BBQ14/17: Pork Loin with Pickled Apples

BBQ14/17 – Pork Loin with Pickled Apples:

Pork Loin: Whilst reading Rich Harris’s cook book I spotted the recipe for Pork Loin with Pickled Apples. It looked great and I put it on my cook “to do” list.

The recipe calls for 2kg pork loin joint. I ordered mine from Turner and George (1.5kg) http://www.turnerandgeorge.co.uk/pork/rolled-pork-sirloin.html

The pork loin had quite a thick fat layer and the rind still on so I removed the rind and cut the fat back to a 5mm layer. I used the pork fat in the mother sauce recipe (below).

In true British style I wanted potatoes with the pork but was getting a bit bored of Roast Potatoes and Potatoes in a bag. I had been down to Pitt Cue the previous month and had the legendary bone marrow mash again so decided to finally make it myself using the recipe in their cook book.

I had made the charred corn with smoked chilli butter a few times recently. It’s an easy cook but great tasting dish so added that to the list. The slaw was left over from the pork belly cook and I thought it would go well with this!

Advance preparation for this cook:

  • Rub for the pork loin: Sea salt, black pepper, dark brown soft sugar, paprika, onion granules.
  • Pickle juice for the apples: Caster sugar, cider vinegar, water and fine sea salt.
  • Chilli butter for the corn: Dried chipotle chillies, chilli flakes, garlic, lime zest, salted butter
  • Whipped bone marrow: Marrow (I got the bone shafts from Turner and George), lemon juice, garlic, flat leaf parsley, sea salt and pepper. 
  • Mother sauce (for bone marrow mash): Beef trim, beef stock, pork stock, shallots, butter, sweet madeira, tomato ketchup, French’s mustard, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, cloudy apple juice, blackstrap molasses and pork dripping.

The rub, pickle juice and chilli butter were easy enough to make but the whipped bone marrow took a fair bit of time to prepare. It gets pushed through a sieve at the end, I didn’t think there was any way it was going through but with a bit of persuasion it did and looked very smooth!

The mother sauce also took a bit of prep but wasn’t too hard to make. I wish I had made more of it though!

On the day of the cook I took the pork loin out and applied the rub all over:

I lit the chimney starter with a load of Oxford Charcoal Orange Wood (good with pork) and once the BBQ was ready I put some cherry chunks in then added the pork loin to cook indirect expecting it to take about an hour to hit 65c internal. Weber had recently sent me the new iGrill2 so I set that up to monitor the BBQ and food temperatures.

Once the pork was in I set the potatoes to bake in the oven (45m to 1h) and boiled the corn for 10m. You could probably do the potatoes in the BBQ but as it was the first time I had made this mash I used the oven.

I cored and thinly sliced the apples then put them in the warm pickling mixture for 30m before moving them to the fridge for 30m. 

I flipped the pork a couple of times and double checked the temperatures with my thermapen (just to make sure the iGrill2 was matching, it was!)

When the pork was ready I took it out and left it to rest in a foil tent for about 20m. The rub/bark was quite soft so I didn’t wrap it in case it removed the rub/bark.

As I took the pork out I had added some extra charcoal and put the corn to cook direct, moving it around every few minutes. The recipe calls it charred corn and each time I have taken it pretty black but I think I will give it less time over direct heat just to get it slightly golden and then move to indirect for the rest of the cook.

When the potatoes are ready you scoop out the potato flesh from the skins, pass it through a sieve and add it to heated cream in a pan. Once it’s all mixed together you add butter before putting the mix in a bowl, putting your whipped bone marrow on top then pouring the hot mother sauce over the top:

 

The mash came out great, I was so happy with it! When we started eating I eat half the mash before anything else! I was still raving about it the next day, I will make a lot more mother sauce next time and keep it in the fridge/freezer.

I took the pork out of it’s foil tent and sliced an end off, it was really juicy, looked nicely cooked and had a bit of a smoke ring from the cherry wood. The meat tasted great and the rub was fantastic.

 

I plated everything up and we started eating. We really enjoyed this meal and will definitely cook it more often. The pork on it’s own is very easy to prepare and cook.

I wouldn’t change anything with the pork cook, that was spot on. I will change the corn cook as previously mentioned and I will make more mother sauce for the bone marrow mash in future.

One thing to watch out for, the orange wood burnt really hot. The Weber temp gauge was off the scale so maybe it will take a bit longer to cook with less heat on different charcoal but using something like the iGrill2 takes the guesswork out as you can monitor the internal temperature of the meat.


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2 thoughts on “BBQ14/17: Pork Loin with Pickled Apples

  1. Hi Nathan

    Pork Loin is one of my favourites to cook, will definitely give this a try.

    Potatoes sound awesome as well. Hasslebacks and Roasties can get a little boring every time so nice to change it up a little.

    Thanks

    James

    1. Hi James, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment on this post!

      The Pork Loin was really tasty, very easy to cook too so I can see me doing it more often!

      The Bone Marrow Mash, every time I look at those photos I remember how good it was. Giving credit to a great recipe rather than any skill on my behalf! I will make more of the mother sauce next time, as much as I can get in the pan and freeze some!

      Cheers
      Nathan

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