Coriander and Oregano Brined Pork Loin

I hate to sound like a broken record, but it’s been H-O-T here on the east coast. Like, more days over 90 degrees than ever before in my expert meteorological memory. Right after the fourth, we had a day where the actual temperature–not the heat index–hit 105. Yikes! We were at the shore that day, AND IT WAS STILL over 100 degrees, which is downright shocking for Slower Lower.

As always when it’s that hot out, we try to get as much of our cooking done outside as possible. No need to heat the house up when the AC is already running non-stop!

One of those hot, hot, hot days at the shore, we made this. I’ve decided this might be the perfect summer treatment of pork loin. It takes literally no time to prep, it waits for you in the fridge while you’re occupied, say, on the beach, and then you can grill it up with little effort. Oh and it’s just salty enough to replenish your stores after a day in the sun. Because salt tastes really, really good after a day on the beach!

Coriander and Oregano Brined Pork Loin
Adapted from Everyday Food

When we were putting this brine together, I was worried about how much salt it called for. We were making a triple recipe, and that’s A LOT of salt. But it turns out, my fears were unfounded. Once the meat was grilled, the meat was only lightly salted, and mostly only on the seared outside “crust”. And boy was the light salting good after a day in the sun. We ended up cutting a bunch of this into bite size pieces and taking it to fireworks party and it was a HUGE hit!

Ingredients (for one 1 1/2 pound section of pork loin, increase the recipe for larger pieces):

2/3 cup coarse salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 springs oregano
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin
vegetable oil for grill

Directions:

In a large bowl combine 4 cups of water and the first 6 ingredients. Stir until the sugar and the salt dissolve. Place the pork loin in a gallon sized zip top bag, then pour the mixture over the pork and seal the bag. Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or up to 8.

Set up your grill for indirect cooking over medium high (if you’re using charcoal, this means put all of the coals on one side, with gas, only turn on one burner). Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Place the meat on the side of the grill that has the coals or burner on for 15 minutes. Then move the meat to the other side of the grill, and cook with the lid on until the pork is cooked through and a meat thermometer reads 140 (this took about 35 minutes for us). Transfer meat to a cutting board and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Miniature pork (almost) cylinders!

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