Bacon Wrapped Smoked Pork Tenderloin Roulade

This week’s recipe is a scrumptious porky-extravaganza – pork wrapped in bacon.  Seriously, we’ve got “major” amounts of bacon here.  Oh and there’s cheese, tangy goat cheese in the middle.  Did you see the smoke ring?  This is one tasty treat.  Let’s get cookin’!

2 to 2 ½ pounds pork tenderloin
1 lb bacon (I prefer thick cut)
1 firm cooking apple (Granny Smiths are good)
4 to 6 oz. soft white goat cheese, at room temperature
Cinnamon
Salt
Pepper

Useful smoker tip: Be sure to prepare the wood for your smoker by soaking it in water over night.

Light the fire in your smoker so it can come to temperature while you work on the rest of the food preparations.

Cut the apple into thin slices, the thinner the better.

The pork tenderloin usually comes with two pieces in a vacuum packed package. You will take both pieces and cut them so they can be laid out flat. Do this by cutting lengthwise down the tenderloin, pulling it open and taking another cut, etc. until it has rolled out into a flat piece. (see images)

Now, lay out the two pieces of tenderloin so they roughly make a rectangle. Spread the goat cheese on the meet as shown, then lay out the apple slices as I’ve demonstrated, covering the meat completely. Sprinkle the apple with cinnamon. Add a slice of bacon on the side towards you, this is where you will start rolling up the pork loin to make the roulade.

Carefully roll up your tenderloin and temporarily tie to keep it from unrolling.  This is just to hold it in place while we do the next step.

Now lay out your bacon as shown and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tenderloin on the bacon and begin wrapping the bacon slices around the tenderloin. Use a toothpick to hold the bacon in place. Remove your ties as you go, you don’t want to have someone cut into their dinner and find the string under the bacon. Wrap the entire tenderloin in bacon slices.

Once the tenderloin is wrapped up, get your kitchen twine and start tying your roulade so it will stay rolled up during cooking. A few loops of twine around the tenderloin at even intervals along its length will do fine.

Place the tenderloin in your smoker and smoke until an internal temperature of about 155 degrees is reached. (Mine took a little over 2 ½ hours). Remove the tenderloin from the smoker and carefully wrap in heavy foil, being careful not to puncture the foil with the tooth picks. Let stand for at least 15 minutes.

To serve, remove the string and slice.