Brined Smoked Pork Chops

[Saber 4]

I found Master Pachanga's stuffed grilled pork chop recipe, and I want to use the brine recipe he listed for my 2" pork chops and then smoke them in the Bradley instead of grilling, I'm not going to stuff this batch. Here's the brine he suggested:

4  1/14 to 1/1/2 inch thick bone in pork chops.
½ cup Kosher Salt
½ Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
1 Tablespoon Mustard Powder
2 Cups Cider Vinegar brought to boil
4 cups Iced Water

My questions are,
How long is to long to brine? The recipe calls for 2-4 hours but I was thinking overnight because I have a busy morning on Sunday before starting the smoke.
Do I need to rinse and soak or just rinse?
Would an apple juice spritz be to much or help with a little color/bark?

I'm planning on smoking with pecan for 2 hours and bring to IT of 140-145 and I'm assuming I won't need to salt the chops just grind a little pepper on them before going in the smoker. Then FTC for a 1-2 hours after IT.

Thanks in advance for all the help and advice.

[Habanero Smoker]

You don't want to brine overnight with that much vinegar in the brine; it will make the meat mushy; particularly at the surface. The thinner they are the less time you should use. For 2-inch thick, 4 hours should be more than enough time. I use a vinegar based brine for my Cornell Chicken, and two hours is the maximum I can use before the protein structure of the meat begins to break down.

[Saber 4]

Thanks, do you just rinse off after 4 hours or do you soak to reduce the saltiness?

[Saber 4]

I went ahead and made my brine tonight so I can get the chops in first thing in the morning. I'm going to follow Habs advice and err on the side of caution when he said 6 hours would be more than enough I'm going to back off to 3 hours and see how that does since I hate mushy meat. Pictures tomorrow.

[Saber 4]

Here's an update, got up this morning and put the chops in the brine for a 3 hour cruise, hope they don't get stranded.





Took them out, rinsed and patted dry with a little fresh ground pepper, now waiting for them to come up to room temp and warming the Brad up.



More later....

[Saber 4]

2 hours of Pecan at 220 and we've reached IT of 145 in the biggest and 143 in the smaller ones so I pulled and FTC'd until dinner. Then I'll have to decide to serve up as is or throw on the grill for a warm up and grill marks. They look a little dry but hopefully the FTC will solve that. What would you do at this point?

Right before going for their foil nap....

[Saber 4]

Ok here's the final product, fresh from FTC



Seemed a little drier than the other chops I've done without brining, I took a couple of them and put them on the grill to warm up and get some grill marks but couldn't get any grill marks. The flavor was good but the wife doesn't seem to care for vinegar based brines so she broke out the Stubbs sauce. I'm not sure if I did something wrong with to much or too little of time or ingredients. Here's the plated dinner plate.



Any thoughts or suggestions as always are gratefully appreciated so I can bring my game up.

[Habanero Smoker]

In your first post I didn't notice you were going to FTC. I would not have FTC pork chops, that will raised the internal temperature much higher than your desired targeted internal temperature. Then cooking them further on the grill, you further overcooked them. Though ever when overcooked the brining should have kept them somewhat moist.

The picture of them in the foil; is that after you finished the FTC? If so, I see very little juices collected. There should have been more juices then that, so they appear to be very dried out, prior to the FTC.

Do you have a picture showing the pork chop cut open?

How was the texture?

The vinegar based flavor is subjective to the individual taste. I've never used this brine recipe, but the amount of vinegar is about the same as I use in my Cornel Chicken, and all recipes I have tried by Pachanga are excellent. The amount of salt looks alright for the length of time you brined.

I have a couple of thick pork chops. I have someone coming over tomorrow, and I may test this recipe out, and get his opinion. He loves vinegar based flavor, so I'll see what hen thinks.

I forgot to mention, he won't eat pork if he sees the slightest amount of pink, so I will be taking them to at least 150° IT, and see if they still stay moist.

[Saber 4]

That's good to know about the FTC, I should have splashed some apple juice in it since the smoke finished about 2 hours before dinner time, that might have helped some.

The picture in the foil is right after I opened them up from FTC, I had just un-stacked them for the picture and the two in the middle had some juice, not much but some under them. I only had them on the grill for about 2 minutes on each side because it was quickly apparent that they were to dry to go that route for grill marks.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of one cut open, the texture was good and firm, yet very tender. They weren't completely bone dry they had some moisture just not what I would have expected after a brining. I may have had an unreasonable expectation also since this is my first actual brining instead of eating brined stuff at restaurant's.

There was no pink in them at 143-145 and they ended up being closer to 1 1/2" rather than the 2" I had asked for.

I thank you for your time and look forward to your report on your taste test if you get to try it.

[KyNola]

Nothing ventured nothing gained.  At the height of the FTC period your internal temp on the chops was probably closer to 155.  Next time try to catch them at around 140 and place them on a plate and lightly tent with foil to help keep them warm but to allow the excess heat to escape.  If they get too cold you can always very gently reheat them.

They still look good, particularly for a first try at it.   There are no mistakes on a Bradley, just happy accidents and we still get to eat them! :)

[Saber 4]

Thanks KyNola, your right about happy accidents and even though they weren't exactly like I wanted them they were still good enough that when I looked over at my wife's plate about halfway through dinner she had already picked the bone up and picked it clean.

[Habanero Smoker]

I'll definitely let you know how they turn out. When I take them to 142 - 145°F, I still have some pink.

[Saber 4]

Those northern pigs must be more tender to still be pink at 142....LOL

[Habanero Smoker]

The cooler climate must keep the meat nice and rosy.  :)

[Saber 4]

Tonight we ate the last two chops I smoked the other day, I reheated them in the oven wrapped in foil with some apple juice for steam, then put some pork gravy with red onion over it. They turned out great, moist and juicy with good flavor. I think two things caused me problems, one I don't think the chops were of the same quality as the others I've done and second when I FTC'd them out of the smoker I should have done as many of you described in other posts and put some apple juice in the foil at that time. My wife thinks we should try again with better chops and use some apple juice in place of some or all of the water in the brine. You know something is going right when your wife wants you to experiment with a recipe that didn't turn out as good as you planned. I forgot to take a picture before I put the gravy on and after that I figured there was no point. :D