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We had a memorable time with guests last weekend. There was laughing, crying(kidding), great food, and good conversation.
I thought what a great show topic.
In this weeks episode I cover our menu of smoked pork loin, smoked cheese, mac n cheese, Uncle Steve’s onion bread, and desert pizza. We also get into some of my favorite BBQ cookbooks.
As promised, I have some how-to’s and recipes for all the listeners.
The Mighty Pork Loin
As mentioned in the show, I think the pig gets a bad name and is labeled as always fatty and always bad for you. This in simply not true. The pork loin is a lean cut of pork. A three ounce serving contains 155 calories and six grams of fat. The loin can be purchased in large eight to ten pound loins, or three to five pound loin roasts. We found a half-off deal at the local grocery store, so an eight pound loin is what we had this week. The loin should not be confused with the tenderloin, which is smaller(one to two pounds).
Brine
Preparring to smoke a pork loin is pretty simple. The night before I mixed a quarter cup of brine with a gallon+ of water. Brine is used to add flavor and moisture to meats. This brine was a simple 50/50 brown sugar to salt mix. Mix with water to your taste preference. You will need to have a bucket or container big enough to hold your cut of meat and your brine. Get yourself a meat injector and inject the brine every square inch to inch and a half. Let it soak over night or for about six to eight hours.
When the meat has soaked in the brine long enough, dispose of the brine and let the loin rest on a cutting board while excess brine continues to release.
Rubs
There are some practices to follow when you are making rubs. First, write down what you do; ingredient and quantity. Rate your rub before it goes on the meat and after the meat is done cooking. As the rub is cooked with the meat, new flavors will develop. A rub cannot be fully judged by how it tastes dry and off the palm of your hand. Second, save glass jars and used spices bottles. You will spend less when you can buy your spices in bulk, without the cost of a plastic or glass jar. Third, add spices a little at a time. Save yourself the headache of trying to compensate for a spice you added too much of. Lastly, get creative. As I say in the show, a good rub base is started with salt, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. This is not a rule, but merely one opinion. Try new spices, make smaller batches, try them on different meats. There are no rules when it comes to rubs. If you like it, then cook with it. I buy almost all of my spices from Penzeys.com. They have stores in 28 states, and you can order online if needed. I am not sponsored to say they are great, but they are!
Apply the rub all over and pat it down. Use one hand to lightly shake it out of a bottle or sprinkle with your hand, and use the other to pat the rub in. Let sit for at least one hour.
The rub I used for the pork loin was made a few weeks back. A simple rub I just whipped up today follows:
Sample Rub
2 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1/2 Tsp Cayenne
1/4 Tsp Celery Salt
2 Tsp Brown Sugar
1/4 Tsp Oregano
Preparing your Grill/Smoker
Get your grill or smoker set up for indirect cooking. During the show I talk about the bypass method, which is simply a line of charcoal across the bottom of a barrel grill/smoker. Another method for the barrel is the flank method. This involves a pile of charcoal on each end of the chamber with your cut of meat in the middle. For a Weber or Weber-like grill, you can either have your coals on one side and the meat on the other, or you can make an almost complete circle of charcoal around the bottom. With the bypass and encirclement method, you simply light one end and it will slowly walk itself around, keeping a some-what consistent temperature(still needs to be managed).
When your grill/smoker is holding between 225-275 degrees you can place your pork loin on the farthest side from the coals. Buy an oven thermometer and place it close to the meat. I have not seen many thermometers that are built-in to grills and smokers that also last long.
Smoker Management
I was setting my kitchen timer for 45 minutes. When the timer went off, I would check my temperature and add more charcoal or take some away(be safe, use tongs), add a fist size chunk of apple wood(hickory and cherry work good too), add a small handful of hickory pellets, and reset the timer.
I’m Starting to Drool
When the loin reached 165-170 degrees, I pulled it out and covered it with tinfoil to rest on the cutting board for 15 minutes or longer. This step is essential to all smoking sessions. Resting will allow the juices to pull back into the cut to keep it nice and moist. If you were to cut in right away, you would lose way too much moisture.
After resting, just take two forks, or a fork and a knife, or bear claws(not the pastry) and start pulling. Place the pulled pork into a crock pot on low heat until serving. You can serve it like this or a tasty spin is to add a packet of onion soup mix and some water(not much). Serve on a bun with your favorite BBQ sauce or let the flavors stand on their own with no sauce. A favorite from an old St. Paul smoke shack(out of business) we used to live by was the Memphis pulled pork sandwich. Bun, pulled pork, coleslaw, and sauce. It is ridiculously good.
Uncle Steve’s Onion Bread
1 loaf of French bread cut horizontally like at Subway.
1 package of sliced swiss cheese. Fold the slices in half and over lap them down the length of the cut.
1 med-lrg sweet onion sliced and sauteed in butter until translucent. Place sauteed onions in with the cheese.
Sprinkle with poppy seeds for flavor.
Wrap in foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Yes, you can also put this in a smoker.
Mac n Cheese
Adapted from a Cuisine at Home Magazine recipe.
1/2 pound pasta cooked to one minute before being done.
Melt and Stir in the following:
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
2 Cups whole mike, warmed
1/2 Cup chicken broth, warmed
3 oz shredded Fontina cheese
3 oz shredded white Cheddar cheese
3 oz shredded Quesadilla cheese or Mozzarella
3 Tbsp Parmesan
3 Tsp prepared yellow mustard
1 Tsp Worcestershire
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp pepper
1 Tsp nutmeg
1 Tsp hot sauce
Fold noodles into sauce and place in a one quart baking dish, greased.
Top with a mixture of one cup panko bread crumbs, 1/4 Cup basil, and 1 Tbsp olive oil.
Bake at 400 degrees until sauce is bubbly. About 15 minutes.
Desert Pizza
One Pillsbury thin pizza crust, or fresh pizza dough
Cook crust until it is hard enough to work with but not done.
Spread enough melted chocolate chips and peanut butter to cover the dough like sauce.
The following ingredients can be added in any amount you like and you can use other ingredients to get creative:
Shredded coconut
Sliced bananas
White chocolate chips
Cashews, peanuts, or walnuts
Chocolate syrup to drizzle
Caramel syrup to drizzle
Bake according to package instructions or at 375 degrees until crust is done and ingredients are warm to hot.
To wrap the show up I covered some of my favorite BBQ cookbooks. The book that can really take your ‘Q’ to the next level very quickly is “Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book” by Chris Lilly. Simply put, I owe Chris for what this book has done for to make my BBQ better. “Pizza on the Grill” by Elizabeth Karmel and Bob Blummer. Great book if your looking for a break from the normal grilling/smoking session.
The weather is warming up. Time to get the grill or smoker out.
Like us at Facebook.com/SmokeHousePodcast and let me know what your first BBQ session will be.
