Smoked Pork Sirloin Roast

Hello and welcome to the Smoking Meat newsletter where we seek to teach you everything that we know about cooking outdoors with smoke.

I sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to spend lots of quality time with the people you care about eating and having a great time together.

As usual, I have received a lot of email over the past week or two from folks thanking me for the help in making the holiday a grand success and I have to tell you that when I hear how happy folks are that the turkey turned out great or that everyone raved about the ham, it makes me very proud.

This week I want to show you how to smoke up a nice pork sirloin roast. This piece of meat is one of my favorite pork roasts and even tops cooking a whole loin in my opinion. It always turns out tender and juicy and it has an air of “fancy” to it that you don't usually get off of the smoker.

This cut is usually boneless, cooks in just a couple of hours and is an entree fit for a king that won't break the bank.

Here's what you'll need

• Pork sirloin roast
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Jeff's rub recipe (order recipes)

Brining the Pork Sirloin Roast for Smoking

When I purchase a pork sirloin roast, it is usually two pieces stacked on top of each other and held together with a net. I tend to remove the net and treat them as separate pieces.

For me this allows me to get more seasoning on the pork and I feel that the brining works better this way.

I have not been a big proponent for brining pork and beef, not because I don't think it will work, but because I've never really considered it necessary for most of the cuts that we tend to cook in our smokers.

Having said that, the leaner cuts can actually benefit quite a bit from the added moisture and flavor that brining provides so I did decide to brine this pork roast just to show you that it can be done and that it is actually a good thing to do on leaner cuts of meat and not just poultry.

Brine Recipe

To brine the roast, simply make your brine using the basic recipe below:

• 1 Gallon of water
• 1 cup of kosher salt
• 1 cup light brown sugar (dark will also work but it does have more molasses and I tend to prefer the light brown for my brines).

Adding Other Flavors

You can add anything else to this you like in terms of flavors such as fruit juices, hot sauces, other meat sauces, spices and herbs, wines and beers, melted butter, oils, buttermilk, and the list goes on and on only limited by your imagination.

Anything you put in the brine will end up inside the meat adding flavor through and through. If you do it the way I instruct and using my ratios of salt and water, it will not end up overly salty either.

Anything you add that is not easily soluble in water will need to be added to a little bit of the water, simmered to help it melt and/or release it's flavors into the water.

The brown sugar will actually mix fine into cold water so I don't worry about heating that but things like herbs and many spices tend to release their oils best when simmered for a few minutes in hot water.

To accomplish this, I usually remove about a quart of the water and use that to simmer my herbs, spices and any other ingredients that might benefit from this. Once it has simmered for about 15 minutes, let it cool down before adding it back into the remaining 3 quarts of cold water.

To speed up this process you can remove and discard another quart of the plain cold water before you add the salt and/or other ingredients and replace with a quart equivalent of ice. Just fill with ice until it reaches the gallon line and you know that you have about the right amount of water/liquid.

Brine and Meat Together

Place the meat down in a large zip top bag or other plastic/glass container and cover with the cold brine until the meat is completely submerged.

Zip closed and put the bag down in a bowl to prevent accidents. Place in the fridge and keep refrigerated throughout the entire brining process.

Brine for 12-16 hours for best results.

When the brining process is finished, rinse the meat really well under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.

Seasoning the Meat

As most of you know, I love to use different condiments, oils, etc. to help the rub to stick better. I just can't stand for that good stuff to fall off and things like mustard, oil, and even mayonnaise can do a great job of becoming a sticking agent for the dry rub.

For this pork sirloin roast, I like to use olive oil. Just douse the oil all over the meat and use your hands to make sure you have complete coverage.

Note: Remember I told you that the roast all tied up was actually two pieces stacked up. I removed the net and treated them separately after the brining process

Sprinkle my rub generously onto the meat until you can just barely see the meat.