When I grew up we used to get some pork chops smoked along with our hams and bacons at the local abatoir. They come out pink and look very similar to a ham, and you would cook them as any other chop either on the grill or frying pan, so I do not think they were cooked through in the smoking process.
Does anyone know how this process is done? My guess is a curing brine and cold smoke. Any tips or recipes for a brine? I'm looking for an overnight process, not days on end like the ham recipe in the Bradley book.[?][8D]
John - Lethbridge, AB
Not me, but I'm all ears waiting to find out!
"A mans got to know his limitations"
Glendora, CA - USA!
WhiteTail,
Look over on the BACON thread. I would believe that you could use the same process. I think I have mentioned that when I cut up one of my butts after curinf it, i cut large thick steaks and grilled them. They did remind me of a good smoked chop that I have bought in the store.
Please keep us informed....
SmokeOn,
mski
Perryville, Akansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie
If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...
Thanks guys.
The weekend is upon me and I want to do some up for Sunday.
I am going to use pre-cut chops, not a loin to cut later. I talked to a butcher and the smoked chops they sell are actually cooked as per the laws here in Canada to 150deg and they looked just like the ones I am used to. I had trouble finding a good brine mixture on the net, so since I picked up some Morton Tenderquick last weekend, I am going to use it with no other spice added, at their mixing directions on the package.
Plan:
Mix up brine and soak chops for 24 hrs
Smoke at 180-190deg for about 3 hrs and then check internal temp to 155deg.
Note: As long as your brine contains sodium nitrite you are safe from botulism, so it is not uncommon to cold smoke so that the meat retains more moisture. That way if a person were so inclined, they could have a medium rare pork chop - although I personally would never do it.
My plan is to smoke and heat through and then freeze the chops I dont need for supper that night for a later time.
TIP: The problem with Morton container is that the instructions are laid out in weight of cure to weight of meat. There is no volume of cure to weight of meat, and since I don't have a scale in grams I had a problem. What I did do is dump out the whole bag of Tenderquick and then measure it back into the bag.
My baking wife informs me that there are 15mL of dry powder to a tablespoon. Therefore in doing some math based on the advertised weight of the package and getting down to the smallest increments, my finding was that 1mL of cure was equal to 0.8 grams. Or more simply there are 12 grams to a tablespoon. Of course after writing this I realize that only my Canadian counter-parts will have their Morton sold in grams[:p]
Next post will be results after Sunday.
John - Lethbridge, AB
Results: Pretty darn good if I do say so myself...
Soaked for 24 hours and smoked with hickory for about 3 hours. Temp varied and got away on me to just over 200, but not far from the 180 target.
What I have come to realize is that the stuff I am used to is obviously a smoked loin that is later cut into chops. The chops themselves turned blackish from the smoke and normally it is clean pick. The smoke penetrated and turned the meat nice and pink on the inside.
In the future though, I going to add some more sugar to the prepared Morton Tenderquick, as I found it a bit salty to my taste. Although it was very close to what I am used to, the whole purpose of smoking it yourself is to get the flavour you want. Besides being a ton of fun of course.
John - Lethbridge, AB
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by whitetailfan</i>
<br />at the local abatoir.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Canadian to US translation please.[:)]
http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?
abatoir is the slaughterhouse.....[xx(]
"A mans got to know his limitations"
Glendora, CA - USA!
Whitetailfan, try to find a rub or brine mix that uses curing salt. It will be less salty than using tenderquick. There are many brines available on the internet and in sporting goods stores that use a small amount of sodium nitrite along with a little regular salt and seasonings. I have used tenderquick before and it calls for ALOT. Also it will not be near as salty if you smoke it whole instead of precut. I have a whole loin curing as we speak, will relay my results next week.[;)]
Let your trout go and smoke a salmon instead.
Trout,
Do you have a home made brine recipe or do you buy pre-mix; what is your favorite?
I have purchased some Prague Powder, which in the meat store owners vocabulary, is Sodium Nitrite. Therefore I can build my own if I had some other ingredients.
How long do you brine your loin for? The penetration time has got to be quite a bit longer than on my pre-cut chops.
Thanks for your input.[:)]
John - Lethbridge, AB
I am using Buckboard Bacon Cure rub on my pork loin this time. In the past I always had used a premix bacon cure that contained a trace amount of sodium nitrate (not nitrite). From what I read nitrate is not a good thing[xx(], so no sense telling you what I had been using. This is my first attempt at the smoked pork chop thing, I had always made bacon from pork bellies or pork butt before. If I was to brine a loin I would inject some of it into the inside like a ham to speed the curing a bit. I will share more info when my experiment is done next week.[:)]
Let your trout go and smoke a salmon instead.
Hey Trout,
Hope your loin experiment is going/went well.
What kind of smoke time, cook time, temperature etc are you planning on using/used?
I have a loin in the fridge right now and I am planning on mixing up the brine tonight and brining until Saturday morning which would be 60 hours of soaking until early Saturday. My plan is then to do a thorough rinse of the loin (I forgot to do that on the chops) and let stand in the fridge to dry for an hour or two.
That puts me smoking at 9-10:00 in the morning.
No idea how long it will take to get up to that 150deg area...
Thanks for anyone's tips[:)]
John - Lethbridge, AB
Whitetail, I used buckboard bacon cure rub. Let it cure for 10days, soaked it in water for and hour, rinsed well and let it sit to dry off for an hour. Then I put in in the smoker at 150F for 45minutes, started smoke with apple wood and upped to 200F after that. Took about 5 hours to hit internal temp of 140F. Only smoked it for 2 1/2 hours of that. Sliced it in thick slices to grill. Tried one: yummmm, saving the others to toss on the grill later.[^]
Let your trout go and smoke a salmon instead.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Fuzzybear</i>
<br />abatoir is the slaughterhouse.....[xx(]<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
[Steve Martin]Well then, you'd think they would spell it S-L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R-H-O-U-S-E. It seems like those French have a different word for everything![/Steve Martin][:D][:D][:D]
http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?
Hey Kirk - OUCH![:(]
Living north of the 49th does require me to be French...[;)]
Abatoir was simply the word we used around our house to describe where we took a pig to get tastier - never thought much about where the word came from, but I notice that it was Fuzzybear that answered and HE knew what I was talking about.[:D]
John - Lethbridge, AB
John,
Certainly no offense intended, I was just funnin'.[:)]
Plus, it didn't help that on a whim I listened to the "Wild & Crazy Guy" album on my way to Chicago last weekend![:D][8D]
Kirk
http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?
A great success[:p]
I took Trout's advice and smoked a couple of "loin roasts". A whole loin will not fit in a Bradley, so at the local grocery store, they had 1Kg (2.2lbs)loin roasts and I picked up two of them.
Soaked them in Moron Tenderquick brine for 2.5 days, and then gave them a good rinse and left to dry and get up to room temp.
I smoked with 6 pucks straight (hickory) and then put on 3 more at about hour intervals. Total smoking time about eight hours. I could not get internal temp above 130-135deg smoking at 180deg. Since I put them on the barbecue I was not worried about internal temp.
Very happy with results, although again the Morton was very salty. What is interesting is that the most dense portion of the meat tasted perfect, but on the outer edge there was an area of the roast that took on more cure and salt flavour. In fact it was even a darker color of red that the rest of the meat, and there was a defining break in the area of meat and there was a layer of fat that seperated the two. My take is that they were different muscles and that the more dense muscle took on less cure while the weaker muscle took on the most. Also possible that the marbling is different between the two.
This is a great find and I will be doing a lot more soon. I would appreciate if anyone has a good brine recipe to share it here, or by e-mail, or in the recipe section. After two tries, I am looking to get away from Morton.
Good experiment - you will not be disapointed.[8D][8D][8D]
John - Lethbridge, AB
Pork loin is not so thick that you need to use a brine. I had great luck with the Buckboard bacon cure rub. After curing in the fridge for 10 days there was enough liquid in the container that it was almost a brine anyway. Not too salty at all. baked some of my pork chops last night with a little spicy mustard and brown sugar on top. Yummmmmmm[:p]
Let your trout go and smoke a salmon instead.
Try 1/2 cup pickling salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1gal water. Soak bone in pork loin for 12 hr in fridge. Poke with fork to let brine penitrate befor soaking.------Remove from brine, rinse with cold water. and pat dry. Cold smoke for 3 hr,----remove, cut, and grill. If you are in a hurry, cut the chops befor smoking, and just smoke for 1 hr.---make sure chops are dry befor smoking or they will get a black smudge on them.-------enjoy.
Try 1/2 cup pickling salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1gal water. Soak bone in pork loin for 12 hr in fridge. Poke with fork to let brine penitrate befor soaking.------Remove from brine, rinse with cold water. and pat dry. Cold smoke for 3 hr,----remove, cut, and grill. If you are in a hurry, cut the chops befor smoking, and just smoke for 1 hr.---make sure chops are dry befor smoking or they will get a black smudge on them.-------enjoy.
Thanks for the post swede,
It's ironic that I was just informed by the wife that I am going to be smoking chops again this weekend. She just picked up a 6lb loin so I am checking around for recipes to put in tonight[8D]
I am going to keep looking because I want something with cure it in. I might also just add some prague powder to the brine.
Anyway good luck with your smoked chops - those things rock.
I don't have time to buckboard Mallard or I'd try that. I just got some BBB last couple of weeks, and have not had a chance to use it yet but I also keep forgetting about the 10 day prep time[:I]
Edit: Actually I think it was trout who suggested BBB rub for pork chops, Mallard, I believe, is a Maple Cure fan for bacon - don't know if you grill any as pork chops
<b><font color="green">whitetailfan</font id="green"></b>
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB
Update and probably final recipe:
I brine cured the 6lb loin in tenderquik brine for 36-38 hrs not 60 like last time.
Did a quick wash, but this time soaked in clean water for 2 hours - all the difference in the world.
Did not come out over salty at all this time, in fact I thought they could use a bit more. Wife was in love with them, so cannot change. Brother tried them out too and this was my best batch to date.[:p]
Main difference - use whole loin, not individual chops, second - less brine time, perhaps up to 48 hours, third RINSE and SOAK- outside was WAY less black than before and there was no overpowering salt flavour. Still came out pink in the middle.
Took 4 hours with 3 hours hickory smoke - internal 150deg.
EDIT: Forgot guys, I was smoking at 200deg
<b><font color="green">whitetailfan</font id="green"></b>
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB
Whitetail, do you grill those babies after smoking them? Do you add any other seasoning other than the brine? Is your brine made up of tenderquick and water only? Your smoked chops thread has piqued me curiosity.
Thanks!
Cold Smoke
Hi there Cold,
Yes the finished meal is a grilled pork chop. What I am doing here is the preparation work of curing and smoking the pork for flavour. I grilled up six for supper that night, and then froze the rest.
There are no additional spices added to my brine - just water and tenderquik as per their package. 1 cup of TQ in 4 cups water +/-, its actually grams per litre of water on the package, but 1 to 4 is easier to figure out[;)]
I encourage you to add spices to the brine. I wanted to, but the wife kept saying that she liked them the way they were, and not to mess around until I got the brining time and rinsing thing figured out.
I brined and smoked the loin in two pieces as it was too big for the smoker and the dish I was soaking them/it in. Idea is to keep the exposed sides to a minimum. After the loin was smoked to temp, I let it cool in the smoker and then fridge, and cut them up into about 3/4inch chops.
Like I said they were extremely tasty, but IMHO I would have opted for a little bit saltier, so you can up the brine time, or cut the soaking time, but DEFINITELY soak for at least an hour. First 2 or 3 times I did this project (which is every previous time) I either did not even rinse (that was awful[xx(]) or after I did some more reading, I at least did a good rub and rinse, but I'm telling you, letting it soak in nice clean water helped a ton, and your curing is already done, you can't reverse the chemical changes that have taken place in the meat by soaking it to get the solution washed off. That has been my most taste altering discovery.
<b><font color="green">whitetailfan</font id="green"></b>
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB
Very interesting.
Thanks Whitetail, one whole cup of tenderquick- that sounds like a fair amount. I'll give it a try though. Do you toss any sauce on the chops when grilling? I'm sure the Mrs is going to want me to put a thin layer on hers.
I'll let you know how it turns out.[:D]
Cold Smoke
Ya, I thought about cutting the amount of TQ in the brine, but that's what's on the outside of the package. If you are adding in directly to meat, then it calls for a lot less. I even e-mailed Morton directly to check the concentration, but it's no misprint.
I do not sauce the chops. I figure a lot of work has gone into the flavouring already, but if you were inclined it would not hurt it, just change the flavour. I would recommend that you grill the wife's to her specification, but make sure she tries a bite or two "as is" with no sauce - I guarantee she won't be disapointed.
This was one of my all time favorite meals growing up, and now I can make them anytime I want[:D]
<b><font color="green">whitetailfan</font id="green"></b>
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB
You da man Whitetail. Thanks for the info. I'll grill them to both your (you and the Mrs) specifications/recommendations and will advise of the results after my vacation. Will be off to the cottage for a couple of weeks. Gotta drag the BS along of course. Will be experimenting daily, I hope!
Cold Smoke
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Chez Bubba</i>
<br />
Quote<i>Originally posted by whitetailfan</i>
<br />at the local abatoir.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Canadian to US translation please.[:)]
The O.E.D. has this a abattoir, with the first date of usage in English as 1820, in Great Britain. The origin is French.
B.F.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bad Flynch</i>
The O.E.D. has this a abattoir, with the first date of usage in English as 1820, in Great Britain. The origin is French.
B.F.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Aaahhh, he who surrenders meat! I get it.[:D][:D]
http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?
I found a smoked pork chop technique on the web and have found it very good. You start out with 1 part morton tender-quick and 1 part brown sugar. Mixed them together and put in a shaker bottle and sprinkled the mixture generously but, not completely covering the chops on both sides. Rub mixture into chops and put into a ziplock bag and refridgerate. If you are planning to eat the chops in the evening and the chops are less than 1" thick start the dry brine in early morning and if they are thicker start the night before.
When you are ready to smoke the chops rinse them of with cold water and pat dry.
From this point I more or less cold smoked the chops for 2 hours with Hickory. I just used the heat from the smoke generator. I then brushed olive oil on both sides and grilled them. They turned out great moist and tender. I even took leftovers to work the next day and quys wanted to know how i did it.
Duane
Got another loin in the brine last night. Curing for about 36hours, two hour scrub n soak, and smoke it after work tomorrow.
I wanted to look this up last night because I lost my instructions, thought some newbies might get a hankering to give this a shot.
NB - the unit conversion on the TQ is about a cup per litre or quart for the brine. Now I have an accurate enough scale, it is very close and this is the rule of thumb I had been applying before.
One day I'm going to add some spice to the brine, but for now the Mrs doesn't want me messing with the simple recipe.
I have used this recipe for years: http://www.mortonsalt.com/recipes/RecipeDetail.aspx?RID=44 ; it is for Gepockelte. After some time, I decided to cut the amount of TQ in half because the pork chops are better thin and the thin meat does not need much curing salt.
Smoke as you want or paint with Wright's Liquid smoke. Cold smoking is great, hot smoking is just fine, too.
Posting here because this was a good reference when setting up my loin for smoking.
I posted this under recipes:
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5654.0
They came out wonderful tasting. They were not pink after the smoke but I did not use any type of curing powder just salt, however after grilling them they came out nice and pink, don't know why.
I doubt I will change the brine except for maybe an addition of curing powder. I will most likely reduce the time of the cure.
Jon