Smoked Bacon and Garlic Stuffed Pork Loin

One of the greatest joys in my life is the opportunity to cook for others. I love to bless family and friends with a great meal that they can savor, while nourishing and encouraging them at the same time. I will never claim to be an accomplished cook, chef, or barbecue, but I hope that my efforts at these endeavors will conclude in blessing others through food. There is no other better way to connect with your community than with providing a meal. While our individual preferences may greatly vary, our love of food brings us together. It requires that moment in time where we sit, stop, and enjoy the moment we have been given to refuel, regroup, and recharge. It allows for pure conversation with our friends and family, when we normally don’t take the needed time to do so. It’s the beauty of dinner time; a call to drop everything, come on in and give thanks.

One of the more challenging meals I have attempted was Smoked Bacon and Garlic Stuffed Pork Loin. I love to make this for friends and family and there is always plenty to go around. This does involve more prep work than most meals, yet the end result is pretty gratifying. And the ending presentation looks simply amazing. Here’s a heads up: I normally make this as a two stage process and allow two days to make this all happen. I usually have this meal on a Saturday evening, because I use Friday night to prepare the stuffed pork. When Saturday arrives, I use the day to smoke the pork on our hot smoker. If you can cram it all into one entire day, absolutely go for it. There honestly is no right or wrong way. Do what you think is best for you and your time. 

The list of ingredients is a little longer than other recipes, so here you go: 

1. 5lb Pork Loin
2. 10 Slices of Bacon 
3. 2 Shallots 
4. 5 Cloves Garlic 
5. Fresh Parsley 
6. Oregano 
7. 1 Lemon 
8. 1 Lime 
9. Red Pepper Flakes 
10. Butcher String 
11. Butcher Paper 
12. The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co. Applewood Smoked Espresso Peppercorn / Applewood Smoked Sea Salt / Maple Smoked Lime Peppercorn / Hickory Smoked Paprika

First, grab a medium sized skillet and slice the 10 pieces of bacon into small pieces and begin to sauté them over medium heat. While the bacon is cooking, begin to chop up the shallots and garlic and place them with the bacon and continue to sauté. Next, take the fresh parsley and roughly chop it into pieces and place with with the bacon, shallots, and garlic. Season with The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co Applewood Smoked Espresso Peppercorn, Applewood Smoked Sea Salt, and Hickory Smoked Paprika. Finally, grab a pinch of red pepper flakes and throw that into the mix. If you are not overly familiar using red pepper flakes, please note that a little goes a long way. I made that mistake once and it really brought an unbearable level of heat to the meal. 

While things are cooking, begin to grate some lemon and lime zest into the skillet on top of everything else. Then cut the lemon and lime and squeeze the juices into the skillet. Both juices add a fresh and vibrant flavor to the stuffing. You will know when things are cooked all the way through when the bacon, garlic, and onions have a nice caramelized color. When this happens, remove the skillet from the heat. 

Allow the mixture to cool while you grab the 5 pound pork loin from the fridge. This next step will require you to butterfly the pork loin. To do this, place the pork loin with the fat side down and cut in one inch from the edge with a sharp knife. Slice from one end to the other from about a half inch down. Once you have the first cut completed, the objective is to continue to cut down and around the loin, keeping a half inch thickness all the way through until the pork loin is now laying flat. If it doesn’t come out perfect on the first try, don’t worry; it may take a few more times to get it done to your satisfaction.

Now that you now have your pork loin rolled out and laying flat, take some of the The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co. Applewood Smoked Espresso Peppercorn / Applewood Smoked Sea Salt / Maple Smoked Lime Peppercorn / Hickory Smoked Paprika and lightly season. Once that is done, grab your bacon mixture (a.k.a Stuffing) and spoon that over the pork loin. Make sure to stuff all of the bacon mixture into the loin, because you don’t want to waste any of your star ingredients. Spread it evenly over the entire pork loin. 

Now it’s time to roll the stuffed pork loin. Grab the butcher string and keep nearby. aHold the pork loin at one end with both hands and begin to roll the it back into its original state or at least as close to it as you can get it to that. Using the butcher string, wrap around one end and tie tight. Cut the string and repeat the process a few more times down the pork loin until you have the pork is properly rolled. Make sure to tie the butcher string as tightly as you can. It is very important that nothing will come loose or undone, so that you do not lose any of the filling during the smoking process.

Now that your Bacon and Garlic Stuffed Pork Loin has taken its proper form, place the fat side up and begin to season once again with The Original Cold Smoked Salt and Pepper Co. Applewood Smoked Espresso Peppercorn / Applewood Smoked Sea Salt / Maple Smoked Lime Peppercorn / Hickory Smoked Paprika. As mentioned above, I normally take two days to make this meal. So I would normally let the pork loin set over night in the fridge until I am ready to put it on the smoker the next day. When you are finally ready to place it on the smoker, set the temp to 225 degrees. Place the pork loin fat side up on the smoker. The fat juices will then pour into the meat and not lose that flavor by dripping to the bottom of your smoker. You can anticipate one hour of cook time per pound. Therefore, a five pound pork loin will take five hours to cook. You will also need to decide which wood flavoring you would like to use. I usually like to smoke this pork loin with applewood, but feel free to try any other flavor that you may prefer. 

Typically pork will only take so much smoke during the cooking process. After four hours the pork will stop taking on the smok flavor, so I prefer to wrap the pork in foil or butcher paper to finish out the cooking process. I will usually wrap it in butcher paper after three hours of smoking and cook the last two hours covered. You are looking for an internal temp of 145 degrees on the pork loin, but I’ve been known to let it go to 155-160 degrees. Once it is done, remove the meat from the smoker and leave the pork loin wrapped. Let it set for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Allow those juices to soak back into the meat before slicing. 

Finally, remove your dinner from the butcher paper. Slice it into one inch thick pieces and admire the work of art you have just created. Serve and enjoy!