Cured smoked boneless pork loin

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Looks great! I love smoking pork loin, but have never cured one(or anything else). Great job, How'd it turn out? Tender to your liking? Thanks for posting, David.
 
 
Cured for 5 days, 18 hours in the Smokette with some chunks of very dry cherry and it looked nice enough for a picture or two:

Guess I should have greased the rack first, the bottom stuck a bit.
Looks good from here, tjrr!!

You lucked out, because that's an awful short time to cure a Pork Loin, and it looks cured all the way to center.

What cure did you use, and how much?

BTW: I see this was your first post. Please go to Roll Call & introduce yourself, so you can be welcomed properly.

Bear
 
Last edited:
Bear,

I don't have much trouble if any getting them cured to the center. Here's why: I make up a curing brine, then pump it into the middle using a Cajun Injector clone. My goal is to have a fairly moist product, so I don't dry cure it. Dry curing would take longer even for a small piece like this. I have dry cured pork loins in the past and have also dry cured the outside with a bit of pumping  for the inside.

A couple tips: 1. When pumping, make up the brine without spices or colored ingredients like molasses. Pump, then add these ingredients to the brine that you use for the outside of the piece. I learned the hard way that the spices or colors leave funny looking streaks on the inside. 

2. I always use sodium erythorbate in curing mixtures. You certainly don't have to but it cures much faster as long as the cure can reach the meat. Plus the color resists fading better in long storage. Supposedly it also protects against nitrosamines if you're worried about that. I'm not particularly.

I can post the recipe for the brine if anybody wants it. This piece was glazed with a bit of molasses, sugar and pepper before smoking, too.
 
 
Bear,

I don't have much trouble if any getting them cured to the center. Here's why: I make up a curing brine, then pump it into the middle using a Cajun Injector clone. My goal is to have a fairly moist product, so I don't dry cure it. Dry curing would take longer even for a small piece like this. I have dry cured pork loins in the past and have also dry cured the outside with a bit of pumping  for the inside.

A couple tips: 1. When pumping, make up the brine without spices or colored ingredients like molasses. Pump, then add these ingredients to the brine that you use for the outside of the piece. I learned the hard way that the spices or colors leave funny looking streaks on the inside. 

2. I always use sodium erythorbate in curing mixtures. You certainly don't have to but it cures much faster as long as the cure can reach the meat. Plus the color resists fading better in long storage. Supposedly it also protects against nitrosamines if you're worried about that. I'm not particularly.

I can post the recipe for the brine if anybody wants it. This piece was glazed with a bit of molasses, sugar and pepper before smoking, too.
If you would have mentioned you pumped it too, I wouldn't have questioned the short 5 days of curing.

Bear
 
Looks good. Will have to add that to my "Things to Try list" . At this point it might be shorter to list things not to try...
 
I'll be curing my Pork Loin later today, No injection, dry cure only

Gary
 
Got mine rubbed down and in the Fridge

Gary
 
 
Are you trying to Inject some humor into this thread?
At the risk of hijacking the thread

hijack.gif


Only if there is a cure for that.
 
Your loin looks great, I have one in the fridge now that I wish to do. I would appreciate your recipe and also more detail on the injecting part of the process. Thank you!!
 
Ya that loin looks great!!  We got a sale on them here at 1.99 per pound.  Putting one in the brine myself [Pop's brine] later today.  Reinhard
 
Here's the recipe I used:

Mild Cure for pork or beef

For each 2 lb of meat, mix together:

3.25 oz water

.16 oz sodium tripolyphosphate

.08 oz pink curing salt

.015 oz sodium erythorbate

.67 oz salt

.95 oz fructose

until dissolved.

Place the meat in a close-fitting deep container. I use a plastic steam-table pan that's a little wider than big pork loins or eyes of round and roughly as long as my smoker racks.

Inject as much of the solution as possible using a Cajun Injector or the like. I poke in a couple of times at each end and once or twice downward in the middle. By then there's usually solution running out the holes in the meat. Pour any remaining solution into the container. Drizzle over:

.2 oz (1 tsp) molasses

Cure for several days (3 or 4 days is probably about the minimum, a couple weeks the max.) Turn over the meat every day or so, as there probably won't be enough solution to completely cover the meat.

Before smoking, if you like, shake on some coarse ground white or black pepper or a mix of pepper, red pepper flakes, allspice and a bit of cloves. Smoke with your choice of wood (I like apple or cherry) at 150F for 12 to 16 hours, then turn the heat up to 200F until the meat is at least 156F internal temperature. It's then ready to eat either hot or cold. If I don't serve hot off the smoker, I bake at 300F for 1.5 to 2 hours. I think they taste even better that way than straight from the smoker. And you can make a few and refrigerate or freeze. They keep really well.

Some recipe substitutions and notes:

Phosphate: You can leave this out if you don't have it or are opposed to its use. It does keep some additional moistness in after the long smoking.

Erythorbate: Ditto re leaving out. I nearly always use it in cured meats because it cures faster, somewhat prevents color fading and supposedly reduces nitrosamine formation.

Fructose: Fructose is sweeter than regular sugar and I think has a bit lighter taste. I call this my "Mild Cure" recipe because it's not very salty and quite sweet. Substituting an equal amount of regular sugar will still be pretty sweet. Using an equal weight of dextrose gives more of what I'd consider an average ham sweetness but still a fair amount of body. That's all pretty subjective. Try fructose if you can get it. I bet you'll be favorably impressed.

Injecting: I advise never injecting mixtures with molasses, soy sauce or powdered spices. The brown colors and powders don't disperse well through the meat and make what I think is an ugly slice. If you want to use those ingredients, put them on the outside of the meat either during curing or during cooking.

Hope this is of value...
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky