Prime Pork

As you spend more time here at The Little Smokehouse, you might start to see a trend regarding how Jon & I determine what tasty morsels will meet our matching Char-Grillers.  We are both believers in the wonders of the local butcher shop, but our wallets are not.  Our wallets are firm believers in the sale papers and the manager's special sections of the local grocers.

On most Saturdays mornings, Chloe (the oldest of my girls) and I usually try to make it to our local Kroger at about 8:30.  The meat man usually starts marking things down at 8:00 or so.  Some days we get a LOT and stock up the freezer.  Some days are like today; the only thing in the Manager's Special section was an aged Olive Loaf (I could be wrong, but I don't think Olive Loaf should be aged.).

A few weeks ago we hit pay dirt.  Pork is often marked down, but it is usually just the already sliced pork chops.  With great frequency Black Angus ground beef is priced quite nicely.  But, a few weeks ago we came across Pork Tenderloin.  In my mind it would be hard to find a cut of meat more suited to tasty grilling than pork tenderloin.  It cooks rather quickly.  It soaks up both added flavors (ie marinades, brines, seasonings, sauces, etc) and smoky flavors with ease.  It stays juicy.  And let's not forget, it is delicious!!

Simple Suggestions

• Easy Does It - Pork Tenderloin really soaks up flavor rather quickly and easily.  This is a blessing and a curse.  If not handled with care, the meat can easily soak up so much other flavor that it doesn't really taste like pork anymore.  I recommend simple, clean flavors the first time or two.  A few simple flavors I have found that work quite well are things like garlic, thyme, black pepper, kosher salt, and similar seasonings.  I will give you my rub recipe a little bit further down.
• Hot & Fast - This is NOT pulled pork.  A pork tenderloin cooked low and slow will become pork jerky. For juicy, tender pork you need to cook hot & fast. The temperature on your grill should be similar to that of a "steak" temperature.  Pretty hot, but blazing inferno is a step to far.
• Save It Till the End - A nice sauce or glaze goes really well on pork tenderloin, but save them till the end.  The sugars in most glazes/sauces can burn quite easily.  About halfway into the cook, you can start to baste/sauce the side of the meat that is now facing away from the heat.  Once the meat is nearly done, flip/roll to a side that doesn't have sauce.  Baste this side, then roll a little further. Baste again.  Continue.  The goal is for the heat to "dry" and slightly caramelize the sauce.  You will get the best flavor if you get two or three "coats" of sauce on the meat.  This step should be the final thing you do on the grill and should last about 5 minutes. 
• Don't forget to rest - It simply cannot be stressed enough that a proper "rest" period is crucial for success.  8-10 minutes seems to be a good amount of time to wait before cutting.  Don't worry about the meat getting cold, even after ten minutes it will be piping hot.  By the way, some juices will still be released so I recommend one of those cutting boards with the grooves that will catch said juices before they get all over the kitchen counter (Like this one).

Rub Recipe

My rub consisted of one tsp of each of the following:

• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper
• Granulated Garlic
• Granulated Onion
• Chili Powder

About 30-45 minutes before grill time I removed the pork from the refrigerator and rinsed thoroughly in cool water.  After the rinse I patted the tenderloin dry with a couple of towels.  Before applying the rub I drizzled olive oil on the outside of the pork.  The rub was applied generously to the outside of the two pork tenderloins (two come in one package).  After receiving their rub down I left them on the counter until time to cook.  You can do this step farther ahead then 30-45 min, but I would recommend putting the pork back into the fridge.

Rubbed and hanging out before hitting the grill

The Sauce

From the rub section above you can tell that both tenderloins have been seasoned the same way up to this point.  However, I decided to make a sauce.  One of the tenderloins will be "sauced" and the other will be left with the simple seasoning above.  

Mustard and Thyme are great seasonings for pork, so I decided to make a Mustard & Thyme sauce.  The sauce consisted of:

• 1 tsp dried Thyme
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt (if using table salt put 1/2 tsp)
• 1 Tbs red wine vinegar
• 3 Tbs Mustard
• 3 generous "shots" of Crystal Hot Sauce
• 2 tsp corn syrup (I would normally use honey but we were out)
• Just enough beef broth to thin it a bit, sorry I didn't measure

Bruising the thyme with the kosher salt helps get the flavors into the sauce

Time to Grill

After getting the grill nice and hot, I placed the seasoned meat on the grate with the "flat" side down.  (Tenderloins are nearly circular, but they do have one side that is fairly flat).  I cooked the first side for 8.5 minutes and then rolled/flipped to the next side.  The only tricky thing about tenderloins is that they don't like to stay where you put them when cooking.  I usually lean the two pieces against each other to hold them in place(At this point you can sauce the already seared side of the meat if so desired).  On the second "side" they cooked for 6 minutes.  Roll/flip again.  (A little more sauce).  4 minutes on the last.

The piece of meat that was not receiving sauce was placed to the side of the heat while I employed the sauce, flip/roll, sauce flip/roll methodology discussed above.

This is the first side.  One is sauced, one is not.
Notice that they are slightly leaning on each other

Rest up, Cut Up, Eat up!

After a 9 minute rest it was time to slice these bad boys.  They were definitely delicious.  The only thing to change next time is giving the sauce more time to set and caramelize.

Mustard along the top, "plain" along the bottom