Pork SmokeLoins

Another BBQ treat for those of you who want a good, fast, tasty meal from your smoker. They can be grilled as well, but won't have the great smoky flavor.

Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloins, each around a pound
8 slices of regular bacon
BBQ rub mixture, your own or store bought.
Pomegranate sauce (click for recipe)


Method:
Open the tenderloin package(s) and rinse off the loins. Trim off any silver skin. Cut each tenderloin in half, so you have two loinettes about 6" long form each.

Next, coat each loinette lightly in your favorite BBQ rub. This doesn't need to be very heavy, pork tenderloin is a very mild-flavored meat and you don't want to overdo it. Next, you'll notice that one end of each loin tapers to a point. You'll want to fold that over so it cooks evenly with the rest of the meat. It is easily done, starting like this:

...and finishing like this:

Next comes the bacon. Using a toothpick, secure one end of a strip of bacon to the meat near one end. Wrap it in a spiral around the meat - it ought to go about halfway:


use another toothpick to secure the end and start another slice of bacon. Continue spiraling around the meat until covered and finish with a third toothpick. Two slices of bacon ought to to cover one loinette. Repeat this wrapping for the for other loinettes.


Here I put them on the smoker alongside a panned brisket point. The smoker is running about 300 degrees, you can choose to do them down around 225 if you like.


Finally done! They were smoked to an internal temp of 140, with carry-over heat taking them to 145. Before you get all riled up, I know the USDA says to cook pork to 165, but that would ruin the tenderloins. That old bugaboo trichinosis is killed by 141 degrees, so not to worry.


Here is a loinette sliced through with a nice pomegranate sauce. You can see the light smoke ring just inside the bacon layer. Very tasty!