We did our annual competition this weekend in Pensacola, FL at the Smokin' In The Square and as usual we fire up on Friday night to have friends and family come out for some non-competition food and enjoy the atmosphere. This year I decided to make, what I called, 'Death By Pig'. It's a chorizo stuffed pork loin wrapped in bacon. I bound it with butchers twine and tossed it on the reliable Weber Kettle and cooked to temp. It was a huge hit.
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- Jul 2014
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- West Chester, PA
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Gas Grill: NXR Tabletop/Portable Propane
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- Aug 2014
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Weber Kettle, lid gasket, and Smokenator.....Perfection! Weber Smokey Mountain, 22.5", DigiQ, Cajun Bandit Door w/compression latch and door gasket.....Party Perfection! Makers Mark in my hand Ruger SR1911 on my hip
Oh yeah...the recipe...forgot that part. One word about me and recipes though, it's a crap-shoot. And you can just about forget measurements too so you'll see a lot of 'some' and 'a little' when it comes to ingredients. It unnerves my girlfriend to no end when I make something up and don't write anything down. So with that said here's what I did:
Get yourself one full pork loin. The one I used was about 12" long after I trimmed off the end 'roast' to use at a later date.
As the pork rests in the fridge get the stove going for the stuffing. It consisted of chorizo, spinach, garlic, onion powder, dried sage, and small diced apple. Have some breadcrumbs handy in case you need to draw together the stuffing if things get too wet but I didn't have that problem. The apples add an awesome tart kick if you get the right kind (I used Granny Smith and they made my jaws lock up when I sampled them).
Anyway, because I bought fresh spinach I pan-cooked it but you could use frozen chopped as well to save a step just make sure that whichever way you go to drain and chop the stuff because you don't want a whole bunch of liquid in there. After that was done I put the spinach aside and then chopped up and sautéed the chorizo. Call me paranoid but I will always cook...at least a little bit... a soft, cased sausage. Better safe than sorry. Always check the packaging to make sure before you assume that a smoked sausage is ready to eat. Ok, enough of the safety class.
Add the minced garlic (about 3 cloves minced), dried sage (I'd guess it was about under a teaspoon), onion powder (1.5 tsp is my best guess), and the drained and chopped spinach. Mix it all together and season it with salt and pepper if you want. Set the stuffing aside.
Using your sharpest knife, start slicing the pork loin lengthwise and 'unroll' the pork as you go. You should end up with what looks like an even sheet of porky goodness. You want to make it as even thickness as possible but if you get some thick spots it's nothing that some plastic wrap and a mallet can't pound out to even up.
Once you get your pork laid out flat lightly dust the exposed side with a little salt but not too much! The sausage is going to add a good bit of salt to the dish so you could probably omit this all together if you're concerned. After it's salted go ahead and start spreading the stuffing on the loin, covering the entire thing but leaving about an inch on all sides (for expansion when you roll). After you get the stuffing on then sprinkle on the diced apples making sure you get good and even coverage.
Now you roll it. Nothing to explain there.
Final ingredient is the bacon. I used apple wood smoked bacon but you can use whatever you would like. Just drape the bacon over the roll starting at one end and tucking it under the bottom, overlapping the next piece of bacon over the previous piece as you go. Once it's all wrapped in bacon, break out the butcher's twine and bind that pork prize up. Once you have it all tied, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight. As I commented earlier I put in on my trusted Weber Kettle, 2-zone set up, top vent open about 1/3 of the way, and the Maverick probe into the middle. When it hit about 160-165 I pulled it and let it rest a little before removing the twine and slicing.
That's it. I know there is a great amount of room for improvement and I am open to all suggestions, comments, and criticism. This was something that I pulled out of my scattered brain and basically made up on the fly as I was at the going. It's been tried once and taste tested by a select group of 10 people who were brave enough to sit in the cold Pensacola evening and waited to eat. But it did get glowing reviews from everyone so I felt good.
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