First shot at a pork loin

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dauntless

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jun 1, 2010
227
60
Groton, CT
Had a decent sized pork loin roast in the freezer so I figured we would give it a go. By far the largest thing I have smoked. I rubbed it down lat night and let it chill in the fridge, wrapped in bacon, and going to smoke using maple lump coal and hickory. It did have a nice little fat cap so I put that towards the top. Figured I would run temps around 220-240 and see what we get. Here is some Qview!

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little worried, internal temp is already at 138, it' only been on a little less than 4 hours...thought it would take longer...temps holding steady at 230-240 with two diff thermos. Is this a normal time frame? I plan on pulling and foiling at 150
 
I trust it a lot actually, it's a walmart cheepo remote job, but it reads dead on with my calibrated manual one. I might pull at 145 then. Thanks for the input!   I plan on foiling for about 30 mins, that sound right?
 
Sounds about right.  You want to hit 160 without overshooting too much.  Remember that the temp will continue to climb a few degrees after you pull it off the heat, so keep a close eye on it, and pull it a few degrees short and let it rest a while before you carve it.  It looks awesome by the way.
 
Looks great.  Don't sweat pulling it until 160-165*.  Wrap it in foil and rest for an hour.  It'll be great. 
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well I pulled it at 145 wrapped in foil for about 40 min and cut into it...man this was juicy. I can honestly say that in my whole 3 mos or so of smoking rookieness (made that word up just now) this one is on the top of the charts so far!  Major flavor, major juice, major smoke..... I am a happy man.

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After sitting the internal temp had climbed to 162 so I figured I am good to go, I am pretty happy with how it all turned out
 
I always run my pork til at least 160. Then wrap it in foil, towels, and stick it in a cooler for at least an hour.  Always super tender and juicy.  I had smoked a ton of pork and never had anything turnout Dry.  Looks good though.
 
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I hope your a very happy man there Dountless. You should be for that loin looks awesome. I think you should go ahead and print one of the finished pictures and put it on the frig too.
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Good job on the loin. I take my loins to 165 in the dead center before I pull. I don't bother wrapping and I just give them about 10-15 minutes before slicing.
 
I went to a BGE demo, featuring Dr.BBQ, Ray Lampe, and he was cooking pork tenderloins to either 125 or 135 internal, serving it up medium rare. Several others there seconded the opinion, due to the changes in pork farming in the last 20 years. I don't think I could force myself to stop much below 155ish...

Aren't pork loins more suited to hotter and faster, like 350 for about 8 minutes a side, followed by a good sear?

Oh, and ditto on the beautiful smoke ring!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the compliments guys!  This was more of a roast size than a typical loin. I am going to try this again this week, but I have a plan for something under the bacon, plus I am going to use apple this time.
 
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