“Ya gots to work with what you gots to work with.” Stevie Wonder
By scotttait
So I’ve been down for a while. Not physically down but taking care of other ventures in my life. I keep coming back to the fact that you’re dealt certain cards in life and it’s how you play them and not the dealers fault. That’s been life for the past while. The cards have been difficult, but not unplayable.
I’ve been sitting on a couple of peameal loins and decided to take a leap with them. To my US friends peameal is a staple up here. Peameal bacon is made from boneless pork loins, short cut from the leaner portions of the loin, sweet cured and rolled in cornmeal. A shopping day at St. Lawrence Market in Toronto always includes Peameal Bacon on a Kaiser. Trust me; it’s a meal in itself and a spectacular way to start the day.
I like to buy my peameal whole instead of sliced. That way I have the choice of a breakfast meal or a smoked loin. So following some of BBQ sites in the US, I have seen a lot of reference root beer. Marinades, sauces, injections and whatever they seem to be able to incorporate it into. I have to say at first I was a little worried. I mean I like root beer, on occasion, but have never really seen it as a cooking element. Until now!
True the loin was cured already and I was wire walking with this one, but I took the loins and marinated them in root beer overnight. I mean, I have used beer, wine, and juice as a marinade and after all all it is is a sassafras flavoured concoction, so I took a chance. I could have ended up with candy flavoured pork, but I didn’t.
Though pork is king, it needs a court around it so exercising the BBQ muscle, all three were fired up. The weber kettle first with honey brown ale baked beans, and later Swiss au gratin potatoes in the cast iron.
After the overnight soak, the loins were patted dry and introduced to the BGE and some wonderful cherry wood. Meanwhile, a complementary root beer based BBQ sauce was slow simmering on the stove.
All was good, actually great. The root beer flavour was subtle and not too sweet. The loin itself was moist. I can see using the RB again with a larger more challenging piece of meat. Check out the photos and drool!
Be well and eat well
Scott
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