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Cooking frozen pork loin...

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    Cooking frozen pork loin...

    If anyone is interested in trying this, it works. Last night I cooked 3/4 lb. section of frozen pork loin roast on our LSG Adjustable Charcoal Grill & Smoker. The technique can be found in the beef section at https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...rn-that-s-cold, post #5 and post #7. The only difference was a reduced total sear time of 5 minutes because the pork had a little fat cap that helped with the searing flames. While the pork was perfectly cooked, my choice of rubs was just OK, so it was a good meal, but not a great meal. I had become increasingly frustrated with overdone pork using the reverse sear method, and this was one way to solve that.


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    Last edited by AZ Fogey; May 15, 2020, 10:22 AM.

    #2
    Looks great. I would have been scared of over cooking the outside while inside was still frozen. I cook briskets from frozen sometimes, but am taking it to a lot higher internal temp.

    Comment


    • AZ Fogey
      AZ Fogey commented
      Editing a comment
      SMOKIN fool, Ahumadora - I think the key is to have an absolutely blistering hot searing area to use for the first 5- 8 minutes of the cook. This method needs the 1,000°+ heat of flare ups to work well. I baste the meat in butter which causes those flareups. After that, it's no different from any other 2-zone or smoking cook. I just used the technique tonight on a less than an inch thick ribeye, and because it was small, only required a 5 minute sear. It came out perfectly medium rare.

    • smokin fool
      smokin fool commented
      Editing a comment
      AZ Fogey I use your method for pork tenderloin when I'm in a time crunch.
      Sear all sides at high temp in a cast iron frying pan then into to oven at 300 for 20 mins or so.
      Bit longer if frozen.

    • AZ Fogey
      AZ Fogey commented
      Editing a comment
      smokin fool - Exactly the same technique. Just not quite as "romantic" as doing it on a charcoal pit. 😁

    #3
    OK, Ahumadora - cooking frozen brisket. That's a REAL adventure. Is it noticeably different in taste and consistency? Does it take forever to cook? PM me or broadcast it. I'd love to hear about it.

    Comment


    • Ahumadora
      Ahumadora commented
      Editing a comment
      Same as a normal brisket. Maybe a little bit longer, but I usually blast them out above 300f . Increased smoke ring is a plus if you like that.

    • AZ Fogey
      AZ Fogey commented
      Editing a comment
      Hah! Yes, I like that. I just did one, not frozen, at 375°. Under 5 hours and it tasted amazing. I'm really pretty sold on hot & fast for brisket and pork butt.

    #4
    What temp was it at when you did your 5 min. sear. It looks awful red in the center for me.

    Comment


    • AZ Fogey
      AZ Fogey commented
      Editing a comment
      The sear part is almost certainly over 1,000°. The meat is about 3" from the coals. The temp on the cold side was 330° and took a little less than 40 minutes to reach 135° which is how I like it. I know that's less done than a lot of people can take, but I spent 25 years embedded in a Chinese family of great cooks, and overcooking anything was a cardinal sin. I'm also very used to seeing red on chicken bones.

    • mountainsmoker
      mountainsmoker commented
      Editing a comment
      135 that is why it looked a little red, no problem here, if that is how you like it.

    #5
    Took me a while to puzzle through your temp plot, but with thinking about it for a day and then seeing your reply just above, I realize now that the pit probe was on the indirect side the whole time and the meat probe was sitting outside the cooker on a nice 90 degree Arizona day while you did the sear on the direct side. You then put the probe in the meat when you were ready to move it to the indirect side. Love it, and love the control allowed in your cooker. My envy of the cooker just keeps going up.

    Did you do the butter thing on the pork loin the way you did the steaks? I'm asking because it seems to me the one issue with working from frozen is the inability to dry brine and get salt to penetrate. And searing first with rub stuck on the frozen surface seems like it might lead to torched rub instead of bark. But if you mixed rub with butter and put it on during and after the sear, you might get some rub flavor. At any rate, I wonder if your "meh" response to the rub you used may be due to the salt not having time to get into the pork.

    Comment


      #6
      Jim White - You puzzled it out right. That's exactly how it was. And yes, I still can't believe how good this pit is. It's an absolute joy to cook on every night.

      Seasoning just doesn't stick to solid frozen meat. The purpose of the butter is to induce flare-up to get a super hot sear which, after 5 to 8 minutes softens up the outside of the meat enough so that it accepts the rub. I just used the wrong combination of rubs on the pork. There was taste there, but I wasn't all that fond of it. I've found a couple of rub combinations that, when using this same technique with beef, produce the best tasting steaks I've ever had. Last night's cook was a small ribeye, not even an inch thick. For fuel, I put a layer of Jealous Devil on top of once used Fogo. My unproven opinion is that JD initially burns hotter than Fogo but after the first 30-45 minutes there's not much difference. Anyway I got terrific flare-up from the butter, and total sear time was 5 minutes, put a light dose of Killer Hog's Hot BBQ Rub and then sprinkled on a little KH's Steak Rub, and then put it on the cool side for another 20 minutes. I pulled it at 125°.

      Malcom Reed's Steak Rub is something special. You can see the large particles of it on the surface of the steak. I've also used it in combo with KosmosQ Dirty Bird Hot with excellent results.

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      Comment


        #7
        Fantastic. What I recall from deployment with Operation BBQ Relief is that we often put rub on frozen butts or pork loins, but then they went into refrigerated holding for 6-12 hours before going on the pits, so they got lots of condensation and partial thawing for the rub to stick and salt to begin penetrating. Those turned out really tasty, too.

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