Pork Tenderloin results

Banker John

the egg produced 3 pork tenderloins. Each with their own rub/marinate. The best by far was the simple mustard rub with a seasoning rub (the same one I use for just about everything else). [p]THe second best was the loin marinated in olive oil, saffron, onion and garlic. This was almost a dead heat for first. But based on amount of left overs (there are 2 more pieces left over), it was second.[p]The third really sucked. I would urge anyone against the third marinate. I used worchestire sauce, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, onion powder and mustard. "It sucked" is the best description I can give and stay within forum guidelines. This will be logged into my egg journal as a DND - do not duplicate.[p]All in all, I really enjoyed the cook. Cooked them at 350, direct on lower grid, turning every 10 minutes (32 minutes total) and pulled when the Thermapen (thanks for the advice to buy one of these!) read 146. Wrapped in aluminum foil while the Udon noodles finished boiling. Made a butter & garlic sauce ad mixed with the noodles. For rabbit food, we had steamed broccoli. [p]Next time, will add carrots and yellow bell peppers to the vegetable menu; more garlic in the noodle sauce and NIX the worchestire marinate.[p]Banker John wishes he had a camera to share pix with!

Gfw

Banker John, sorry to hear about the third PT. Did two yesterday and they both turned out about perfect. Each was marinated for about 5 hours in equal parts of bourbon, Worchester and soy since.[p]Life is GOOD :~}

Banker John

Gfw,
The wife, Mindy, has never liked pork - even since she was a kid (even a Mr Toad variation I did last week). The tenderloins, however, has made her a lover of the other white meat. I think the comment was, "This doesn't even taste like pork. I really like it. You should cook it again on your grill."[p]Yes, life is good![p]Banker John

Shelby

Banker John,
I usually go with a soy sauce marinade but like Gfw's idea of adding bourbon![p]As a side question, how many tenderloins do you think one could get on a large? How about adding a second rack? Wife wants to do pork tenderloins for a group of 15 or so and I'm thinking I'm going to need a bunch of tenderloins.

Banker John

Shelby,
Good question! I have a medium and this was the first attempt at tenderloins. After cooking them, I realized that they do require somewhat more attention than the traditional "no peek" cooks I have always done up to now.[p]I had three on there with no problem. I could have done 6 easily, but no room for anything else (side dishes). I would think a large coulde handle 8-10 but have no point of reference to work from.[p]I'd be curious to know if we can cook the tenderloins on both the lower and raised grid to double the cooking space. I'ww watch to see if this thread expands and offers help.[p]Banker John

Sippi

Gfw,
A little rum, orange juice and jerk seasoning works well too. I believe that was JCA's suggestion originally.

TRex

Banker John,[p]Glad to hear your results were successful (well, at least 66% of them). I, too, had a DND once with pork tenderloins - I marinated them in a 1:1 soy sauce and worchestshire marinade. They were OKAY, but for the most part just tasted like meat soaked in soy sauce - the salt flavor was a little too much. Perhaps I just used too much soy sauce.[p]Like you experienced, I've had my best results doing simply a dry rub with mustard and NO marinade (plus, this takes less preparation, which is always nice). Maybe I've used crappy marinades, but I prefer the dry rub with mustard over the marinade method any day.[p]Sorry I didn't answer your question about the raised versus lower grid sooner (I did answer this morning, although after the fact). Turns out you cooked them the way I do, i.e., with the grid directly on the fire ring.[p]Regarding cooking several tenderloins on a double grid setup: well, my guess is that, since these are a direct cook, you're cooking primarily by radiant heat from the coals. Thus, if you had a double grid setup, I would think your lower tenderloins would be cooking primarily by direct radiant heat and your upper tenderloins, blocked by the lower grid, would be cooking in a more indirect way. It would probably work, you just might have different cooking times for top and bottom--perhaps you could just swap them around every 10 minutes.[p]I'm sure someone has done this before and will chime in at some point.[p]TRex

KennyG

Sippi,[p]Great suggestion! I've had much success with this recipe from J Appledog and seldom cook tenderloins any other way.[p]As a twist, after the marinade, I like to SMOKE them (apple and/or tabasco chips) to about 135° internal and then blast them briefly on a super hot Egg or gasser to get the char marks for presentation. Leftovers are wonderful for quesadillas.[p]K~G

BlueSmoke

Shelby,
The rule of thumb I use is 1/4 to 1/3 pound of cooked meat per person (depending on their general appetite - the football team will eat more than the garden club), assuming there's accompaniments (veggies, salad, etc.). It also say you'll end up with 50 to 60% of the weight you start with.[p]On this basis, you want 5 pound of meat to serve, so you'd start with 8 to 10 pounds of tenderloins.[p]Hope this helps.
Ken

Stogie

Ken,[p]I think there is much less meat loss due to cooking with tenderloins. I will measure this week. We eat tenderloins once a week and I have prepared them every way imaginable....even in a crockpot![p]I buy them by the case at Sam's and recently paid $2.08/lb. At that price, you just HAVE to eat it weekly![p]Stogie[p]

Lawn Ranger

Banker John,
Those sound great! I recently did a couple marinated overnight in a mustard, Raspberry Chipotle mixture and then wrapped in bacon prior to grilling. Pretty tasty.

BlueSmoke

Stogie,
You could sure be right, and I'd appreciate your results. My r.o.t. is based on shoulder (more loss) and brisket (less). But I don't have any figures on pork loin or tenderloin.[p]Thanks,
Ken[p]$2.08 a pound!?! Wow - I may have to free up freezer space if I can get prices like that.

QBabe

Hi Ken:[p]Does this formula work for butts for pulled pork? We're trying to plan a camping "egg"stravaganza and will likely have a good sized group to impress. Was planning on taking the small egg, but if we need to, we can load up Mr. Big and shouldn't have any worries....I just didn't know how to determine how many lbs to cook to have enough to feed everyone.[p]Thanks,
Tonia

BlueSmoke

QBabe,
As I replied to Stogie, the formula is based on butt (more loss) and brisket (less). Incidentally, I haven't seen a significant difference between bone-in and boneless butt.[p]I'd be tempted to bump portion size for a camping trip. In my experience, campers are ravenous. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 pound??? In the off-chance that you make too much, ain't nuthin' like a big ol' pot of chili in the outdoors. (Green chili's my favorite: email me if you'd like my recipe.)[p](We are of course expecting a full report - with pictures - of this adventure.)[p]Have fun,
Ken