Smoking a small pork loin

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annaraven

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 30, 2014
25
10
Sillycon Valley
I have to admit, I'm still a little leery of the "done at 145". Also, it took me *forever* to regulate my stupid smoker. I overloaded it with charcoal at first. silly me. I'm getting better though. Eventually I'll figure this thing out. 

I just hope there's enough meat on this thing to make it worthwhile. 
 

I am assured that I *must* post pics. So - here's my small pork loin. It was just shy of 2 pounds and took about an hour to come up to temp (I went to 150F). My smoker hovered around 250F due to me overloading it (as I mentioned earlier) and then having to fight to regulate it and at least keep it under 250 so it probably cooked a little quickly. At least the apple woodchips worked well in their new smokerbox. 

I turned it onto its fatty top after it was at 145 and stuck some of the excess coals under it to brown the fat a bit. Then I wrapped it up in a nice snug tinfoil blanket and let it set for an hour while I made the coleslaw and prepped other stuff. 

The flavor was outstanding. Mildly smoked but perfectly tender and juicy! (I hadn't marinated it overnight - I just rubbed it with some pappy's before I stuck it in the smoker.)

Looking forward to my next smoking adventure. 
 
Annaraven, congrats on the successful smoke!  Feels pretty good, doesn't it?

BTW, I always overload my smoker.  When I'm done, I just close it up to choke off the air, snuffing out the fire, then reuse the charcoal again on the next smoke. 
 
 
So how do you get it to not overheat then?
By controlling airflow through the smoker.  Less air, lower temp.  More air, higher temp.  Close the vents down closest to the fire.  Once it is hot you can also use the top vent to control the air flow but with experience you get pretty good at dialing in your vents to get the chamber temp you want. 
 
I tried closing the side vent (near the coals) and it didn't seem to help. I ended up using water to cool things down a bit. 
 
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