- Aug 27, 2008
- 5,170
- 409
Hey all! Time to smoke Sunday dinner!
Last time I had a chance to cook a loin, I did a higher heat indirect in my weber gold kettle with a couple half loins, and that was freekin' tasty. Jeez, I think that was last year??? Haven't had my hands on one since, so gotta smoke one today.
Today's victim is 20+ hours in a highly concentrated brine solution...the salt content is 3/4 cup in 3.5 qts water, while the total spice content is based on my ancho chili pastrami brine/cure. I was going to make pastrami from a packer the other day, with brine solution in the fridge for a day and a half ahead of time...then decided...no pastrami today. I didn't want to freeze the brine, so here we go. Oh and, no, the cure was not added to the brine...he-he-he! That would be canadian bacon, without enough time to cure...uuuuuugh!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, where's that loin? It's in there somewhere...no, really, it is...(w/flash):
(w/o flash):
Time for a rinse, scoring the fat and a nice dry rub consisting of:
2 Tbls ground black pepercorn
2 Tbls minced garlic
1 Tbls paprika
1 Tbls ground rosemary
1/2 Tbls ground thyme
1/2 Tbls ground oregano
1/2 Tbls ground sweet basil
2 Tbls kosher salt
(just another last minute, down to the wire, gotta have something to put on this loin)
This board is 15" x 21", just for reference:
Rubbed the bottom first, then, turned on edges, scored and rubbed, then scored/rubbed the fat cap:
I had to bulk it up quite a bit to fit diagonally onto the Smoke Vault 24 grate so it wouldn't be too close to the cabinet...dang thing is big...didn't weigh it (case purchase from Sam's w/o label), but probably over 10lbs:
So, let's see here...smoke is on @ 12:30 pm, 225* for now, wet pan, apple/pecan chunks, fat cap up, with a ton of what should prove to be another tasty dry rub to compliment the ancho chili-based brine soaked loin. I'll stick a probe into each end in a couple hours and depending on readings, I may bump the chamber temp to about 275* for a nice bark on this loin.
I'm thinkin' a couple hours @ higher temp to get that crispy crust, however, I can pull about 400-450* for a quicker crisping if internals are too high. Should work out great either way with the heavier than normal fat cap I had on this one. With having to bulk this thing up to fit the grate kinda makes it difficult to estimate times...too many variables to consider now because of changing the cross-sectional densitiy by making it thicker, which in turn changes shrinkage rates to unkown values, so I won't even attempt a wild guess on finished time....we'll just smoke 'er up and see where it goes.
90 minutes in, and time I get off my duff and see how the Vault is doing with today's dinner...
Back with more later!
(hate to post in progress, but I had a rough post yesterday with the briskets, and don't want a repeat)
Thanks all!
Eric
Last time I had a chance to cook a loin, I did a higher heat indirect in my weber gold kettle with a couple half loins, and that was freekin' tasty. Jeez, I think that was last year??? Haven't had my hands on one since, so gotta smoke one today.
Today's victim is 20+ hours in a highly concentrated brine solution...the salt content is 3/4 cup in 3.5 qts water, while the total spice content is based on my ancho chili pastrami brine/cure. I was going to make pastrami from a packer the other day, with brine solution in the fridge for a day and a half ahead of time...then decided...no pastrami today. I didn't want to freeze the brine, so here we go. Oh and, no, the cure was not added to the brine...he-he-he! That would be canadian bacon, without enough time to cure...uuuuuugh!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, where's that loin? It's in there somewhere...no, really, it is...(w/flash):
(w/o flash):
Time for a rinse, scoring the fat and a nice dry rub consisting of:
2 Tbls ground black pepercorn
2 Tbls minced garlic
1 Tbls paprika
1 Tbls ground rosemary
1/2 Tbls ground thyme
1/2 Tbls ground oregano
1/2 Tbls ground sweet basil
2 Tbls kosher salt
(just another last minute, down to the wire, gotta have something to put on this loin)
This board is 15" x 21", just for reference:
Rubbed the bottom first, then, turned on edges, scored and rubbed, then scored/rubbed the fat cap:
I had to bulk it up quite a bit to fit diagonally onto the Smoke Vault 24 grate so it wouldn't be too close to the cabinet...dang thing is big...didn't weigh it (case purchase from Sam's w/o label), but probably over 10lbs:
So, let's see here...smoke is on @ 12:30 pm, 225* for now, wet pan, apple/pecan chunks, fat cap up, with a ton of what should prove to be another tasty dry rub to compliment the ancho chili-based brine soaked loin. I'll stick a probe into each end in a couple hours and depending on readings, I may bump the chamber temp to about 275* for a nice bark on this loin.
I'm thinkin' a couple hours @ higher temp to get that crispy crust, however, I can pull about 400-450* for a quicker crisping if internals are too high. Should work out great either way with the heavier than normal fat cap I had on this one. With having to bulk this thing up to fit the grate kinda makes it difficult to estimate times...too many variables to consider now because of changing the cross-sectional densitiy by making it thicker, which in turn changes shrinkage rates to unkown values, so I won't even attempt a wild guess on finished time....we'll just smoke 'er up and see where it goes.
90 minutes in, and time I get off my duff and see how the Vault is doing with today's dinner...
Back with more later!
(hate to post in progress, but I had a rough post yesterday with the briskets, and don't want a repeat)
Thanks all!
Eric
