Magnolia Grill, Ben and Karen Barker's Durham, North Carolina, restaurant, is among the country's best places to dine. The couple--he's the chef, she's in charge of pastry--now offer Not Afraid of Flavor, a collection of their spirited, Southern-influenced recipes, plus culinary wisdom all cooks can use. Dishes like Celery-Fennel Chowder with Oysters and Bacon, Crab Cakes with Sauce Diablo and Corn Relish Salads,
We have probably grilled at least a tractor trailer full of pork tenderloins in our time; we've always smoked them lightly and finished them on the grill, but you may choose to cook them entirely on the smoker.
The marinade lends a faint sweetness that caramelizes on the grill, and the pork is delicious hot or served at room temperature. We like it as part of a Southern buffet with abundance plum chutney, bean salad, and/or sweet potato salad.
Servings: 6 to 8 as part of a buffet
Serves 4 generously as an entree
2 pounds fresh pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/4 cup bourbon
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves, crushed
10 sprigs fresh thyme, coarsely chopped
6 sprigs fresh sage, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup olive or peanut oil
salt
Combine the bourbon and molasses. Add the remaining ingredients and roll the pork in this marinade. Refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight, turning occasionally.
Remove the pork from the marinade, season with salt, and smoke over hickory, cherry, or applewood, basting with the marinade, for 15 to 20 minutes. The pork may then continue to cook on a smoker, be finished on a grill, or be roasted in a 350 degree oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees. Remove from heat and rest the tenderloin for 10 minutes before slicing. This can be made ahead and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before serving.
Tips on Smoking
We have smoked more pork than anything else in our tenure on Ninth Street, but there's also been salmon, bluefish, sturgeon, and trout on that double-chambered cooker out back--and Vidalia onions, roasted peppers and tomatoes (lots of tomatoes), whole beef tenderloins and ribeyes, cowboy steaks and New York strips, oysters and clams, squid and shrimp, ad infinitum. We generally use hardwood charcoal and soaked hickory chips, although we've also used apple and cherry, occasionally persimmon wood, and, in a pinch, dead wood off the pecan trees behind the restaurant.
Usually we're cold-smoking proteins to imbue them with a woodsy aroma and flavor prior to finishing their cooking on the grill or the range. The use of indirect heat and a slow, gentle smoke lets us use that smoke as an additional flavoring component and, frankly, provides us with a link to the generations of hardwood cooks that have preceded us in North Carolina.
Typically, we marinate meats for 6 to 24 hours before giving them a short smoke to flavor them. We'll then finish them on the grill to sear and seal in the juices. Often we brine poultry, such as duck breasts and chickens, because we find the curing process helps them to take the smoke better. We also brine whole trout and salmon filets for 24 hours and then dry them on a rack in the refrigerator to form the "pellicle," a "skin" on the surface of the fish that enhances the absorption of the smoke. Then we'll cold-smoke the fish over a bed of ice so they don't cook during the process.
Vegetables, smoked only briefly, so that they're not overwhelmed, add an interesting component to salsas and ragouts. We've even smoked reconstituted dried fruits to make compotes for terrines and sausages. There are virtually no limitations to what you can smoke as long as you view the process as a seasoning, like salt and pepper: noticeable when it's absent, overwhelming when there's too much.
Whatever you're going to put on your smoker, soak your chips for 12 to 24 hours beforehand so they're steaming and giving off smoke, not burning and producing heat. Let your coals burn down until they're covered with a fine gray ash--"low and slow is the way to go." Always use hardwood charcoal and wood chips so you don't get harsh chemical flavors on your food. Cover the coals with a layer of soaked chips and set the dampers on your smoker (if it has them) to produce a smooth, even draft. If you anticipate a long smoke, such as for a whole turkey, have additional coals and smoked chips ready and waiting, so you don't interrupt the process.
Magnolia Grill sits across the street from the West Durham Fire Station, and our first day of smoking generated quite a response from our neighbors. Now, it's just part of Ninth Street's daily ambience
