I went to the grocery store to get the brown rice and the dill that I needed for my Brown Rice Salad, only to realize that I didn't really have a protein to eat with it for dinner. As great as I was hoping the salad was going to turn out, a giant tub of Rice Salad for dinner just isn't my thing.

So I wandered down the meat case aimlessly, wondering what to cook (with a bag of mangoes, my rice, and dill already in my hands, I didn't have a cart, mind you, since I only needed the 2 items and I was already impulse shopping, apparently). I came across the pork, where there were some prepackaged, pre-marinated pork loins. "What a time saver!" I thought. Most of the flavors didn't sound that great, but there was a Honey Mustard one that sounded good. So I picked it up, made it halfway up an aisle, and then thought, "what am I doing? This is pre-done, soaked in solution (I want to say it was 30% or something ridiculous), and you can't control the taste or ingredients! Take it back!" So I turned around, put it back, and grabbed a cryo'd pork tenderloin pack, which, although also in solution, is only up to 12%. I can make my own honey mustard. So Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin My Way it shall be! No tub-o-Rice salad for me!



I removed the tenderloins from the package and trimmed them down, removing all the silverskin,  excess fat, and tendon. It made a pretty big pile when I was finished, but they looked so nice and neat. I'd rather take the time to trim them well before they go in than deal with it when I'm trying to eat it.






Tenderloin packages come with two to a pack, so I decided to experiment. Since I was "boycotting" the pre-made one, why not see what the difference would really be? I had some Honey Mustard Salad dressing, so I decided to use that on one of the tenderloins and to make my own honey mustard for the other.






For the homemade honey mustard, I used about 1/4 cup Grey Poupon Mustard, 1/4 cup honey, 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 teaspoon pomegranate powder that I got from Vanns Spices. Technically, I don't think this qualifies as a marinade, since there is no oil, but that's a minor technicality. Those are really guesses on measurements though, because I'm more of an eyeball and pour type of person.






I put both tenderloins in their own individual zip top bags for marinating. I made sure to write on the bags which marinade was in each, but you could really tell by the color. I refrigerated them for 45 minutes.






I put them in the smoker on the bottom rack, since I was smoking the rice for the rice salad on the top 2 racks. I probed the homemade one and set the thermometer to beep at me when it reached 145ºF, and put a toothpick in the salad dressing one so that even once I had them out of the smoker I wouldn't forget which was which.






I'm cooking the tenderloins with 1 small chunk of apple wood, and look (!) I didn't forget the drip pan this time. Not that it really mattered, since it was ridiculously windy and it blew right out halfway through, since I forgot to weigh it down with something. Sigh.











The thermometer started beeping at me after about an hour and a half, I think, so I took the tenderloins out and let them rest for 10 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute. When I cut into them, they were perfect to my taste. Some people like pork cooked a little more, but I find 145ºF to 150ºF to be perfect, especially with this cut since it can dry out easily if overcooked. The one on the right is the homemade marinade, the one on the left is the bottled dressing.






I could taste the difference between the two. It was subtle, but there was definitely a difference. I think if they had been marinated longer, the difference would have been more pronounced. The one with the salad dressing was good. It did taste a little more commercial and a little less bright and fresh. The homemade one tasted great. It was lightly sweet, and there was the tang from the mustard and the vinegar. And the pomegranate powder did add something to it. I really liked it and will use it again. I would say it had a more pure flavor than the salad dressing marinade, and it would work great as an injection as well. Overall, they were both moist, and the apple wood smoke paired nicely with the pork. The honey mustard marinade also worked really nicely with the Brown Rice Salad, which had mustard in the dressing, as well as vinegar.

Honey Mustard Pork Tenderloin

• 1 package pork tenderloin
• 1/4 cup Grey Poupon Mustard
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pomegranate powder (optional)

Trim tenderloin of all silverskin and fat. Place in zip top bag.

Mix together marinade ingredients. Pour marinade into bag over tendloin, massage into loin, and refrigerate for 45 minutes to 4 hours.

Remove from marinade and smoke-cook with 1 oz. of apple wood at 225ºF for 1.5 hours, or until an internal temperature of 145ºF is reached.

Let rest for ten minutes before slicing.