


thanks for looking.

Had a 2-pack of pork butt from Zier's Prime Meats in Wilmette, so I decided to make sausage with one of them (hotdogs, andouille) and whole-smoke the other one . . .


Pork Butt, going on the Komodo this morning



Rubbed & Ready



After about 8 hours at around 250. You can see where some pieces "fell off."



On the plate with my favorite side dish (from our CSA box)

=R=

After the pork butt was finished, I threw some small pieces of pecan wood on the fire and let them burn down. Once they settled, I closed the dampers almost completely and put the aforementioned andouille on the Komodo for a couple of hours, until it reached an internal temperature of 150 F. I was lazy, so I hot-smoked it all as one big coil rather than twisting off individual links. For the way I primarily use this sausage (in soups, stews, beans and jambalaya), that shouldn't make any significant difference . . .


5.5 pounds of Andouille Sausage



A closer look

=R=

Ronnie..looks great!..you have a good recipe for andouille you could send my way?

Ronnie_S,

Pork butt looks delicious, andouille poetry.

Enjoy,
Gary

Jim, do I see a smoked mac-n-cheese there in the smoker?


Ronnie, I always smoke the 5lb boxes of hot links from Peoria in one big coil like that 'cause I wasn't sure what else to do with them, twist them off into individual links you say? So obvious, I must be some kind of idiot Looks like you had a delicious weekend!

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:Jim, do I see a smoked mac-n-cheese there in the smoker?

jim, no those are some beans with smoked sausage, some bacon, & some green peppers, onion, and garlic sauteed in bacon fat.

mac-n-cheese is on the "to-do list" though.

Ronnie,

awesome smoke ring on that pork.

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:Jim, do I see a smoked mac-n-cheese there in the smoker?


Ronnie, I always smoke the 5lb boxes of hot links from Peoria in one big coil like that 'cause I wasn't sure what else to do with them, twist them off into individual links you say? So obvious, I must be some kind of idiot Looks like you had a delicious weekend!

i actually had mac and cheese off the smoker at a friends house over the weekend...after eating it imo some things are better left without smoke on them..

That doesn't bode well! Still, I've had smoked cheese that I've enjoyed very much, there ought to be a way to make a mac & cheese work smoked as well.

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:That doesn't bode well! Still, I've had smoked cheese that I've enjoyed very much, there ought to be a way to make a mac & cheese work smoked as well.

it can be done, if spaghetti, and au gratin potatoes can be done well on the smoker, mac-n-cheese wouldnt be a problem.

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:That doesn't bode well! Still, I've had smoked cheese that I've enjoyed very much, there ought to be a way to make a mac & cheese work smoked as well.

not saying you cant....heck you can throw smoke on anything you want..all up to your own taste buds..i few things ive tried and didnt like smoked were shrimp, potatos, eggs, and pasta..doesnt mean its not worth trying..you may find you like it..

I smoked some eggs a while back and thought they turned out pretty well, next up, eggs smoked and then pickled with jalapenos and habaneros! (smoked in the shells long enough for the whites to hold their shape, then cracked the shells with the back of a spoon to get some smoke inside, still the smoke flavor was mild. I think for the pickled eggs I'll also smoke some of the jalapenos and habaneros to get more smoke flavor into the brine)

JimTheBeerGuy wrote:I smoked some eggs a while back and thought they turned out pretty well, next up, eggs smoked and then pickled with jalapenos and habaneros! (smoked in the shells long enough for the whites to hold their shape, then cracked the shells with the back of a spoon to get some smoke inside, still the smoke flavor was mild. I think for the pickled eggs I'll also smoke some of the jalapenos and habaneros to get more smoke flavor into the brine)

about the only non meat items ive had and liked with some smoke on them were beans and peppers...

G Wiv wrote:

Matt wrote:I should also mention I will be doing this on a Big Green Egg, which is arguably more forgiving of these cuts of (non-traditional BBQ) meats than traditional smokers because of the ceramic and the way the air circulates. We'll see how it goes; perhaps I will try to chronicle it photographically if I can find our camera.

Matt,

Big Green Egg, thought you were using a WSM for some reason, no matter, just as easy on an Egg. If you are an experienced Egg man, and have a device such as the home-brewed Raised Grid or one of the setups from the Ceramic Grill Store that allows you to raise the grate up to the felt line without using the Plate Setter then by all means go direct on the BGE. If you don't have a device that raises the grid use the Plate Setter in leg-up position and run the BGE in the 350 range.

Please do not overcook the pork loin, 140, with carry forward as the roast rests, is the perfect temp.

As a matter of curiosity, how big is this bone-in pork loin?

Good luck, have fun and please let us know how it turns out.

Enjoy,
Gary

Thanks for the input, Gary and others. Bone-in pork loin, smoke roasted, was very good, although it went a touch longer than I would have preferred -- my brother-in-law and I were in charge of 4 kids under the age of four while our wives were out Saturday late afternoon/early evening, and after a couple of strong beers at the Hopleaf earlier that afternoon, the cooking and kid-watching process ended up with the sorts of shenanigans that provide easy fodder for bad family-oriented sitcoms and scolding advertisements for child safety products that play off the theme that men just don't get it. That said, while the pork was a bit more done than I would have preferred (I got to it off the egg at just under 150, despite best efforts to hew to the 140 recommended by Gary), it was very good. Ended up giving it about 2 hours 15 minutes for a four-pound roast at 350 degrees. Sorry, no pictures -- the combination the aforementioned shenanigans and the miserable weather made locating the camera, much less taking photos, out of the question.

Prime bone in ribeye


Awfully difficult to resist in the meat case


Particularly at this price - don't you just love Costco?!


Cut into single bone roasts/steaks, each >2" thick and >2 lbs.


After trimming I had only 10% waste. Not bad.
Lightly salted, wrapped in saran and refrigerated for most of the day.
I decided to cook this piece as a roast.


Smoked with guava wood at between 275° - 300° to an internal temperature of 145°
(a little higher than we normally like - - that's what happens when you get distracted)

The rest of last Sunday night's dinner consisted of a pasta with pesto from the last of our Thai basil in our deck herb garden and a salad with the last fresh tomatoes for the year from Stade's Farm in Spring Grove. Six more steaks/roasts are waiting in the freezer.

I am making my second foray into meat smoking (first was a successful slab of bacon) this weekend as I'm planning on smoking a pork shoulder to make pulled pork for the Michigan-Iowa game Saturday night. I am trying to get a handle on exactly how long I need to cook the meat for. I was planning on using the recipe/procedure here (<http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/09/barbecue-bbq-pulled-pork-recipe.html>), which calls for a smoking time of 14-16 hours at 225. Alton Brown's pulled pork recipe calls for 10-12 hours at 210. A few posts, G Wiv smoked his for 6.5 hours. I am thoroughly confused. I have an probe thermometer so I can check the temperature, but I don't know when to start smoking the shoulder and have it be done Saturday evening. Initially, I was planning on throwing it on the smoker around 1am Saturday morning given the 14-16 hour smoke time the recipe calls for, but now I'm reading stuff that says it won't need to go for that long. My nightmare is that I throw the shoulder on the smoker Friday night when I go to bed (~1am) and I wake up and my shoulder is completely torched. Help!

Great buy and great looking steaks, DRC1379!

Ronnie,

WOW. The andouille looks spectacular! Well done! The pork looks pretty awesome too but when I scrolled down to see that sausage...just wow.

Btw, I love your Komodo! I've never seen one that style! I'm not allowed to get another "grill" until we have a bigger backyard...