Pork Spine


 
J

J Griff

New member
I like to experiment with obscure cuts of pork to smoke low and slow and I assumed pork spine would be a good candidate. However, now that I have it home the color and texture resembles a pork loin to me, so I'm wondering if this would not be a good candidate for low and slow. I assumed it would be comparable to pork neck which makes for great BBQ but now I have doubts. Does anybody have any experience with pork spine and any thought for a cooking style?

Thanks in advance for your input and thoughts.
 
Typically, lean cuts aren't going to do well with low/slow. Tim's idea on a bit of smoke for color/flavor, then finish up with a braise sounds good.

....and, please let us know what you end up doing with it. I like pork obscurity! :)

R
 
I smoke pork tenderloin on a fairly regular basis as well as grilling it. Even if I grill it, I'll sear it on 4 sides, then finish cooking over indirect heat. If your pork spine does have the tenderloins on each side, I'd say cook it the same way as a tenderloin. Maybe brine it, and probably the biggest secret is to not overcook it.
 
J Griff said:
The cut looks fairly lean. Will it dry out easily?
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Treat it like a ham hock. Great for Beans n Bones or stock. And it is lean because it's high on the hog and you can't get any higher then the backbone.
 
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I plan to smoke it at a low temp (200ish) to maximize the time in the smoke with a basic rub then reverse sear it with a finish/rested internal temp no higher than 145. I usually avoid lean cuts. I like moist meat.
 
Following up on my pork spine experiment. I purchased approx 5 lbs so I had enough for several cooks.

Attempt 1: I used the two smallest chops and tried to smoke and reverse sear. The chops were to small/thin and I overcooked them. The meat near the bone was tasty and moist. The meat away from the bone was drier and bland.

Attempt 2: One very large chop approx 1.8 or so lbs. The plan was again to reverse sear after a prolonged low temp cook. On the smoke for approx 1.5 hours before testing temps. Temps were at 138. Too high for a reverse sear. So I took them off the grill asap and tented for 10 minutes then cut into them. Because they were bland the first time around I heavily layered my rub and added some extra cayenne and black pepper to my base rub. The chops were loaded with flavor, very moist and had more complexity of fat in the meat than the day one chops. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I also dry brined them for approx 8 hours before they went on the smoke. I would have these again as a nice change of pace. The chop was huge which really helped the process to be more manageable than the two smaller chops from day 1. I won't mess with the reverse sear again. It didn't need it. I was very fortunate to nail the internal temp when I did. There's very little margin for error with this lean meat. I didn't miss my temps by much in day 1, but it didn't take much to over cook them.

Still one large chop left for further experimentation.
 
Sounds great! Maybe marinate the last chop. Your post got me thinking on curing a whole spine, smoking, then cutting into thick chops sorta like Kassler Rippchen.
 
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