Bone in Pork Loin - Mushy & Dry


 
R

RogerPrice

New member
Hello,
I'm looking for some advice. I smoked my first pork loin over the weekend and it came out mushy and a bit dry. I cooked it at 300º to an IT of 147º.
I injected it with an apple juice/white vinegar based injection and let it set for 4 hours. The loin was on the smoker for about 3.5 hours which seems a bit long to me.
I'm wondering if I should have cooked it hotter so that it wasn't on for so long.....or possibly my IT was too high? I'm finding mixed info on IT. Myron Mixon goes to 155, others go to 140.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
Hi Roger - I pull mine at 147, sometimes 145 depending how big and if I think it's going to drift past 150.

I've never used vinegar to inject, so I wonder if that did something to turn it a little mealy and dry it out. Have you used vinegar before on another cut?

Edit - I meant to also say that when you have a bone-in, that really increases the time it takes to get to temp, especially if you're used to doing boneless loins.
 
Way way over done. 4 lb loin at that temp would be done in about an hour, give or take. Its a very lean cut and really is not suitable for low temp either.
 
Last edited:
Hmm. That's what I was thinking too, but I probed it the entire time. What internal temp do you pull the meat from the smoker?
 
any chance that cold outside temps affected my Redi Check? The transmitter was sitting in a zip lock on a table covered in snow.
 
Not sure how snow proof or cold proof they are... I'd try testing it inside with a pot of boiling water, or even room temp to see if it's even close to what you'd expect.
 
Well I checked the Redi-Check again and both probes read 212º in boiling water. Still not sure where I went wrong. Guess all I can do is practice on another one.
 
Don't forget that after you take the loin off the internal temp will continue to rise. Your finished temp was probably 152-155. I usually take it off at 140.
 
Carry over was part of your problem, IMO. If you pulled at 147 IT and foiled to rest (im not sure you did) you could have risen 5/7 F more.
Not gud!
 
I'm not big into injections, so try a simple brine next time or use a flavor brine ( I have one that I love on loins,chops ).
Pull it @ 140 deg which is a wise decision.

Tim
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely try pulling it sooner. I picked up Myron Mixon's cook book and he suggests cooking at 350 to an IT of 155 with an injection similar to the one I used.
How in the world could you get one to come out following his recipe? Maybe he is giving his future competition bad advice....haha. Or he has some interesting tricks up his sleeve.
 
I've never injected anything in my life, but I've cooked loin to a final including carryover of 150-155 (not that I was trying) and never got a mushy loin. So as a complete idiot regarding injections, I'd look to that and the length of injection time as the cause the mushyness
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top