Smoked Center Cut Pork Loin with Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce

When looking for an affordable dinner option, pork loins can be overlooked.  At the Calgary Co-op grocery store, for regular price, I found a 2.1lb / 0.984kg Center Cut Pork Loin for $19.61 CAD.  There were leftovers after feeding our family of 4 once this loin was smoked and drizzled with an apple & cider vinegar sauce.  Pretty great to have a weekend protein for less than $20! 

We all like our proteins to be moist, right?  Lean cuts of pork can be intimidating, so if you don’t want to have dry meat, then, brining is going to be your easy button!  Submerging your meat into a salt water solution (with sugar addition optional) aka “wet brining” enables the salt molecules to be drawn into the meat.  The salt molecules change the meat protein fibers to retain more water.  Ahem! Hands up, if you want all of your bites of pork to be moist! Brining doesn’t have to be done the night before; I brined this “other white meat” pork loin while waiting for the smoker to warm up and ended up with juicy, tender slices.  So without delay, let’s smoke a Center Cut Pork Loin with Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce!

Smoked Center Cut Pork Loin with Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce

A simple pork loin with traditional apple flavors is a great affordable home smoked meal.

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Course Main Course, meat

Ingredients

  

• 2.5 to 6 lb / 1 to 3kg boneless center cut pork loin

Pork Brine

• 2 quarts / 1.90 litres tap water
• ¼ cup / 72 grams table salt
• 1 ½ tablespoons / 19 grams white sugar optional
• Sweet & savory spice rub

Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce

• 1 tablespoon of salted butter
• 2 Granny Smith apples peeled and cut into ¼” slices with core removed
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 cup apple juice
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon fresh sage or ½ teaspoon dried sage
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Sprinkle of ground cloves
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

Pork Brine

• Stir tap water, table salt and white sugar in a large deep pail (e.g. 12L Ice cream containers work well).
• Place center cut pork loin into brine solution to brine for 1.5 hours.
• Remove center cut pork from brine, place onto baking sheet and pat dry.
• Note: Preferably, brine the pork the night before so the salt in the brine can evenly disperse into the whole pork loin, but brining while your smoker is warming up also works.

Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce

• In a frying pan on medium heat, add butter.
• When butter melted, add Granny Smith apple slices and allow to cook on one side until slices soften against the pan, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook apples until softened all the way through.
• Remove apples from frying pan and place into medium sized bowl.
• With the frying pan back on medium to high heat, add all the other ingredients: apple cider vinegar, apple juice, brown sugar, dried thyme, fresh or dried sage, ground cinnamon and ground cloves. Allow the sauce to bubble and boil, stirring every couple minutes, until the sauce thickens, about 20-30 minutes. The sauce is thick when it coats the back of a spoon.
• Add the cooked apples back to apple juice and cider vinegar sauce.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Set the sauce aside until pork loin is ready.

Smoking the Pork Loin

• Start offset smoker with charcoal chimney and apple wood, target temperature on Yoder Loaded Wichita right hand thermometer 300F. Place a small pan of water on the bottom shelf on the right hand side. The water helps to disperse the heat and add moisture to the cooking chamber (I live in Alberta where there is very no humidity. In a high humid environment, a water pan is not necessary).
• Brine pork loin 1 to 1.5 hours.
• Remove center cut pork from brine, place onto baking sheet and pat dry.
• Generously sprinkle your favorite spice rub on all sides of the pork loin.
• Once smoker is at 300F temperature, place pork loin in the hottest spot of smoker, on a Yoder Loaded Wichita, this is the right side of the top shelf. The heat on an offset smoker is the front face of the loin facing the fire box and the heat is not direct.

  Tip: Depending on where the heat on grill or smoker radiates from, you may find that you need to rotate your pork loin more often or you may want to move it to a cooler spot in your grill or smoker.
• After 30 minutes, flip the pork loin over, so the bottom is now facing upwards and rotate (so the side facing the firebox is now facing the exhaust.)

  Tip: The bark of the loin should begin to set. This means the exterior of the meat is looking dry and if you wipe the surface of the meat with your finger, the spice rub will not stick to your finger, it will stay on the meat itself.
• Meanwhile, prepare the Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce
• After an additional 30 minutes (now 60 minutes of total cooking time), flip the pork loin over and rotate again. From this point, you should begin probing the center part of the pork loin for doneness about every 15 minutes.
• At the doneness of your choice, take the pork loin off the smoker and place onto a baking sheet or pan, loosely cover the pork loin with aluminum foil and allow to rest.

  US Department of Agriculture recommends cooking to 145F with at least a 3 minute rest.

  145F -150F medium rare

  150F-155F medium

  155F-160F medium-well

  160F well
• When ready to serve, slice the pork loin into ¼” to 3/8” slices and drizzle on the Apple & Cider Vinegar Sauce with some of the cooked apples.  Enjoy!

Notes

Note: Preferably, brine the pork the night before so the salt in the brine can evenly disperse into the whole pork loin, but brining while your smoker is warming up also works.

Personal Note: I cook my pork loins to 140F, take it off the smoker and allow it to rest at least 10 minutes under an aluminum foil tent for carryover cooking to 145F.  When preparing this recipes, the center cut pork loin was done cooking 1 hour and 20 minutes of total time, pulled off of the smoker at 140F internal temperature, resting at room temperature on a baking sheet underneath a piece of aluminum foil for more than 20 minutes.

Keyword barbecue, barbecue pork, bbq pork, center cut loin, pork loin, smoked pork