Honey Bourbon Loin of Pork

Oh yes you read it right, honey & bourbon together on smoked loin of pork, life doesn’t get better than this. Plus it is a fairly simple cook, you just need to brine the loin of pork first to prevent it from drying out.

So brining, is it a dark art or reasonably straight forward? I dunno, I just do my thing and it tends to turn out okay but then to me that is the essence of barbecueing, JFDI (which is short for Just F*cking Do It) as it will be much better than anything cooked inside in the oven. So I placed cold water into a pot big enough to take the pork with enough water to cover it and added a bunch of sea salt (DO NOT USE TABLE SALT….YUK), probably two tablespoons worth and around half a tablespoon of pepper. I then raided the herb & spice cupboard and if I remember correctly (which is doubtful) I added ground coriander, star anise x 3, a cinnamon stick, some ground nutmeg (because why not), some rosemary, a bunch of whole cloves, three leaves of basil and around five crushed cloves of garlic. Probably other stuff but that’s what comes to mind. Why all that? Well why not add some flavour whilst brining your meat? As the salty solution penetrates your joint it takes flavour with it, also a salty solution inside your meat retains moisture and boy did it on this occasion.

Today I only had five hours to brine the pork, ideally I would do this overnight as well as the five hours during the day but needs must and five hours is better than none, trust me. So after thoroughly mixing all the ingredients and ensuring that the salt and sugar is fully incorporated (yes I’ve been reading) I placed the joint in and rearranged the fridge to get the pot in.

Five hours later I light my barbecue to warm up and get to temperature whilst prepping the meat. I then removed the pot from the fridge and the joint from the pot, placed it on some kitchen towel and patted it dry to remove excess brine. I then used some ground nut oil (neutral flavour) and slathered the joint with it, added a bunch of fine sea salt onto the fat cap and then seasoned the whole piece in a rub that I had to make up as I forgot that I have run out of A&O Sweet Butts & Bones, anyone recommend a decent BBQ shop? Once this had set for 15 to 20 minutes I placed it on my barbecue on indirect heat. Now here’s the kicker, in order to get a crispy fat cap and that beautiful crackling you need heat BUT in order to add a smoky flavour which takes and hour to and hour and a half you don’t need it hot. Also if you want to build flavour with a glaze you need to add the glaze over time so what to do? I wanted my Loin of Pork juicy and full of flavour so low(ish) and slow it was and it turned out to be just as I imagined, tender, juicy and delicious. I smoked it for two hours at 140 Celsius or 285 F to get to the internal temperature and started adding the honey bourbon glaze after an hour or so smoking. Oh yes you could taste it and it was delicious.

Now traditionally us Brits have over cooked our pork fearing trichinosis (don’t even think about looking this up, no seriously) but modern farming methods have led to the risk of getting this much lower (thank God) so you can cook your pork to an internal temperature of 62 Celsius or 145 F which is still a bit pink but most importantly it remains juicy. Your guests will argue that your meat is not done (stop it) but rest assured that it is safe as well as tender and delicious. As you can see from my cook it is a bit pink and it hasn’t done me any h……