One of the true juxtapositions in cooking... a process that seems so slow and easy can be one of the most hectic in planning, and tedious in monitoring.But we love it, and here are some of our recent smoky successes...

Tennessee Pork Loin with Whiskey,
Brown Sugar, and Mustard
Difficulty: Medium
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 4-5Hours
Yield: 6 servings
We saw this recipe originally in Steven Raichlen's BBQ USA book, and worked it around a bit. We always use the smoker method for this recipe.

Ingredients:
For the pork:
You'll need:1 center-cut piece of pork loin
( 2 1/2 to 3 pounds)
3 tablespoons Jack Daniels Black
2 tablespoons of your favorite barbecue rub
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 slices bacon

For The Glaze:
3 tablespoons salted butter
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons Jack Daniels Black
Nashville Sweet barbecue sauce for serving,
optional.

You'll also need:
Butcher's string:
2 cups wood chips or chucks (preferably hickory), soaked for 1 hour in water to cover, then drained 1 hour.

Smoker Pre-Game
•Soak your wood chunks at least two hours before the smoking begins.
•Fire up your smoker and bring the heat up to a sustained 250 degrees.
•Fill the water pan halfway with water and as much whiskey as you are willing to spare.
•Add a few chunks of your soaked wood chunks to start the smoking process

The Work:
•Butterfly the pork loin: using a very sharp knife, cut the roast almost in half lengthwise thorough one side (Stop about 1 inch from the opposite side)
•Open the roast up as you would a book. Sprinkle the inside of the roast with 1 tablespoon of the whiskey and let it marinate for 5 minutes.
•Sprinkle a third of the rub over the inside of the roast.
•Spread the mustard on top with a spatula, then sprinkle the brown sugar on top of the mustard.
•Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons whiskey on top of the brown sugar.
• Fold the roast back together (like closing a book) and sprinkle the remaining rub over the outside.

Then...
•Cut four 12-inch pieces of butcher's string.
•Position the pieces of string on the work surface so that they are parallel and roughly 2 inches apart.
• Place a slice of bacon across the string so that it is perpendicular to and in the center of them.
• Set the roast on top of the bacon , positioning its long side parallel to the bacon.
• Place a slice of bacon on top of the roast.
• Press the remaining 2 slices against the long sides of the roast.
• Tie each piece of string together around the roast so that they hold the slices of bacon against it.
• Set the pork roast aside.

And now for the glaze...
Note: Because smoking this beast takes so long (+5 hs) I make a double batch of the glaze.
•Combine the butter, brown sugar, mustard, whiskey in a saucepan and boil until syrupy, 4 to 6 minutes.
• Set the glaze aside.

Cookin in the Smoker
•Once you're smokin', place your temperature probe (if you have one -- we use the Maverick thermometer)  in the thickest part of your pork and then place it on your hot grate.
•After your first 30 minutes of smoking brush down the pork and continue the process every 30 minutes after that. Basting times are adjusted for the lower temperature.
•Add charcoal and wood chunks as needed to keep up the 250 degree temperature and the smoke.
•An internal temperature of 160 degrees is your magic number. Use an instant thermometer to check periodically (if you don't have the probe plugged in) once you're past the 4th hour of cooking.

Note: If you want to use a grill for this:
•Set the grill for indirect grilling and preheat to medium,
• If using a gas grill, place all of the wood chips or chucks in the smoker box or in a smoker pouch and run the grill on high until you see smoke, then reduce the heat to medium.

If using a charcoal grill, place a large drip pan in the center, preheat the grill to medium, then toss all the wood chips or chucks on the coals.

When ready to cook
•Place the pork roast on the hot grate, over the drip pan and away from the heat and cover the grill.
• Cook the roast until cooked through, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• To test for doneness, insert an instant-read meat thermometer into the side of the roast: The internal temperature should be about 160*F.
• Start basting the roast with some of the glaze after 30 minutes and continue basting every 15 minutes.
• If you are using a charcoal grill and the pork is not done after 1 hour, you'll need to add 12 fresh coals to each side.

Finishing Up:
•Transfer the cooked roast to a cutting board and let it rest for 5 minutes, then remove and discard the strings.
• Slice the roast crosswise and drizzle any remaining glaze over it. If you like, serve the Nashville Sweet barbecue alongside.

Note: I used smoker method- it took 5 hours. It's tricky tieing the string and holding the bacon on the sides.
Favorite rub: use the Saucy Joes Ultimate Brisket Rub.

Clean up
•One cookie sheet that I used for my prep on the pork.
•One gooey sauce pan and basting brush for the glaze.
•Cutting board was well glazed after cutting the pork.
•In other words, make Ski do it ;)

On Smoking & Wood from Down under's favorite barby boy, BBQ Blue.
Natural Australian hardwoods can be used to add fat-free flavour to anything from an eggplant to an eye fillet - but only if the right amount of smoke from the right wood is used in the right manner.

THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SMOKE
Smoke should be used like a condiment and treated with respect. You wouldn’t think of covering a steak with an inch thick crust of salt or pepper would you?

Well, smoke is exactly the same - a little bit can give a big flavour boost to whatever is being barbecued but too much can completely overwhelm any natural flavours. Carried to extremes, it can even impart a strong cresote taste.
What you want to achieve is a gentle plume of sweet-smelling smoke - not a dense cloud full of acrid-fumed fall out.

THE RIGHT WOOD
There are a lot of Australian timbers you would not want to have anywhere near food and some of these are listed in the fuels section. Make absolutely no mistake - use the wrong wood and the consequences can range from having to throw the food away to becoming very ill.

As a general rule of thumb:
Avoid resinous woods such as pine or cedar as they can make food taste absolutely awful.
Never use treated hard and soft woods. The letters CCA, which refer to a common treatment process, actually stand for Copper, Chrome and Arsenic. The treatment is designed to repel insects and stop decay - not to add flavour to food.
Stay right away from previously painted or coated timber. It wasn't really that long ago (at least by Blue standards) when lead was used in house paint and some paints still contain some rather scary heavy metals and potentially toxic solvents.

If you want to use wood as your primary heat source, it is absolutely vital that you know what type of tree the timber was cut from and that it is completely free of any harmful chemicals. And, for most of us city dwellers, that is a pretty big ask.

To get the flavour of wood smoke without the risks, I strongly recommend that you stick to using commercially produced wood chips teamed with charcoal or LPG heat sources. Not only are they safe to use but they are also cut from special aromatic timber.

And I'm not talking about the wood chips sold cheaply in big bags by nurseries and hardware outlets. They usually contain pine bark and are best used where they are intended - on garden beds.

Organic arsenic occurs naturally in foods such as shellfish and, in minute amounts, is necessary for good health. The ones that Blue is moaning about are the inorganic ones. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Queen Mother took some sort of organic arsenic preparation for many years - and I thought it was the gin that kept her going! - Mrs Blue

Personal preference and the type of food being barbecued will dictate your choice of commercial wood chip varieties. Delicate foods are best flavoured with smoke from mild woods like apple.

However, when I barbecue fish or shellfish, I often use a handful of fresh green herbs (rosemary and thyme are good ) or a few bay leaves torn from the garden and simply tossed on to the coals.

Robust woods such as hickory, pecan and mesquite are popular choices for adding flavour to beef, pork and lamb.

Hickory and its very close cousin pecan are the perfect all-rounders. My particular preference is for pecan as its flavour has greater depth and seems a little more mellow than hickory. However, the two are so similar that one is often sold as the other. I have it on good authority that most ‘genuine hickory’ axe handles sold in Australia are, in fact, pecan. 
 
THE RIGHT MANNER
Smoke is what you want and soot is what you don't want. A disgusting, foul-tasting layer of soot on your food shows that the wood you added to the barby flamed rather than smoked.

You've got to slow things down so that the wood chips quietly smoulder away and progressively release the smoke scent. The big thing to remember is to never use dry chips. Always soak them in water for at least an hour - but overnight is better.

Most of the actual take-up of the smoke flavour happens early in the cooking process when the food contains maximum moisture. That's why I usually wait for the wood to start smoking before I place the food on the barby.

Wine Spectator Online

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