The Fool's Pappy's Inaugural Post - Rotisserized Pork Roast

**Editors note - This is the first contribution by the Fool's Pappy, now a fellow GrillinFool, to GrillinFools.com. I have to say he did a phenomenal job. The grilling is the easy part. Taking pictures of the process with a crappy digital camera so that they look as good as the shot above is the hard part. If you want to read more about how he prepared and grilled what is in the money shot above please click the link below...


The roast was caught on sale at a local grocer and as you can see is ‘netted’. Occasionally this is offered in half at sale pricing and you could purchase and tie together with butcher twine yourself and save a bit of cash.

Ingredients: Pork Roast, Garlic Cloves (sliced thin), sliced Red Onion, and KC Sweet and Smoky Rub (courtesy Master Raichlen).

Prep: Once the garlic and onion were sliced and the rod inserted I then placed the garlic and onion in between the pieces of roast **Editors note - as you can see below he left the garlic and onion slices sticking out in order to show where he was able to insert them between the two roasts. After the shot was taken he stuffed them all the way into the space between the two roasts.**

And then sprinkled rub liberally all over the roast:

Grill: Stainless Steel Barrel fabricated circa 1970 by G-fool’s Grandpa Russ. Russ is no longer with us but his memory lives on each time we utilize the grill he made and passed on to G-fool’s Pappy ( to be inherited by G-fool when Pappy moves on ). Many slabs of ribs were enjoyed over the years grilled at his lakeside home. We know he would be proud to see the grill still in use and treasured by us:


Coals were prepared and a simple drip pan created from aluminum foil was placed under the roast. I guess this achieves sort of a semi-indirect method:


Smoking Wood: For this one I discovered I was out of apple chips which I normally use (good prep eh?) but decided to use a blend of soaked wood chips I had consisting of sassafras, hickory, wild cherry, and apple. The flavor was quite tasty but I still prefer apple or cherry alone. Here is the loin on the rotisserie in the grill:

Soaked wood chips were added and the lid went down. I checked it about every 30 mins. to add additional charcoal and wood chips. This left significant time to enjoy a glass or two of a nice everyday white wine I’d recently found—Wine 4 Chillin’—at World Market. Believe it or not it was a box wine and wasn’t’ bad at all. They also offer a red blend—Wine 4 Grillin’—which is really nice (we had this one super Bowl Sunday). I’ve often been a fan of 'premium’ box wines and I’ve had many disagreements with G-fool about them but he drank his share Super Bowl Sunday. **Editor's note - thanks for pointing that out dad. I'm so embarrassed**

If you’re looking for a decent wine for an outdoor event with a group and looking to keep costs down they are a great alternative. These wines will be my everyday wines at the beach on vacation this year. The portability (4 bottle equivalent per box) is an important factor. I used to haul 3-4 cases of bottles each trip for the 8-10 of us that go and that really filled up the vehicle. Some others I’ve tried that are recommended are Black Box, Hardy’s, and Trove but just remember all box wines are not created equal. Expect to pay $15-22 per box—less than that usually indicates inferior quality in my estimation (just my opinion explore for yourself).

Cooking time: An hour and 15 to and hour and a half regardless of roast size as thickness is usually about the same. I don’t use a fancy-schmancy thermometer because I know it’s what works after many efforts over the years. The roast will arrive at the plate juicy and flavorful, not dried out and tough. Hint: spray rotisserie rod with cooking spray before using to aid in cleaning later. An electrical outlet is required or proper extension cord to reach your outdoor grill. ** Editors note - many modern rotisseries are battery operated**

30 minutes in:

60 minutes in:


Ready to pull from the grill:


Roast was allowed to rest ( foil-covered to keep warmth in ) for about 15 minutes prior to carving. Cut to desired thickness for dinner serving. I usually leave remaining portion intact and slice it thin for sandwiches later or chunks for pork hash. We ultimately produced 4 meals from this roast ( depending on number of diners ). Two adults and two kids initially were fed and the remainder provided 2 batches of pork hash ( a simple recipe to follow ) and enough to slice thin for a couple of hot pork sandwiches.

And here we have the money shot:


I was going to wrap the roast in bacon but after a near heart attack from the Bacon Explosion I decided to forego that idea and stay traditional.

Pork Hash Recipe: This would be a carryover from my youth when my folks were trying to stretch their food budget. It’s very simple. Boil a few potatoes (peeled and sliced into chunks) for 10-12 minutes till fork tender. Drain water and place in a warm skillet with a few dabs of heated bacon grease (pork fat does still rule) **Editor's note - this from the guy who decided against wrapping the roast in bacon but uses bacon grease to warm the pork up** and grate fresh pepper over them. Fry the potatoes til they gain that special crispness on the outside then add pork (cut into chunks or cubes) and a cup or so of diced onion. Fry together till all is browned and serve (salt to taste). If the bacon grease is not an option for you olive oil can be substituted. This simple creation remains one of my all-time favorites.

Pork Sandwiches: This is REALLY simple. Slice remaining pork into thin slices, drop into skillet with a bit of butter or margarine, and heat till edges begin to brown. Serve on bread with your favorite condiment ( I like a little salt, pepper, and mayo on mine ).

There you have it. G-fool’s Pappy’s first solo effort. **Editor's note - and a fine effort it was**


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We are now the Grillin Fools

GrillinFool.com is now expanding to GrillinFools.com. That's right. Been having so much fun with this that my father and cousin want to get involved. Here we have the three fools themselves on Superbowl Sunday. Me on the right, Dad in the middle and my cousin Tom on the left. Tom seems to be a natural for this considering he has a pair of grill tongs actually embedded in his shoulder. He has a heckofa time getting through security at airports with that thing!?!


What does this mean for you? It means that there will be even more content streaming into this site that we hope can help enhance your backyard grilling experiences.

But why should you listen to us? After all we are just three idiots with a couple of grills, a digital camera, and a glorified blog. We aren't trained chefs. We've never taken a grilling class. So why should you listen to us. I'll tell you why. We've literally got decades of combined grilling experience between the three of us. That's a lot of trial and error. And hopefully we can impart some of our knowledge on you without you having to make the same mistakes we have along the way.

I thought I would go through a little history of the Three Grillin Fools so everyone can get a better idea of who we are. Click the link below for more information about us fools...




Let's start out with Tom. Phenomenal Grill man. Here he is in Michigan in the Summer of 2008 tending to some dear tenderloin and salmon caught from Lake Michigan the day before. There is no better salmon than salmon straight from the water to the grill.

Of course Tom does not normally use such a crappy grill as the one shown above. That's just what we have available to us in Michigan. Normally Tom grills on this bad boy:

Is there a sexier grill out there than the BGE? I'm not sure there is. The ultimate in set-it-and-forget-it. He can throw a pork butt on that thing, get the temp where he wants it and come back in 9 hours to a perfect pork butt. He has told me that he almost misses the little tweaking and maintenance that other grills require. He also has a standard Charbroil identical to the one my father has. Speaking of Dad. Here he is in Michigan learning from the master:

This was during the Rib Off we were having between the three of us. These succulent slabs of Tom's won:

Those don't look too bad considering the grills we had to work with huh?

Dad works his magic on three grills. This is the Charbroil both he and Tom have:

He also has this nice Brinkmann Pro that he is grilling some sliced rib eye steak for sammiches again on Superbowl Sunday:

Here is a better shot of the Brinkmann:

If you look over the shoulder of that Brinkmann in the above pic you will see a very special grill:

What's so special about this grill? The above pic was taken early in February, 2009. And here is a picture of that same grill pushed by my Grandfather...BACK IN 1985!!!

Here it is in action in 1985 being tended to by the Man himself.

The grill looks pretty good for being 24 years old right? Well, consider this, the grill was not made in 1985. No one knows exactly when it was made except for this guy:

This is my Grandfather on my Mothers side, Russ, who completely fabricated the grill from stainless steel. He is no longer with us so he can't tell us how old it is, but I know this. I am 36 years old and the Grill is older than I am. Its heritage and longevity are the reasons it's such an amazing grill.

We have Christened the grill as "The Russ." One thing the Russ will never do is rust. It hasn't in the 36+ years it has been around. I will own this grill one day and so will my son who one day, I hope, becomes the 4th Grillin Fool.

My father still has the original rotisserie that my Grandfather built the grill around and it still works like a champ. Here is my father using it in what will be his first contribution to GrillinFools.com - Netted Rotisserized Pork Roast:

This is not the only fabricated grill our family has ever made. My cousin Tom made this Bohemouth many years ago - that's him on the right (check out those socks!?!?!):

Tom basically took a 200-300 gallon metal container and converted it into a grill. This picture was taken before he added a counter weight to the lid. At the time of this pic it was a rough getting that thing open. While it was tough to get open it was great for grilling for 70-80 of your closest friends. This was taken in the late 80's at my Uncle's club house along the Illinois River about an hour from St. Louis. I'm sad to say that the flood of 1993 took the grill with it.

And finally I leave you with this pic taken in Michigan the day of the Rib Off. This is what happens when three guys who have been grillin (and chillin) all day are asked to pose for a picture. I guess we were going for some sort of Iron Chef look. All I know is my dad has the worst farmers tan on the planet!?!?!

There you have it. The Three Grillin Fools. We invite you to please come back and visit us often as we plan on adding a ton of content to this site. We hope to make this the one place you go for step by step instructions, including lots of pics and vids, of everything that has to do with outdoor cooking. We aren't there yet, but give us a few years!?!

If you have any questions about anything on this site, please, feel free to post a comment below the post. We normally get the questions answered within a day or so. Or you can email us at Scott@GrillinFools.com, Greg@GrillinFools.com or Tom@GrillinFools.com. We look forward to hearing from you..


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Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

Inspired by the bacon explosion I decided to try a bacon weave wrapped around a pair of pork tenderloins tied together. As the saying goes, everything is better with bacon. I also have some pics from a fellow grillin fool who also did a bacon wrapped pork loin a few weeks ago that I had the privilege of sampling...To see pics and the write up of both, check the link below.




Having done the bacon explosion on Super Bowl Sunday and not being all that impressed with it other than the bacon on the outside I decided to try to incorporate the part I liked about the bacon explosion into something better than a sausage fatty wrapped in bacon. A buddy of mine and follower of this site did this a few weeks ago and it was outstanding and he was kind enough to share some pics of his so this is a two for one post.

First off the weather had a lot to do with the end result and even influences the loins that I bought. Usually when you buy a pork tenderloin the bag has two loins, one shorter and fatter and one longer and skinnier. Considering the temp was only supposed to get to about 35 I decided to get two tenderloin packs of similar size so that I could tie the two longer/thinner tenderloins together in order to reduce cooking time. I didn't want to spend 4 hours freezing my butt off tending to the grill so I went with smaller cuts.

Here we have the two bags of tenderloin that I bought. You can see one is 2.02 and the other is 2.05 pounds:o


Here we have all 4 tenderloins on a big cutting board. The bottom ternderloin of each pair is the shorter/thicker of the two:


Here are the two shorter thicker ones together. These two were destined for a marinade bath in a gallon ziplock and then a stay in the freezer for grilling later:


And here are the two that I planned on grilling:


I marinaded both sets of loins. As I mentioned earlier, the shorter/thicker ones went to the freezer. The others to the fridge. The marinade consisted of garlic, John's marinade and flavorizer, black and white pepper and some olive oil. Nothing acidic in this marinade. No need tenderizing the meat anymore than it already is:

The following day I pulled the Tenderloin from the fridge as well as this beauty:

Yes that giant beer has a cork:

Now that a proper beverage is on hand, time to get to the bacon weave. It's not rocket science but it takes a few minutes. Basically a typical pound of bacon has 16 slices. Lay 8 slices side by side and then interweave the other 8 slices perpendicular to the first 8 slices. In the end it should look like this:

Here are my two tenderloins ready to be tied up next to the bacon weave:

Next step is to tie the two tenderloins together. Usually each tenderloin has a fatter end and a skinnier end. Put the fat end of one tenderloin to the skinny end of the other so it is a uniform thickness throughout. To tie them together simply get some cooking twine:


The cooking twine also works wonders in tying tomato branches up to a trellis as you can see with the 'maters I grew last year. Those plants are close to feet tall. Just another reason I can't wait for the weather to warm up:


Here we have the tenderloins tied together. Normally I would add some salt to the meat right now if I were not wrapping it in bacon. Even though I used low sodium bacon it still has plenty of salt:


And here it is wrapped in the bacon weave:


I learned a little trick this last week about using a remote thermometer in a grill. I try to keep the remote thermometer as close to the meat as possible to know what temp it is cooking at. But if the thermometer touches the meat it will report a false temp as the meat will insulate the probe. Solution - stick a cork from a wine bottle onto the end of the probe. Problem solved:


You can see the temp in the picture above. The thermometer is set for beef but that doesn't matter when I'm just checking the temp of the grill and not the meat. The temp shows 73 inside the house.

And here is the bacon wrapped tenderloin on the grill with the thermometer to the side. Coals on one side the meat on the other so the meat cooks indirectly:


And from here on out I had some issues. The temp fluctuated all over the place inside the grill. From 205 to 340. What was supposed to be a cold day but not windy turned out to be a cold and windy day and thus the temperature went all over the place. So in the end I have no idea at what temp I cooked this. I indirected it for about 3 hours and the temp for a lot of that was about 280 but I'm not entirely certain.

Here is the loin an hour into the process:


And here we have about 45 minutes later. You will see that the color of the bacon has not changed much. It was at this point that I found the temp had dropped dramatically:


After I took the pic above I added more charcoal to bring the temp back up. 45 minutes later, and the sun going down, we have the bacon darkening up nicely:

At this point the tenderloin has been on for 2.5 hours. My wife was ready to eat. So I decided to speed the process up a bit and put the loin a little close to the coals:


15 minutes later I turn the loin 180 degrees so it would not burn the bacon on the one side and then pulled it off to rest:


The bacon is lookin good!!!

I let it rest for about 10 minutes and then sliced:


And here we have it plated with some candied carrots and some pasta salad:


Things I would've done to improve the process:

1. First and foremost I would cook the loin first and not the bacon. What I mean is I was more worried about what the bacon would look like in the resting picture than what the meat would taste like. I like Pork Tenderloin to be pink in the middle. A good medium. Pork does not have to be well done anymore. This was well done. The flavor was great but I don't prefer my tenderloin done this way. So mind the tenderloin and not the bacon. I think if I had pulled it off prior to moving it closer to the heat for that last 30 minutes it would've been perfect.
2. If I want the tenderloin to be medium and bacon to be done perfectly I should've gone with the thicker tenderloins. Going with the thinner pieces meant less time on the grill but it also meant that the tenderloin was done faster than the bacon. So go with a bigger tenderloins than what I went with. At least 2.5 pounds.
   
3. And finally, just because I am sick of winter and really want warm weather to do long grill sessions like this, I shouldn't force it and pick a day where the weather wreaked havoc on my grilling temp.

And now to a bacon wrapped tenderloin done to perfection. Actually it's three bacon wrapped tenderloins. Jason Butler was kind enough to provide the pictures of the process. Having gotten a chance to taste these I will say that they were done to perfection. Here are the tenderloins wrapped in bacon ready for the grill:

Jason went a little slower and lower than I did and with thicker tenderloins. He kept the temp between 200 and 250 for around 4 hours. How good do these look:

At the end he slathered a couple in sweet baby rays. The front left one was slathered with a thinner homemade sauce. Both were excellent:


And as you can see in this money shot, that is a nice shade of pink in the middle. This stuff was so good it was ridiculous.



Props to Jason for the job well done as well as some pics for the site.


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