Tinfoil around pork roast on grill?

[legend_018]

I had really good luck with this honey/salt/pepper mixture that gets rubbed all over pork loin and thrown into the oven to roast.

I would like to do this on the grill this weekend. I have a quick question. When cooking a pork loin on the grill, can you just put it right on the grill or do you HAVE to wrap it in tin foil first?

Also, would be cool to get an idea of how long it takes to cook pork roasts on grills. Big ole regular Gas grill that is.

 

[GotGarlic]

I don't think you have to wrap it in foil, but I would put it on a piece of foil or in a foil pan. Especially with honey on it, I think exposing it to direct flame would cause it to burn.

I'd probably also turn off the burner on one side (or, if it's a charcoal grill, pile up the coals on one side) and put the roast on the other side, to cook it over indirect heat. When it's about done, you can put it directly on the grill grates to get some grill marks.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I agree with GotGarlic. What you want is indirect heat. That is accomplished in a gas barbecue with multiple burners by turning off the burner underneath the roast.

It's very handy to have a barbecue with built-in thermometer. If not, you can use an ordinary inexpensive oven thermometer placed on the same side as the roast (over the unlit burner). Adjust your flame for the same temperature you used in your oven, and you can assume it will take a similar amount of time.

You can tell when it's done by use of an instant read thermometer or remote reading probe thermometer.l

Personally, I would not use any foil. It might introduce unwanted moisture into what is inherently a dry process, and inhibit browning and formation of a nice crust. Additionally, you might want some sort of arrangement to collect the juices, possibly by placing a disposable foil pan underneath the grill perhaps sitting on the unlit burner. I have not tried this and it would be interesting if somebody could comment if there is any gain in doing this.

 

[Andy M.]

No foil. Wrapping a roast in foil basically causes it to steam in its own juices. You want the meat to roast and form a nice brown exterior crust for flavor.

You can just roast your pork on the grill, setting it to about 400ºF and placing it over an unlighted burner. It will perform just like the oven in your kitchen.

Another approach is to start the grill hotter and sear the roast on all sides over high heat then switch to oven mode as I described above.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I suspect there will be many folks who would like to move their roasting from kitchen to outdoor grills/barbecues in the coming summer months, to avoid heating up their house interior.

 

[pmeheran]

There are a lot of good suggestions here. I like your honey, salt and pepper idea. Being essentially lazy, what I generally do in this case is, put the meat on a grate of some kind, which is on a disposable pan half full of water. I might have the flame on under the roast for a while or not at all, depending on my mood. Whatever the case, the flame is definitely on the side where the roast is not. The point to the water bath below is to prevent flareups and a little bit of steam around the roast. This does not do the same thing as a foil wrap, which would be something like braising.