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A tomahawk pork loin, with belly along the rib bones, is spiral sliced and layered with bacon jam, walnuts and feta cheese before being rolled back up and tied off. The spiral sliced pork loin is then slow smoked/roasted on a pellet grill to a lovely golden mahogany. While we did this on a pellet smoker it can be cooked on just about any grill.
We give step by step, pic by pic, foolproof instructions from the prep through the rest and slicing.
If you dig the pinwheels, we have a few options. Skirt Steak Pinwheels, these Pork Tenderloin and bacon pinwheels and these healthier chicken breast pinwheels.
This spiral sliced pork loin with pork belly still on the bone will require a special order. Thus if you are interested in recreating this recipe, send your local butcher the link to this post or call and ask for, “A 4-5 bone, tomahawk pork loin with the pork belly left on the bone.” And when you get this beauty home, spiral slice it, season, layer down the feta, walnuts and bacon jam before. Smoke till 130F. Then crank up the smoker to 425F and roast the outside to get that gorgeous and tasty browning.
Spiral Sliced Pork Loin Ingredients
- 5 bone, tomahawk pork loin with pork belly on the bone
- Your favorite BBQ rub
- Garlic infused smoked salt
- 1/2 cup of bacon jam
- 1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
- 1/4 cup of crushed walnuts
- Butcher’s twine
Let’s start with the star of the show and it’s quite the star.
This pork loin is beyond epic.
Just look at that marbling:
Here’s one more because that marbling is beyond marvelous!
How Do You Spiral a Pork Loin?
There are two ways of doing this: Following the bones along the meat side, or going to the bone side and slicing up under the bones and back down through the loin. We will be doing the latter. A long, straight edge knife is the best for this. Find where the bones end and slice down and back under the bones until you get about an inch from the bottom of the meat. Then slice back along that one inch of meat and keep rolling the meat away from the knife. Make a shallow slit, roll the meat back.
Repeat until the meat lays flat.
Scroll down for step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions of the process:
And now season with the garlic infused smoked salt (substitute coarse salt)
Then season with your favorite BBQ rub:
Layer the Flavor
Time to kick up this beautifully marbled, spiral sliced, bone in pork loin with some bacon jam:
Then add the feta and walnuts:
Now roll the pork back up into a spiraled pork loin:
Using butcher’s twine, truss up the spiraled pork roast and then season the outside, including the ends:
How to Grill a Spiral Sliced Pork Loin
I set the pellet smoker to 275F and placed the pork loin in the cooker:
After the meat goes on, make sure to use a probe thermometer so there is no guessing on what the temp is:
Pro Tip ~ Make sure the tip of the probe is in the middle of the pork and not in the bacon jam and cheese otherwise you will get a false temp from the thermometer
We will be reverse roasting this spiral sliced pork loin. Instead of smoking and then searing the meat with a 400+ degree pan or grill grate (reverse searing), we will be reverse roasting which means roasting the loin at the end of the process at over 400F to get that browning we want.
Because of the odd shape of this roast, it’s not all that easy to get good browning with a flat pan or the grill grates.
Just like with reverse searing, smoke the spiral pork loin until it is 10F-15F short of the desired doneness. We are taking this to the USDA recommended 145F for the internal temperature (yes, a little pink is fine) so when this pork loin hit 130F it is ready to be browned (this took just under 2 hours for this roast in a 275F smoker):
Pro Tip ~ While the grill comes up to temp, remove the meat otherwise the meat will continue to cook, but not brown the way we want, while the smoker comes up to temp.
With a pellet grill, just like any grill, it will take a few minutes to go from 275F to 425F. Remove the pork roast from the grill while it comes up to temp.
We don’t want it to continue to cook while the temp rises.
We want the roast to hit that 425F cooker and begin browning immediately.
Why 425F?
Because if the grill has any grease on the inside, and my pellet grill has some because I use it often, that grease will start to smoke if the temp is much higher than 425F.
We don’t want burnt grease smoke. We want that wonderful oak smoke from the Pellets.
Now remove the pork while the grill comes up to 425F:
Finish the Reverse Roast
Once we get the pellet cooker up to 425F, put the spiraled loin back in the smoker and the probe thermometer into the pork:
Finally, when we have some nice browning on the outside and we hit 145F internal the bone in pork loin is ready:
Remove from the heat and allow the oak smoked pork roast to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing:
The remainder of the bag of walnuts makes for great presentation on a platter:
A Little Pink is Just Fine
I know some of you are freaking out right now. It’s OK to have a little pink in the pork.
The USDA says that pork in the United States only needs to be cooked to 145F which is medium rare and thus pink is OK.
Also, check out the smoke ring:
But pellets don’t produce a lot of smoke.
That’s a load of crap.
That smoke ring says otherwise.
Time to platter:
Spiral Sliced Pork Loin Summary:
This pork loin was so wonderfully marbled to start with that it was already a work of art. Adding all the extra flavor from the bacon jam, feta, walnuts, and seasoning as well as the oak smoke and browning is almost a crime. Because not only is this a ticket to Flavortown, it’s also ripping through that town at 130 mph with the top down while lighting off Roman candles before doing donuts in the Flavortown square. This recipe isn’t just a home run. It’s a batting title and silver slugger as well. OK, enough with the hyperbole. In short, this recipe is a guaranteed hit.
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Recipe Card:
Spiral Sliced Pork Loin
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 bone, tomahawk pork loin With pork belly still on the bone
- Your favorite BBQ seasoning
- Garlic infused smoked salt
- ½ cup Bacon jam
- ¼ cup Crumbled feta cheese
- ¼ cup Crushed walnuts
Instructions
- There are two ways of doing this: Following the bones along the bone side, or going to the meat side and slicing up under the bones and back down through the loin. We will be doing the latter. A long, straight edge knife is the best for spiraling. Find where the bones end and slice down and back under the bones until you get about an inch from the bottom of the meat. Then slice back along that one inch of meat and keep rolling the meat away from the knife. Make a shallow slit, roll the meat back. Make another shallow slit and roll the meat back. Keep doing so until there is a one inch thick layer of meat that lays flat.
- Season with the salt and BBQ seasoning
- Layer down the bacon jam, feta and walnuts
- Roll the meat back up into a pork loin and truss with butcher's twine
- Season the outside, including the flat edges, of the bone in pork roast
- Load the hopper with oak pellets and set the pellet cooker to 275
- Once the oak smoked pork loin reaches 130F remove it from the grill and crank up the cooker to 425F
- Put the bone in pork roast back in the cooker until it reaches 145F internal
- Remove the spiral sliced pork loin from the smoker and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes
- Slice between the bones and serve
Video
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