Feb 23 2014
I had two pork tenderloins thawed to cook. The last time I did two with maple syrup brine and wanted to do these the same way. I had them in the brine for 20+ hours.
I had some sweat potatoes to use; I always like them with pork. I didn’t know what else to have. I got to thinking that people liked waffles with chicken so why not with pork. I thought it would need a good sauce other than just maple syrup.
After looking at several recipes I came up with one I could use Savor Spices WOW seasoning in I thought would complement it. I thought it turned out great.
After lunch I took the tenderloins out of the brine, rinsed well and dried. I tied the two together to make one and seasoned well with Penzey’s Cajun seasoning. It went on a rack and in the fridge for several hours. I made up the sauce and it went into the fridge after cooling some.
I washed and scrubbed a sweet potato; sliced it into about ¼ inch slices, poured a little melted butter and maple syrup over then double wrapped in foil. I preheated my Traeger to 250 deg. grill level temp and got the tenderloin on. I did it a half hour at this temp and then went to 280 deg. grill level for an hour. I got the sweet potato on the last hour. I went higher the last half hour the last time I did this but the IT temp was coming up nice and the grill temp was about 300 deg. for the last half hour.
I had my sauce reheated and tented to pork with foil while I toasted my waffles. Sorry I was lazy and used frozen Eggo waffles; it would have been much better with homemade. We had a side of salad and I had blue cheese dressing. The blue cheese complimented all the flavors in the meal. For me the sweet potatoes could have been a little more done but the wife said she liked them that way. We both had my sauce over the pork and waffle and maple syrup over the potatoes and I added salt and pepper. I like the sweet salty taste.
We both though this was extra good and it is a keeper recipe for me. It covered at least 4 of the basic 7 tastes, sweet, sour, salty, savory and a little heat.
I missed a photo of the sauce cooking in the pan but took one of the leftover sauce.
Tenderloins in the brine
Sauce ingredients, sorry Tee I forgot to get the WOW in there
Bacon browning
The leftover sauce
Tied, seasoned and ready to smoke
Sweet potato ready to wrap
On the smoker
Sliced
My supper
Recipe for the sauce:
My bacon and maple syrup sauce
3 to 4 slices good bacon, diced
2 med. heads shallot, sliced or 2 tsp. dried
1 heaping tsp. Savor Spices WOW seasoning
1/8 cup cider vinegar, I used organic
1/8 cup water
¼ cup maple syrup, grade B
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Brown up the bacon pretty well, remove and drain on paper towels, set aside. In a small sauce pan heat up the water, vinegar, maple syrup and shallots. Bring it to a boil then set pan off the heat; add the bacon, WOW seasoning and pepper. Stir well and then reheat when ready to use.
I served this over maple syrup brined pork tenderloins and was delicious. I think the Savor Spices WOW, Way Out West, seasoning really makes this sauce. It is sage based but not over powered with sage.
Note: I used Penzey’s dried shallots and I used Bragg’s raw, unfiltered, apple cider vinegar. I love it for any recipe that calls for apple cider vinegar. This makes about 4 servings of 2 tablespoon each.
Link to brine recipe:
http://www.letstalkbbq.com/index.php?topic=7494.0Smokin Don
