Pork loin roast tips and tricks please

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crod

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 26, 2012
45
10
Roach, Missouri
My wife bought a pork loin roast at the store thinking it was a pork loin.  I've smoked a pork butt is this gonna be the same way or different?  To wrap or not to wrap? last one I smoked the whole time and didn't wrap it. It came out good. How much smoke penetration is good (how deep)
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crod, morning.... Pork loin has no fat to keep it moist....   You might wrap it in bacon for flavor and much needed fat... Over cooking will really dry it out....  I would cook it to an IT of 142, wrap and rest so the IT will come up to 148-150...  Do not probe with the therm for 1 hour (to reduce the chance of inserting surface bacteria into the meat) and smoke at 200 or so.....   You might have to use a torch or lay on a hot grill to crisp the bacon....   

Someone will come along with another method of cooking loin, maybe a higher temp method....  Dave
 
crod, morning.... Pork loin has no fat to keep it moist....   You might wrap it in bacon for flavor and much needed fat... Over cooking will really dry it out....  I would cook it to an IT of 142, wrap and rest so the IT will come up to 148-150...  Do not probe with the therm for 1 hour (to reduce the chance of inserting surface bacteria into the meat) and smoke at 200 or so.....   You might have to use a torch or lay on a hot grill to crisp the bacon....   

Someone will come along with another method of cooking loin, maybe a higher temp method....  Dave
What I wanted was a pork loin.  But the wife came home with a pork loin roast.  It looks like the leg part of a shoulder the It has a layer of fat on the top of it just like the butt.
 
The last pork butt I did I smoked it with cherry and hickory 2:1 and injected it with cherry dr.pepper. I used one of my favorite rubs with yellow mustard.   I'm thinking this meat is prepared the same way.  I would like to try something different this time any ideas
 
crod....  The loin is from the top of the animal, above the ribs, and runs from the hip thru the ribs to near the front shoulder.... A loin roast is a section of meat removed from the loin to form a roast..... It can come from anywhere along the loin....  It can come from the "ham end" or the front shoulder "butt end" of the animal or anywhere in between....  the fat cap is sub-dermal fat...  looking at the meat, there should be little or no fat marbling, indicative of a loin... it should look like an intact, single strand of muscle...  If there is bone in it...  you have a "bone in" pork loin roast which has part of the back bone and part of the ribs attached.... 

Sorry for the confusion.... Dave 
 
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OHHHH. I see thats why I have loved this site learn something new every day.  Thanks for the info,  Any ideas on how to prepare this? 
 
Here is a pic of the meat.  I have no clue and was not prepared for this any help is appreicated
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Ive posted a pic of the meat.  Its waiting for approval.  how do I go about preparing and serving this?  do I still wrap it in bacon and to what temp do I cook it . 
 
That is a Bone-in Loin Roast from the back end. It is the equivilent of a Beef Short Loin, where T-bone and Porterhouse Steaks come from. The muscle along the bottom of the pic is the Tenderloin, lean and tender, dies out easily. Then there is a T shaped bone thru the middle and the Loin Eye muscle on the other side. The half where the bones curves there is alot of bone compared to meat and may take a little fancy knife work to get the meat off. The best way to go is smoke at 225*F until an IT of 140-145 then rest. You can take these to 200* and pull it, but you will need a lot of sauce to make up the lost moisture. I would go with the 1st suggestion. It will only take a couple of hours to get to temp. Apply some Rub, and wrap in Bacon if you wish... Good luck...JJ
 
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That is a loin end roast; it is from the end nearest the ham, the left end of it is the sirloin roast.  It is bone-in with a couple short rib nubs and the hip bone:

a2a836f9_pork_cuts_large.jpg


in the latter diagram it shows 'sirloin roast' and 'sirloin chop', showing in the chop the sirloin hip bone, plus the 'loin chop'.

It is a lean cut; it would not be wise to go over 155° internal; anywhere from 147° to 155° is fine.  This would not be good for pulling, it would be too dry and it would toughen up as there is little if any internal fat.
 
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That is a Bone-in Loin Roast from the back end. It is the equivilent of a Beef Short Loin, where T-bone and Porterhouse Steaks come from. The muscle along the bottom of the pic is the Tenderloin, lean and tender, dies out easily. Then there is a T shaped bone thru the middle and the Loin Eye muscle on the other side. The half where the bones curves there is alot of bone compared to meat and may take a little fancy knife work to get the meat off. The best way to go is smoke at 225*F until an IT of 140-145 then rest. You can take these to 200* and pull it, but you will need a lot of sauce to make up the lost moisture. I would go with the 1st suggestion. It will only take a couple of hours to get to temp. Apply some Rub, and wrap in Bacon if you wish... Good luck...JJ
Thank you for the help I have a few more questions. Do I apply the rub 24 hrs hours prior to cooking or wait till time of cooking.  Do I still use mustard to hold the rub or would oil be better or nothing?
 
I have used Mustard and like it. I rub a day or so ahead, I think you get better flavor penetration... I hope you choose the 145IT cook it is much better...JJ
 
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My wife has also found a new hobby with me...Now she loves to go shopping and find a meat on sale for cheap buy it and bring it home to me and say here cook this on the grill.  Thanks to this site and your guys help I hope to still amaze her and my family with my cooking.  She has yet to stump me on being able to grill something.  Although she came close on this one. But at $1.49 a pound its hard to stop her. 
 
Yes I'm going for 145 internal temp.  I am going to try dry rub this time no oil or mustard.  How long you think it will take it is 8 pounds
 
It will probably be 4-5 hours. If it gets there sooner, wrap in foil and towels then put it in a cooler unti needed...JJ
 
It will probably be 4-5 hours. If it gets there sooner, wrap in foil and towels then put it in a cooler unti needed...JJ
Thanks for the help I'm getting ready to rub it wrap it and prepare it for the smoker in 24 hrs.  should I wrap the bacon on it now to or wait till smoker time. 
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Im also thinking of serving it with an apple demi glaze over it and maybe even basted in it last hour of cooking and smoking it with apple wood. what you think
 
Bacon can go before you go in the smoker. Depending on how salty your rub is, in 24 hours the Bacon could pick it up and be too salty. The Apple Demi and Apple wood sounds good, baste and serve it on the side...JJ
 
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My question to the group is as follows:

Cooked my first loin over apple wood to an IT of 155F (ok, so I DIDN'T check this site before and went with some you tube lady's suggestion!).  The only complaint I got was that the smoke was too pronounced (there was a very defined deep smoke ring all the way around the loin).

My question is whether I used too much wood (it was a good sized chunck, I'd say 6 oz.) or perhaps the species was incorrect for this meat?  Or is that just the nature of the beast, so to speak, and I need to accompany this with a sauce of some kind.

Thoughts?
 
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