Ugly Keg Smoker 1st smoke - W/pr0n

I posted my ugly keg smoker yesterday, and now I'm going to post my first smoke on it. I found a cheap Bone-in pork loin roast at a local Winn-Dixie. I cooked it to about 145 and then foiled to 165 because I didn't have time to go to 195 and let it sit for a while. I also threw on some stuffed jalapeno poppers that I just threw some cream cheese, hot sauce and spices into. Everything would have been more delicious if I didn't make a super NOOB mistake. Unfortunately I let a lot of it cook while it was billowing white smoke. ray: Have mercy please. This is my first ever smoke on a non gas grill that I had water and wood chips on. So, extra strong/wrong smoke flavor aside, everything tasted great. Lol. I'm planning on smoking some more pork this weekend and my parents house to thank my dad for all the parts he purchased to put this together. I will take pictures and post. It will either be ribs or a butt, as my mom can't eat beef. I have to figure out how to get some good rub by then, none of my local grocers carry anything other than Byron's, which I've heard is good, just salty. I dunno, but as always, any suggestions are appreciated, and now thanks to this site, I will remember to wait for that sweet blue smoke instead of worrying that if I don't see any smoke, add more chunks! :loco:

TinySmokin said:

Looks pretty good even if you had dirty smoke...only way to fix that is try again...and again...and again...and again :grin:

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That sounds like a good plan, I will follow through!

castlepines said:

A pork loin to 195F would have been VERY dry...maybe even dehydrated! Loins are much more lean than pork butts or shoulders and lack the connective tissue those others have and therefore don't need the higher temps to break it down. Cook loins to 140F and it will be plenty moist, tender and tasty. Butts and shoulders, which have more fat and connective tissue, would go to the 195F range. But even then you would cook to "probe tender" and not a specific temp.

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That's what I had heard, and then someone mentioned a thread where they shared how they cooked their loins to 195 and I found it here: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7299&page=2
Which is from the KCquers roadmap. On page three I think he mentions cooking almost everything like a brisket with the foil wrap up to 195. That's really the only reason I tried it that way, otherwise I do agree it would be very dry. It was pretty moist where I finished at, someday I'll try to finish the method up to 195 and see how it turns out.