Stuffed Pork Loin Roast

Tender, juicy, smokey, delicious, spectacular looking, and fast. Could you ask for anything more?

Pork loin is lean tender meat attached to the ribs along the back of the pig. When they talk about eating high off the hog, this is the cut they mean. You can cook it with the bone in or remove the bone. Because we'll be stuffing this little piggy, I take the bone off and save the slab of ribs for cooking another day. I then trim it so it is almost the same thickness all along its length, and brine it for extra moisture and flavor. This dish has special occasion written all over it.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 fresh center cut pork loin roast, bone in, about 10 pounds
1 pound of bread stuffing with cranberries
1.5 gallons of brine
4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of Simon and Garfunkel Rub

Do this
1) If your butcher has not removed the chine, do so now and discard it. Now remove the ribs, leaving on a little extra meat and set them aside for tomorrow night. This will be an especially good batch of baby back ribs because of the extra meat.

2) Trim off the fat layer and the tough silverskin just below it. Try to make the tube of meat uniform in thickness so it will not be overdone on one end and underdone on the other. You'll end up with a cylinder of goodness about 5" wide 4" high 18" long.

3) Submerge the meat in brine for 2-4 hours. Remove from the brine, rinse thoroughly, and pat dry with paper towels.

4) Make about 1 pound of your favorite stuffing. I use a classic bread stuffing with some fresh cranberries and orange zest. It's moist, fruity, slightly sweet, slightly tart, and really complements the pork. Make a double batch, so you can serve some on the side.

5) Slice the slab down the middle, but not all the way through, leaving a hinge, like a loaf of French bread, and pile on the stuffing. Try to level the stuffing from edge to edge, front to back.

6) Fold the meat back over the stuffing and with butcher's twine, tie the bundle every inch or so. Coat the meat with vegetable oil or olive oil, and sprinkle with an herb rub. The oil helps brown the meat, keeps moisture in, and pulls flavor from the oil soluble herbs. I use my Simon and Garfunkel Rub.

7) Insert your meat thermometer probe in the center of the thickest part. Preheat the smoker or grill and set it up for indirect cooking and smoking. But because this is lean meat and there is little sinew and connective tissue to melt, we can cook it hotter than usual. Shoot for about 300F.

8) Add the meat and the wood for smoking at the same time. Go easy on the wood. We only want a hint of smoke. This is delicate meat. At 300F the roast will cook to 140F in about 2 1/2 hours, depending on how thick it is and how steady you can keep the temp. Then cover the meat with foil and let it rest so the juices will be absorbed and the temp can rise to about 145F. As usual, if the meat is done early, hold it in a faux cambro until the rest of dinner is ready.

9) Cut in 1" slices and serve with soused apple slices and extra stuffing on the side.

This page was revised 12/15/2008

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