Stuffed Pork Loin

Stuffed Pork Loin

This recipe looks much more difficult than it actually is. The hardest part is butterflying the loin. You can do the same thing with a tenderloin but it is much harder to butterfly the meat. The nice thing about this recipe is you can cook it on a smoker, in the oven or in a modified indirect gas grill. It also looks REALLY impressive when sliced. Your guests will be impressed - and full - when dinner is done!

This picture is from the Havasu 2011 BBQ Comp - Anything Butt Competition. Looks great! Tastes better!

Ingredients:

Pork Loin

Baby Spinach - about 8oz

Pepper jack Cheese - shredded or sliced - about 1lb.

Hard Salami - about 1/2lb.

Dry Rub - I like Sweet Mesquite Dry Rub from Costco

Butterflying the loin is the hardest. You can see that this loin is triangle shaped instead of rectangular. The meat will dictate the shape. Try and find a loin that is the same thickness throughout the entire piece. Feel free to dig in the meat cooler - they won't mind!

I made one slice right down the middle and then about 1" from the bottom started slicing sideways. Use a really sharp knife and go slow - it isn't a race! Make as many slices as you need to create a flat, even piece of meat when finished. The time you take will be worth the time. Be careful not to cut too thin so the meat blows out (creates holes).

Note - I like to add a heavy layer of dry rub on the inside of the meat.

Lay down a heavy layer of baby spinach. Don't worry - it'll squish down.

Next the layer of hard salami. Why hard salami - don't know - seems to fit. The hard salami adds a little bit of fat without making the loin greasy and now there is two types of meat per bite! Don't be afraid to go thick - overlap and lay a heavy layer!

Next and final layer is the cheese. You can use sliced or grated pepper jack. You can see both in the following pictures. I didn't notice a difference between the two. Sliced is easier - I'd go with sliced.

Roll the loin up as tight as possible and then tie in at least three places with butcher's twine - as tight as possible. The meat won't feel it - get that twine tight!

Dust the outside of the loin on all sides with a heavy dose of your favorite dry rub. The Sweet Smokey Mesquite dry rub from Costco is really awesome!

This is the loin from Havasu - you can see they are much more square - and will look better when sliced. I also used sliced cheese instead of shredded. You can also see the heavy dose of dry rub under the stuffing ingredients.

Rolling up the loin as tight as possible.

Stuffed pork loin on the grate.

Make sure you cut all the butcher's twine off the meat before slicing or eating.

Pork Loin sliced up. The loin was cooked up to 150F internal. USDA rules have changed - old rules say the loin had to be cooked up to 165F internal. New rules say 150F. I also recommend resting the loin - wrap the loin in heavy duty foil and then in an old towel and placed on the counter - or even better - in a clean dry cooler - for an hour or so. This resting allows the juices in the meat to redistribute - making the meat more juicy.

Here's the stuffed loin plated with some smoked mac & cheese along with a Tapenade Stuffed Loin.

Here's the Stuffed Loin plated for the Havasu BBQ Anything Butt competition - along with Smoked Mashed Potatoes, Stone Ground Mustard, BBQ Sauce, and Raspberry Chili Powder Reduction. It was good for 3rd place!

Let's eat!

Tapenade Stuffed Pork Loin

Tapenade Stuffed Pork Loin!



This looks impressive, it's very tasty, but don't tell anyone - really easy to prep and cook!

Tapenade is usually made as an appetizer - made into a spread for crostinis or toast - but can be used to stuff meats - like I did!



The ingredients are pretty basic:
Olives - 1 cup
Garlic - minced - 1 1/2 tblspn
Capers - 4 tblspn
Lemon Juice - 4 tblspn
Olive Oil - 4 tblspn
Kosher Sea Salt - 1 1/2 tblspn
Black Pepper - 1/2 tblspn



Mince the olives and capers - not too fine. Add and mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Now the hard part - it's not really that hard - prepping the loin. You must have a very sharp knife. Make the following cuts slow - take your time. If you cut too deep you will slice through the meat and there will be a hole in the finished meat. Holes are bad - the filling will fall through!



Cut down the center of the loin until there is about 2" left unsliced.

Start slicing horizontal about a 1" down from where the vertical cut stopped and open the flap up as you slice. Slice until you are about 1" away from the horizontal edge.

You can slice offset from the previous slices to open up the meat the rest of the way. You want to cut offset from the previous slices because the meat will open up more and there will be less chance of slicing through the meat and making holes.

Spread the tapenade filling evenly over the loin. You can add other ingredients into the stuffing such as cheese or some red or yellow bell peppers to add some color. You want the tapenade flavor to come through so if you add something else - make it a mild flavor or a flavor that will match well to the salty / olive flavor of the tapenade.

Roll up the loin and use butcher's twine to tie the roll up and hold it together. Have someone help you on this step and try and get the twine as tight as possible - you can't hurt the meat so pull the twine as tight as possible.

Now let's make the dry rub that will cover the outside. This dry rub is Mediterranean inspired - feel free to adjust as you like.

Black Pepper - 1 tblspn

Garlic Powder - 1 1/2 tblspn

Kosher Salt - 1 tblspn

Italian Seasoning - 6 - 8 tblspn

Heavily coat the outside of the loin.

Place on the smoker / gas grill / oven @ 300F grate temp. Pretty easy to make in the oven. Gas grill would be tough but possible - place the loin on the side of the gas grill with all the burners off - control the opposite side burner as low as possible and keep the grate temp at 300F.

Roll over to evenly cook and get some grate marks on the other side after about 1 hour.

For a smoker - I would avoid using mesquite - it's just too powerful of a flavor and will drown out the tapenade. I would use apple, pecan, or maybe oak.

Cook until internal temp is 160F. I average about 2 hours cook time on this loin but have seen in take up to 3 hours. The nice thing is you can estimate long and let the loin rest longer. After you hit internal temp, wrap in foil then a beach towel and place in a clean dry cooler or on the counter for at least 1/2 hour to let it rest.

Cut the twine off. Slice into about 1 1/2" thick slices. The pin wheel effect looks nice - the meat should be pretty even between the coils if you cut the loin up evenly. The bark on the loin looks nice and dark offsetting the pork. If you cooked it on a smoker nice and slow, you will get some pink smoke ring too.

Serve it up - Let's eat! This is plated with a spinach, hard salami, and pepper jack cheese stuffed loin and some smoked Mac & Cheese.