Roast Pork Injected with Maple Syrup, Jack Daniels

Gator Bait

 
Roast Pork Injected with Maple Syrup, Jack Daniels and Butter! . . . oh ya, and draped with Bacon. :laugh:

I was in Sam's Friday and found a nice 5.36# pork loin roast marked down. I didn't know what I was going to do with it but figured I could think of something. I have a fresh supply of Maple Syrup (the good stuff) and a fresh supply of Jack Daniel's Old No.7 (for medicinal and cooking purposes ) and figured I could use them in some way.
I started with 1 1/2 cups of Jack in a sturdy, small sauce pan. I warmed it a bit on the egg and took it off and placed it on the concrete slab with nothing over head and lit it with the MAPP torch. I didn't think I needed the alcohol for my injection and wanted to concentrate the flavor of the J.D. After it was burned off I placed the pan on the egg long enough to boil some of the water out of it. In the end I had reduced the 1 1/2 cups down to 1/2 cup. To this I added 1/2 cup of Maple Syrup and a stick of butter and put it back on the egg for a while (10 minutes?) and let it boil. I was afraid I might caramelize the sugar in the syrup so I pulled it and let it sit over night in the frig till I needed it.
Sunday morning I retrieved it and the roast from the frig. I nuked the Maple/J.D./Butter mix to melt the butter again and poured it into a 1 pint mason jar so I could shake it into an emulsion, The jar also lends itself to loading the syringe with little mess. I injected the roast with the mix till it was well saturated and holding about 95% of the mix.
I had some Hormel Black Label Maple flavored bacon on hand and decided to cook the roast fat cap down with the lean top half draped in bacon. The strings tying the roast together turned out to be elastic like the netting on a leg of lamb and it was an easy task to slide the bacon underneath them. The last thing I did was to sprinkle with a very little sea salt (I didn't know how much salt was in the bacon) and pepper.
The egg I had cleaned well and filled to the top of the fire ring with fresh lump and a couple big handfuls of Jack Daniel's wood chips mixed in. I used a plate setter and drip pan and let the DIGIQ II bring the temperature up to 350º.

Shortly after going on.


Halfway done and I started basting it with the little bit of Maple/J.D./Butter mix that I had left over. By the time it was done I had basted it about three times and used up the last of the mix.


One of my grilling buddies. :cheer:


About an hour and twenty minutes had the internal to 138º and I pulled it.


Tented with foil I let it rest for about 30 minutes then sliced it open to sample.


I let it spend the night in the frig and this morning I put a scalpel edge on my 8" chefs knife and started slicing it very thin for sandwiches. Any juices that had collected in the pan and jelled over night got heated enough to liquefy them and poured over the sliced roast, I wasn't about to pour out any of that flavor.


The roast came out very well, it was not the most tender piece of pork I have ever had so I was happy I sliced it very thin, it will be perfect for sandwiches. The flavor is very good. An injection has to have a lot of flavor to it before it will come through in the end so this is not overly flavored but is still sweet and buttery. It could use more salt, what I added in the beginning amounted to nothing but that is an easy cure. (no pun intended ).

Gator

 

NibbleMeThis

You can always add salt after cooking, so yeah, you erred on the side of caution, good move:) It's a lot harder to take salt out, lol.

cookn biker

Blair, I can imagine that was very full of flavor!! It really looks awesome! Might think about trying that cuban style. Looks perfect for them.

Gator Bait

 
LOL, Yup, that's the cure.

(OK, pun intended this time)

Gator

 

Gator Bait

 
Thanks Molly, I LOVE Cuban sandwiches and will do that. Maybe I can make a "Near Naked Cuban", the roll/bread is more carbs than is good for me. I have recently found some soft wheat medium sized tortilla's that are only 5 grams of carbs each. They are a little on the chewy side but good considering the number of carbs. I use them instead of bread.

Blair

P.S. A wasp just tried to land on the tip of my nose! I failed to wait and see what it's intentions were and swept it away in PANIC! LOL. I can't find him now and can only wonder where and when it will show up next. :ermm: :unsure: :S :blink: :ermm: :unsure:

Florida Grillin Girl

Pork looks great. Save a sandwich for me!

Faith

Gator Bait

 
Thanks Faith, may be a Cuban slider would be a good cook at a Fest one of these years! :woohoo:

Food for thought,

Gator