I'd only cooked a pork loin one time till the other day. Why? I found it tough and unattractive. Food needs to be sexy, doesn't it? I always used pork tenderloins, but they weren't too gently on my pocketbook. To feed four to six people would often set me back anywhere from $15 to $20 depending on the recipe and the people who were eating. Some on my guest list, which is an ongoing list, have much larger appetites than others.
So I picked up a pork loin - a two-pound piece of pork - for under $5 at Walmart one day, stuck it in the freezer and pulled it out several days later. Next came rubbing it down with a good barbecue rub and letting it marinate in the rub for several hours while hickory chips were soaking. Hours later, the grill was smoking with charcoal, chips and the pork loin. I left it on for a couple of hours, adding more hickory and fresh charcoal as needed to keep the temperature up to around 275 F. After 2 1/2 hours, the meat thermometer read 160 F. I could tell by just poking it in that the meat was fork tender. But it wasn't until I cut into it after letting it rest for a few minutes that I realized just how tender it was.
This is not an elegant meat. At least not as elegant as the tenderloins, but the flavor was amazing and a little more intense than tenderloins. Although it had some fat, it was easlly removed. I'll be making this inexpensive meat again and am looking forward to trying it on the oven again since my first attempt was pathetic. Any ideas?