Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
Even though I didn't document this with a lot of pics (or even any good ones), I had to share this one because it was......so......good! 
This weekend I was at the beach with a group of guys that I play tennis with (28th year that we have done this trip.....the tennis is getting slower!), and I am always cast in the role of chef. The menu varies, though Friday is always tri tip, and Saturday is usually something on the WSM. Well, this year, my back was bugging me, so I didn't haul the WSM down there, and instead planned to use the 22" kettle that's on property. Long story short, when cruising the meat case at CostCo, I decided on pork tenderloin for Saturday dinner.....I picked up two, 2-packs. As I started dinner prep on Saturday (trimming a couple of the loins, getting together my coffee marinade), I decided that we really needed to cook three of these to have enough, and an idea struck me. We had half a package of bacon left from breakfast, and about 1/2 lb more sausage than we needed for the next day's breakfast.......experiment time!
I took the bacon, and made a weave. Since this was thick cut bacon, I decided to precook the "lattice" in the oven for about 20 minutes (275-300'ish), otherwise I was worried it wouldn't get cooked up right on the grill. While that was happening, I cut a pocket in the tenderloin (silverskin and fat trimmed), and stuffed it with a generous amount of my homemade breakfast sausage (think sage.) When the bacon was ready for me, I drained the rendered fat, and rolled the tenderloin up in the bacon (we had no toothpicks, so it was just rolled as tight as I could get it. I cooked it on the kettle, indirect, for about 40-50 minutes. I was expecting the stuffing in the middle to make this tenderloin cook slower than the others, and I was right. It took about 10-15 minutes longer to get to temp.
Keeping the bacon on the tenderloin without any toothpicks was a bit of a losing battle, but I did ok. It pretty much separated when sliced, but I managed a couple of slices that were worthy (no pics.) The flavor of this combination was out of this world (even though I could hear my arteries clogging as I ate it.) The tenderloin was much juicier than the two that were cooked "normally", and the combination of pork, sausage and bacon (you had to get each in every bite) was incredible! The group dubbed this experiment Baloinage, I simply call it Tri Pig. I know this isn't a new concept, just a tenderloin based riff on the fattie, but, MAN, was this good!
Stuffing the tenderloin:
Off the grill:
All three components on a fork:
I have been requested to make this every year from here on out!
Thanks for lookin'!
Rich
This weekend I was at the beach with a group of guys that I play tennis with (28th year that we have done this trip.....the tennis is getting slower!), and I am always cast in the role of chef. The menu varies, though Friday is always tri tip, and Saturday is usually something on the WSM. Well, this year, my back was bugging me, so I didn't haul the WSM down there, and instead planned to use the 22" kettle that's on property. Long story short, when cruising the meat case at CostCo, I decided on pork tenderloin for Saturday dinner.....I picked up two, 2-packs. As I started dinner prep on Saturday (trimming a couple of the loins, getting together my coffee marinade), I decided that we really needed to cook three of these to have enough, and an idea struck me. We had half a package of bacon left from breakfast, and about 1/2 lb more sausage than we needed for the next day's breakfast.......experiment time!
I took the bacon, and made a weave. Since this was thick cut bacon, I decided to precook the "lattice" in the oven for about 20 minutes (275-300'ish), otherwise I was worried it wouldn't get cooked up right on the grill. While that was happening, I cut a pocket in the tenderloin (silverskin and fat trimmed), and stuffed it with a generous amount of my homemade breakfast sausage (think sage.) When the bacon was ready for me, I drained the rendered fat, and rolled the tenderloin up in the bacon (we had no toothpicks, so it was just rolled as tight as I could get it. I cooked it on the kettle, indirect, for about 40-50 minutes. I was expecting the stuffing in the middle to make this tenderloin cook slower than the others, and I was right. It took about 10-15 minutes longer to get to temp.
Keeping the bacon on the tenderloin without any toothpicks was a bit of a losing battle, but I did ok. It pretty much separated when sliced, but I managed a couple of slices that were worthy (no pics.) The flavor of this combination was out of this world (even though I could hear my arteries clogging as I ate it.) The tenderloin was much juicier than the two that were cooked "normally", and the combination of pork, sausage and bacon (you had to get each in every bite) was incredible! The group dubbed this experiment Baloinage, I simply call it Tri Pig. I know this isn't a new concept, just a tenderloin based riff on the fattie, but, MAN, was this good!
Stuffing the tenderloin:
Off the grill:
All three components on a fork:
I have been requested to make this every year from here on out!
Thanks for lookin'!
Rich
