Boneless Pork Sirloin Roast Smoke – A Bargain, A Tragedy, and Delicious Results

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In this time of meat shortages, my wife still manages to find some impressive values. This was the case when she came home with a 13 pound boneless pork sirloin roast for $19.49 from Kroger.

I was not familiar with this cut of meat and did not know what to expect. Even after reading the scant articles on barbecuing pork sirloin roast, I totally misunderstood what I was getting into. But with barbecue, as with life, sometimes you just just have to wing it.

In my mind, I pictured this cut as a 13 pound massive pork loin. However, that is not at all what this was. When I cut open the clear plastic packaging of the roast, what came out was not a single large hunk of meat, but six chunks of pork of variable sizes and shapes. The chunks ranged from a long tube similar to your typical grocery store pork loin to large blocks more similar to to a small pot roast. Interesting.

For the rub, I used the delicious pork rub that I have been working with for my last few smokes:

• 1 tbsp Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
• 1 tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika 
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder 

I coated the roasts with mustard and applied a generous amount of rub.

My goal was to smoke the roasts hot to a temperature of 145 F for sliceable pork, as opposed to the low and slow smoke that I use to get pork shoulders over 200 F. I used three chunks of apple wood and evenly distributed the hot coals for maximum heat.

After firing up the Weber Smokey Mountain and letting it heat up, I added the roasts to the grill and placed the ThermoPro remote temperature probe in the middle of the largest slab of meat.

It was a windy day, so I used my homemade Reflectix wind shield. This cheap wind shield is amazing at maintaining a consistent temperature even during high wind, but on this sad day I learned its limits. As usual, I hung my ThermoPro transmitter on the outside of the grill and placed the windshield over it. This normally is not an issue for multiple low and slow smokes. This time, I lost my temperature signal 30 minutes in when the temperature was approaching 300 F. To my dismay, the ThemoPro transmitter had melted like a roasted marshmallow. In addition, the Reflectix had melted in places causing marking on the outside of the grill. Back to the drawing board for the wind shield.

Based on my tempterture readings so far, I anticipated that the roast would take about an hour and a half. At an hour and a half, I took the lid off and took temperature readings. The largest chunk was at 145 F exactly. The smaller pieces, however, ranged all the way up to 165 F.

In retrospect, it would have been a good idea to tie together the smaller pieces to try and form chunks of more consistent weight. This should reduce the 20 degree temperature variation between the pieces.

After a 30 minute rest, I sliced the roasts. They tasted great. I did not notice as much variation in taste between the 145 F piece and the 165 F piece, but the 145 F piece was slightly moister. I would compare the taste to a typical oven pork loin with a nice addition of smoke. The meat had a delicate taste and I would be careful with the amount of smoke. I would even consider reducing the amount of wood used in the future, though I was happy with these tasty results.