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Smokin' Summer Spice Dry Rub on brined and smoked pork center loin roast shown on a wooden cutting board.

Smoked Pork Loin with Summer Spice Dry Rub

Smoked Pork Loin with Summer Spice Dry Rub - tender, juicy, thinly sliced, smoky pork with a tasty blend of herbs & spices. Makes delicious cold cuts too.
Course Barbecue and Grilling
Cuisine American
Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 1 day 3 hours
Servings 12 servings
Calories 327 kcal
Author Barry C. Parsons

Ingredients

  • 4 pound center loin pork roast
  • Smokin" Summer Spice Dry Rub See recipe link above.

For the Brine

  • 6 cups cold water
  • 2 cups apple juice
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup sea salt
  • 2 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 2 fresh thyme sprigs
  • 3 cloves chopped garlic

Instructions

  1. Mix all of the brine ingredients together until the brown sugar and salt have dissolved.
  2. Place loin roast in a plastic or glass container and pour the brine over the top of the meat. The brine should cover the meat entirely.
  3. Place in the fridge and let stand for 24-48 hours.
  4. Pat the meat dry with paper towels. Liberally cover the loin roast with Summer Spice Dry Rub. You can then leave the roast for 2-8 hours before smoking if you like to let the flavour of the spices permeate the meat. How long is your choice.
  5. Barbecue over indirect heat at 250 degrees F for up to 3 hours or longer depending on the size/thickness of the roast you are using. The best way to ensure your pork loin is fully cooked is to use a meat thermometer to ensure the center reaches 160 degrees F. Any higher than that, you risk losing moisture from the meat. This temperature is what is recommend by health Canada. In the US the guideline is 140 degrees F or higher. I've used both temps in the past and both may leave the pork slightly pink at the centre which is considered perfectly fine these days.

Recipe Notes

While I do have a backyard smoker, any BBQ can be adapted to add a little smoke flavour using readily available hardwood chips. See below.

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR INDIRECT BBQ

If you are using your gas grill to slow barbecue your pork, place the meat on one side of the grill and use the burner or burners on the opposite side so that it is not directly over heat. Regulate the gas to keep the temperature at about 250 degrees F for slow barbecued flavour. The same technique can also be used with a charcoal grill, just keep the charcoal on one side and the meat on the opposite side.

You can add smoke flavour by soaking hardwood chips like mesquite, apple, cherry or hickory in warm water for about a half hour. A couple of handfuls will do. Wrap the soaked wood chips in a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil and poke only two holes in the foil, one at either end to allow the smoke to escape. On a gas grill, I place the foil packets in a vegetable grill pan so that the packet is not sitting directly on the gas burner. On a charcoal grill, simply toss the packet directly onto the hot coals. You can add more soaked wood chip packets as they burn out, it all depends on how much smoke favor you wish to add. One or two of these packets replaced every hour should be enough for pork.