Smoked Bone-In Pork Loin Roast

My good friend Chad Miller from the Barbecue Bible Forum Board turned me on to this great rub. He calls it Bonedust. I wrote a post about it here http://bbqguam.blogspot.com/2011/06/two-new-dry-rubs-to-try.html.

Well I had to try out this rub out on something, so my victim was a bone-in pork loin roast.

I had a hard time buying a decent piece at the grocery store but I was able to come up with this roast.

Notice the marbled fat in just the right places.

Because I was going to be cooking it for about 8 hours, I brined the roast in my usual brine. That consists of 1 1/2 cups of Kosher salt, 2 cups of brown sugar to about one gallon of water. It was just enough to cover the entire roast in the pot I used. This was brined in the refer overnight.

When it came to smoking time, I rubbed olive oil over the roast and then applied the Bonedust rub very liberally. I let this sit out for a spell to come closer to room temp before smoking. This gave me enough time to set up my fire. Here are a couple of photos of the loin all oiled and rubbed down.

Here is a photo of my fire setup.

This photo shows my lump charcoal on both sides with my drip pan in the middle filled with apple juice and a little Bonedust rub added. Of course this is an indirect heat setup. For those of you that may not know, indirect heat is when you do not smoke or grill directly over your fuel. 

I decided to cook this nice and slow for about 8 hours. The plan was the 1st four hours around 150 degrees F. and the final four hours at about 250 degrees F. I find this style gets that heat down to the middle of the loin and the finale gets the outside nice and crusty. That's my style. Everyone has a different one.

Here is a photo at one hour into the smoking.

Photo 4 hours into the smoking.

During this entire time, I would check on the fire to see if it needed more charcoal, wood chucks and chips (applewood). I would also spray the loin down with apple juice at the same time.

After 8 hours I came up with this.

And of course we ate this.



I eventually smothered this with my Salsa Ranchero salsa http://bbqguam.blogspot.com/2011/06/salsa-rancherothe-perfect-compliment-to.html.

My wife thoroughly enjoyed this meal. She was making noises that I wouldn't know how to describe here. She told me that she had never eaten a pork loin like this before. I must admit the Bonedust rub was awesome, the meat was super tender, but not falling apart, juicy and the outside (bark) crusty. The brining really helps maintain the moisture.

I will definietely be doing this again.

Until next time....