- Mar 21, 2017
- 12
- 16
Well for Fathers Day, I decided I would smoke a pork loin. Everything went well for the most part, but I have a few questions about temps after reading several sites today.
To start out, I smoked a 6.49 pound pork loin. I put the loin on the smoker for about 1.5 hours. According to my Thermopro the smoker was at approximately 225 and stayed in that area plus/minus a few degrees every so often. At the 1.5 hour mark, I reached 145 for the IT.
Here is my question. I see the USDA says it's safe to eat at 145, and I see a lot of people pull the meat off and let it rest for 10 min once it hits 145. I also see people saying they bring it up to 190 and let it do a 3 hour rest. From what I have read and heard about pork loin, is it gets really dry if you smoke too mich longer than the stall.
What I did was split the difference.....mainly because I hit a stall and ran out of time and was worried about dry meat lol.....I went to 155 then it started to drop on temp. I did pull it off because I had read if you cook this type of meat past the stall too much it drys out because of how lean it is and because of that, it does not have that fat to "gel up and melt" into the meat like a shoulder. Now after I pulled it off, I wrapped it up in foil/towels/cooler, and brought it to another house approximately 30 min later. When I did this, the temp went down to 136. I threw it in the over at 240 for another 30 min which brought the IT to 147. At this time, we decided just to go and eat..........
It was fantastic. Really juicy. I have some pics below. IN some of the pieces of meat, it seemed fairly dark, and had a characteristic of pulled pork. In those pieces, it was always to one side of of the meat. You can see it in the second picture below. When I tried to cut it with a knife while eating, it shredded. Anyone else have something like that happen?
IN the end I guess I am looking to see what other here use for a process with pork loin to make sure it doesn't come out dry. I am not sure if I did it right or if it was just a fluke it turned out great this time. Haha
To start out, I smoked a 6.49 pound pork loin. I put the loin on the smoker for about 1.5 hours. According to my Thermopro the smoker was at approximately 225 and stayed in that area plus/minus a few degrees every so often. At the 1.5 hour mark, I reached 145 for the IT.
Here is my question. I see the USDA says it's safe to eat at 145, and I see a lot of people pull the meat off and let it rest for 10 min once it hits 145. I also see people saying they bring it up to 190 and let it do a 3 hour rest. From what I have read and heard about pork loin, is it gets really dry if you smoke too mich longer than the stall.
What I did was split the difference.....mainly because I hit a stall and ran out of time and was worried about dry meat lol.....I went to 155 then it started to drop on temp. I did pull it off because I had read if you cook this type of meat past the stall too much it drys out because of how lean it is and because of that, it does not have that fat to "gel up and melt" into the meat like a shoulder. Now after I pulled it off, I wrapped it up in foil/towels/cooler, and brought it to another house approximately 30 min later. When I did this, the temp went down to 136. I threw it in the over at 240 for another 30 min which brought the IT to 147. At this time, we decided just to go and eat..........
It was fantastic. Really juicy. I have some pics below. IN some of the pieces of meat, it seemed fairly dark, and had a characteristic of pulled pork. In those pieces, it was always to one side of of the meat. You can see it in the second picture below. When I tried to cut it with a knife while eating, it shredded. Anyone else have something like that happen?
IN the end I guess I am looking to see what other here use for a process with pork loin to make sure it doesn't come out dry. I am not sure if I did it right or if it was just a fluke it turned out great this time. Haha
