Boneless and Rindless Pork Loin

[Curlie028]

That looks fantastic.
Not sure I can wait til Wednesday now

[Steve]

You can get tallegio in most of the supermarkets these days. Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose have it round my way. It's the Bury black pudding I struggle with, have to get my parents to bring it down for me.

[Curlie028]

Strangely I have the reverse challenge.
Our local Tesco has the Bury Black Pudding but no Tallegio.

[Steve]

Yeah supermarkets regionalise things in an odd way. My mum is a proper foodie and she's always lamenting the lack of things in Wigan that I can pick up in supermarkets here. As a substitute for tallegio you can use a blue cheese like St. Agur, it's not the same but it has a flavour profile that works well with the sweetness of the chilli.

[Curlie028]

The Boss doesn't like black pudding and not enough of our asparagus is up, so I was given orders to keep the Pork Loin simple.
So I slit it several times and shoved garlic and sage in the holes, put a layer of standard thick cut bacon on top and smoked.
So moist and flavoursome, it was unbelieveable. Had it with mash, peas with Philadelphia Cheese and some apple sauce and everyone was blown away and trust me they are a tough crowd.

Pic on iPhine, so need to work out how to transfer to laptop, so later.

Biggest learnings to share with other beginners:

1. Stop worrying about the size of the meat and the precise temp of the smoker, focus on the internal temp of the meat - still waiting on my Maverick (shipped 2 wks ago ) but the Thermapen is paying for it's self already.

2. As told on this site somewhere, don't bother with the leftover charcoal from the last smoke. So hard to light!

3. Definitely add 25% to the time you expect it will take from match on chimney, to rested and served offering - once again I had the guinea pigs waiting with their stomachs thinking their throats had been cut (worth waiting on though and I put my "you will wait" foot down this time)

4. Save the juices from "the rest". Who needs gravy?

5. Don't over analyse it, get a good book and just chill with a beer. (no company today, as they were all out earning a living) Life it too short to be worrying about your smoke. Sit back and enjoy it. My 5th smoke in less than 3 weeks and for the first time I just rode the smoke and didn't fuss.

To be honest all of above advice can be found somewhere on these forums but for a newbie it is hard to take it all in at once. Really, really happy with tonight's pork loin.