First brined pork loin

[Barrel99]

Well I figured it was about time that I tried a pork brine. So I got a 4.1 lb boneless pork loin and put it in DMs pork brine (no pink salt) for 18 hours. Washed it and dried it and put in fridge for a couple hours. I wasn't ready to cook it yet. I just wanted it out of the brine.

I rubbed it with mustard and Daves Famous rub. Here is where I used the "progressive smoke". I used a really wine fragrant oak barrel chip...smelled great...followed by a 1-3/4 apple chunk then 1-1/8 hickory chunk (see pic). Wood chunks were boated (later foil was removed to get more smoke), all on a SI chip tray.

Set temp to 235. Got smoke in 5 minutes. Could actually smell the wood as it progressed. Smoked to IT of 147, 2 hours. Then put it on a hot gas grill for less than 10 minutes and foil wrapped it. Put it in towels in cooler for about 2 hours when we were ready to eat.

Unbelievable! Tender, moist and smoked to perfection. We all agreed we never had such a fantastic pork loin. Brined pork...YUM!

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[SuperDave]

Looks great.  What was served on the plate with it?

[Barrel99]

Some fantastic homemade creamy buttery mashed potatoes and my favorite green bean casserole. I was going to make Jeffs smoked Mac and cheese but got lazy.

[SuperDave]

Some fantastic homemade creamy buttery mashed potatoes and my favorite green bean casserole. I was going to make Jeffs smoked Mac and cheese but got lazy.

Well, it sounds like you stayed in the comfort food category anyways.    The only thing that I can think of as a great add to that menu would have been some smoked gravy.  I'm hooked on it.   

[Barrel99]

How do you smoke gravy Dave? What gravy?

[SuperDave]

How do you smoke gravy Dave? What gravy?

When I'm smoking my primary meat, I throw a sacrificial piece of pork or beef in with the main meat.  Not hard to find a small, cheap piece for about $3 in the meat case.  While my meat is resting, I take the sacrificial piece, add a little broth and braise it off in the oven at around 350 until I get some pan juices.  Add a little roué and a splash of Kitchen Bouquet and you have some velvet, smoky gravy for those mashed taters. 

[Barrel99]

Hey that's some creative gravy making. Bet that is really good on taters. Probably can put that sacrificial piece of meat in a small foil tray to catch the renderings also while its smoking to add to the gravy.

[DivotMaker]

Great-looking loin, Arnie!  Nice job!!

[AngieSmokes]

Definitely taking notes for my recipe file. Yum - pork loin with smoked gravy. Curious, what is/in DMs pork brine?

[Barrel99]

Thanks.

DivotMakers brine recipe: I did cut way back on the black and cayenne pepper

http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1608.0

[AngieSmokes]

Thanks - all sounds so good!

[SuperDave]

Pork loins are on sale in our neighborhood this weekend for $3.99/lbs.  What do you guys/gals typically pay for your loins? 

[Barrel99]

I got the one above for $1.99/lb on sale at Winn Dixie.

[SuperDave]

I got the one above for $1.99/lb on sale at Winn Dixie.

No wonder Florida is full of old people, meat is cheap there!  LOL!

[Barrel99]

Generally the loins are about the same as yours. But here when we do get sales on pork it is really good. Beef is another story. It's outrageous. Also, we have a large Latin population in South Florida and they use a lot of pork so there is a huge amount of it being sold at all times. Very competitive.