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:
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
Recipe #2 - Hot & Spicy Butter Pork Loin (rib end)
1. Inject the pork loin rib-end with "Cajun Injector - Hot & Spicy Butter"
2. Use about 3/4 of the jar to inject & use the rest + what escaped from injecting to marinade
3. Leave to marinate - cover and refrigerate for 18 hours
Recipe # 3 - Bacon-Wrapped Brined Pork Loin (sirloin)
1. Make a brine, using: (I didn't measure and simply eye-balled, but I will give estimates)
a. 3/4 gallon of water
b. 1/2 gallon of apple juice
c. 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar
d. 1.5 cup of Morton's salt
e. 1 cup sugar
f. 3 tbsp black pepper
2. Marinate in the brine and refrigerate for 18 hours
3. Lattice thick-cut bacon and wrap the loin, then secure with butchers twine
Happy Eggin...
Chris
