Chris' Big Green Egg Adventure: apple wood chunks

Big Green Egg - Smoked Pork Loin (3 recipes)

Review: 10/10!!! First BGE Adventure = SUCCESS! They turned out amazing! Everyone said it was the best pork they've ever had... No one even needed a knife - all 3 loins were so moist and tender, you could cut them with your fork and they literally melted in your mouth. I attribute the success to a couple factors....

1. Pulling from the BGE right when they hit 145 internal meat temp. (The USDA changed the temp of pork from 160 to 145 in 2011 and what a difference 15 degrees makes)

2. FTC (Foil-Towel-Cooler) - I did this for 2.5 hours (putting a pot of boiling water in the cooler at the 1.5 hr mark to maintain heat) - they were still hot (maintained temp) after this time and I think it added to the moisture and tenderness

(Recipes at bottom)

Meats:

a. Jalapeno-Butter Injected Stuffed Pork Loin

b. Hot & Spicy Butter Injected Pork Loin

c. Bacon-Wrapped Brined Pork Loin

BGE Specific:

a. Hickory and Oak Wood Charcoal

b. (6) Western Apple Wood Smoking Chunks (from Bass Pro Shop)

c. Big Green Egg, using plate setter for indirect heat

d. Goal: BGE dome temp - 200 deg. for ~6 hrs until meat temp is 145 deg.
(Lesson Learned: It took a little bit of work to keep it around 200 degrees - for 90% of the cook it remained between 200 and 240, sometimes more, sometimes less - it only took a little over 4 hours to get to meat temp of 145 deg)

As I mentioned in my first post, my brother-in-law gifted my wife and I with the large BGE for Christmas and we subsequently invited him over for New Years Eve to christen it.

He brought over a torque wrench to help finish the assembly and on his way over, stopped at the grocery store to purchase a meat (and a bag of lump charcoal) for us to grill (an add-on to his already amazing gift).

While, he had planned on getting a pork butt or shoulder, he found an amazing deal on pork loin and purchased a 10 lb pork loin.

Neither he, nor I, realized that loin is a very lean meat and not made for slow cooking (as it tends to dry out) and rather is best for a faster cooking time. However, both of us wanted to test one of the true benefits of the BGE (smoking and slow & low cooking) and were determined to make this work.

After extensive research, I decided I would go ahead with the loin and try to slow cook it, while maintaining flavor and moisture.

Here is my first attempt at the BGE

(Side note: I didn't determine I would start a blog until after the loins have been marinating for over 12 hours, so unfortunately the original prep work will be photo-less - this will not be a recurring theme, as I will try to photo all steps for future cooks)

1. I determined that the 10 lb loin would be to large for the egg (although I could have bent it to fit), but also wanted to try 3 different methods for 2 reasons. First, in case one of the methods fails (too dry, bad taste, etc), and second, to have a variety of flavors from the first BGE cook. So, I cut the loin into 3 different parts - the sirloin, the center cut, and the rib-end. (pic from internet)

The actual recipes (with pictures) are below, but here was my process:

1. Prepare each recipe and let marinate/brine for 18 hours

2. Remove meats and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour

3. Prepare the BGE by lighting the wood charcoal/wood chunks and get burning

4. Add plate setter and drip pan and pan with apple juice and apple cider vinegar
(Helpful hint: Place 4 stacks of 4 pennies on the plate center and then place the drip pan on the pennies - this prevents the drippings from burning too much from the direct heat)

5. Add meat to BGE

6. Stabilize dome temp to 200 deg - close top vent to a little more than a sliver open and bottom vent about 1/4" open
7. Grab a beer or Crown Royal and sit back and relax
8. After the internal temp of the meat reaches 145 degrees, remove and "FTC" (Foil-towel-cooler)
   a. Wrap the meat in foil, nice and good
   b. Wrap the foil in towels
   c. Place the towels in a cooler
   (If you want to keep the meat in FTC for more than 2 hours, pre-heat the cooler by placing a pan of boiling water on a towel in the cooler)
     (There are a lot of people that will FTC regardless of wait time, because it makes the meat moist and maintains the temperature - most will do it for a minimum of 30 minutes)

Recipe #1 - Jalapeno-Butter Injected Stuffed Pork Loin (center cut)

1. Cut the pork loin center-cut, using a C-cut method to essentially "unwrap" the meat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eCpL6cj7Rw
2 Inject the meat with a half-jar of "Cajun Injector - Jalapeno Butter" marinade
3. Cover the meat with:
     a. Philadelphia Spicy Jalapeno Cream Cheese
     b. Apple Smoked Gouda Cheese (sliced thin from block)
     c. Chopped Pineapple
     d. Chopped Orange Bell Peppers
   e. Chopped Jalapeno Peppers (de-seeded)
     f. "Rub Some Butt" Seasoning
3. Wrap the loin and tie with Butcher's twine (I asked the Safeway butcher for some and he obliged with a large amount for free)
4. Rub with "Rub Some Butt" Seasoning
5. Cover and refrigerate for 18 hours