Another Round of Injected Buckboarded Pork Loin

[thirdeye]

I've been promising friends on my Buckboard list that I would re-stock their supplies, so two Wednesdays ago I started the process by trimming the silverskin and any loose tag ends of meat, cutting them in half, then injecting a couple of ounces of slightly salted apple juice into each half-loin. A couple hours later I dried the surface, added some black pepper, then the cure (amount based on weight), put the loins in zipper bags and into the beer fridge at 35°. They were turned every day, and at the end of day 6 I rinsed, and did a 5 hour soak-out followed by more cracked pepper and an overnight rest. Last Wednesday was smoking day which took about 4 hours in my BDS using some A-Maze-N Pitmaster pellets and one mini hickory log. I started with a 190° pit temp and finished with a 250° pit temp. The internal temp of the loins were 148° to 150°. This is now the 4th year I've been injecting prior to curing and still liking the results. Thanks for looking.

In case you want to try out some Buckboard, or don't want to invest 7-days for this process, you can take 3/4" thick pork chops and cure them for 48 hours. Use a shorter rinse time, and resting time and either smoke them or grill them. These are hard to beat and way less in price than the smoked chops at the butcher shop.

 

[Happy Hapgood]

Man that looks Good!

 

[IamMadMan]

Awesome Job

 

[Stingerhook]

You can put me on your list anytime.

 

[Smoking Piney]

Thirdeye, your cooks just kill.....and this is one of them. :thumb:

 

[sudsandswine]

So do you slice those loins about bacon thick then? I may have to try this, whole pork loins have been on sale here for well under $2/lb lately but I just got get thrilled out of cutting them into chops and grilling.

 

[thirdeye]

So do you slice those loins about bacon thick then? I may have to try this, whole pork loins have been on sale here for well under $2/lb lately but I just got get thrilled out of cutting them into chops and grilling.

For the loins I basically treat it like ham or Canadian bacon. I like 1/4" slices for breakfast or as a side meat, a hair less when having it on a sandwich or as a pizza topping, and cubes if I use it in potato soup, mac-n-cheese or clam chowder.

When buying the whole loins, the sirloin end (rear) and the center section is the standard white meat we associate with pork loin, (or the large muscle in a center cut pork chop), but as you approach the rib end (front) there is a second muscle group present that takes a darker color from the cure, and is really tender. I'm guessing it has more myoglobin. Anyway, there is about 6" of the loin that has both muscles, and a slightly higher fat content. That end is my favorite. You can see the darker meat in this raw photo.

Sometimes I slice and vacuum seal because some folks really like the convenience. You can see the difference in color in these photos.

I add some additional info about the color on my labels just in case.

 

[tom b]

awesome post! thank you.

 

[Hoss]

YESSIR!! Those look amazing.:thumb: