Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

I don't know if the other HyVees follow, but Marion HyVee has the huge pork loins for $1.80/lb. I picked up a 10# loin wanting to BBQ 2-5# loins. I like what I use (a commercial rub) but would be interested in hearing about your preperation of pork loin. I'd like to experiment on the second 5lber.

Don't normally do whole loins - chops and butts mostly.

Depending on how adventurous you are, you could stuff it. There are 2 main techniques - cut the loin in a spiral cut from outside to the center and lay flat, stuff and roll back up and tie with butcher's twine. The other way is to take a long thin knife and cut an X starting at one end and go all the way through lengthwise, stopping just short of the other end, use a wooden spoon (or something similar) to shove the stuffing in the "tunnel" created by the X cut.

Stuffing with herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary, parsely) and cheese is delicious. Spinach, sundried tomatoes, and cheese is also very good. For the cheese, pick a nice soft nutty cheese, like fontina, swiss, or mahon.

I like to brine pork loin for about 12 hours, and then cook low and slow, but only to 145F internal. Then rest for about 20 minutes and slice. Apple and other fruit woods are great for loins. Oak or hickory can be really strong.

Pork Loin Brine
6 cups water
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Bay leaves
1 handful of roughly cracked peppercorns
1/4 cup granulated garlic

I did a loin for the 4th of July and it turned out great. Cooked it at about 275 for only about 2 hours (internal temp 141) then pulled it, rested and sliced.

Tim,
Are the loins you buy pretreated? I noticed that a lot of the ones in the store (Hormel etc) are either marinated or brined. The don't say brined, but if you look they'll say something like "tenderness improved with up to X% patented solution". Usually its a brine. I've been concerned that brining those would make them too salty.

On 09/10/12 10:57, brownbeard wrote:

I like to brine pork loin for about 12 hours, and then cook low and slow, but only to 145F internal. Then rest for about 20 minutes and slice. Apple and other fruit woods are great for loins. Oak or hickory can be really strong.

Pork Loin Brine
6 cups water
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Bay leaves
1 handful of roughly cracked peppercorns
1/4 cup granulated garlic



You can't get with this with a bad hip - Matt

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Randy, loins or tenderloins? I see tenderloins pretreated a lot, but not full loins as much.

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I've had full boneless loins treated. The Hormel ones are treated. Like Randy said, They don't explicitly say that they are brined, bu usually if you look at the ingredients they will have something like a "Flavor Enhancer" listed.

carrisr wrote:Tim,
Are the loins you buy pretreated? I noticed that a lot of the ones in the store (Hormel etc) are either marinated or brined. The don't say brined, but if you look they'll say something like "tenderness improved with up to X% patented solution". Usually its a brine. I've been concerned that brining those would make them too salty.

I usually don't buy those. But you are right, you don't want to brine meat packaged in a tenderizing solution.