Pork tenderloin · 2.4 lb / 1.1 kg (2 pieces) · Pellet grill

Pork tenderloin, apple wood, one hundred and five minutes

Two tenderloins, silver skin removed and tails folded under, smoked at 107°C over apple to 63°C and rested fifteen minutes. The fastest cook on the ledger and a demonstration of why shape matters more than weight.

Cook date12 Oct 2026
Published16 Oct 2026
Raw weight2.4 lb / 1.1 kg (2 pieces)
WoodApple
CookerPellet grill

By The Smokehouse Desk

Thermal map for this Pork tenderloin cook, with the pit and internal traces stroked over it — Heat zones mapped from pit temperature; white line = internal, red line = pit, crosses = probe samples

Cook timeline

17:30 Both tenderloins on, silver skin removed, tails folded under Folding the tail is what stops the thin end from drying before the head is done Pit107°C Internal6°C +0m
17:50 Nothing done At 107°C there is no stall on a cut this thin and this lean Pit107°C Internal31°C +20m
18:15 Rotated, spritzed once One spritz only; the surface of a tenderloin dries in minutes at this chamber temperature Pit108°C Internal48°C +45m
18:35 Started checking every 10 minutes The window from 57°C to 63°C is 40 minutes; from 63°C to 70°C is 20 Pit108°C Internal57°C +1h05
18:55 Checked the tail separately The tail was already 9°C ahead of the head, exactly as expected Pit108°C Internal61°C +1h25
19:15 Pulled, rested 15 minutes under foil Longer than 15 minutes and the crust goes soft for no gain Pit108°C Internal63°C +1h45

The taper is the whole problem

A tenderloin is 6 cm across at the head and 2 cm at the tail, and it has about 5% fat. Cooked whole at any chamber temperature, the tail reaches target 20 to 25 minutes before the head. By the time the head is at 63°C, the tail is at 72°C and has gone chalky.

Folding the tail under the body of the loin solves most of it: the folded section is now double thickness and cooks at roughly the same rate as the head. It is a ten-second fix that changes the whole result.

Taper against doneness, whole loin at 107°C
Position	Thickness	Reaches 63°C at	Result
Head	6 cm	105 min	Juicy, correct
Middle	4 cm	85 min	Slightly firm
Tail, not folded	2 cm	60 min	Chalky, 72°C
Tail, folded under	4 cm effective	95 min	Acceptable

Silver skin, seasoning and the 107°C chamber

The silver skin on a tenderloin does not render and it does not soften; it contracts and makes the loin curl on the grate. Slide a boning knife under it at the head end, get a thumb under it, and pull it off in one sheet.

Seasoning is salt, pepper and a little garlic, put on thirty minutes before the cook, no longer. A dry brine overnight on a cut this lean pulls water out of a muscle that cannot afford to lose any.

Silver skin removed in one sheet — this is not optional
Salt and pepper only, thirty minutes ahead, no sugar
Chamber 107°C to 108°C; there is no stall to wait for
Rotate once at 45 minutes and spritz once, at the same time

Why 63°C and not 60°C

Pork tenderloin is safe and at its best between 62°C and 65°C under current guidance, which supersedes the old 71°C blanket rule for whole muscle cuts. At 60°C the texture is gelatinous in the middle; at 68°C it is dry no matter how carefully you cooked it.

If you are cooking for anyone in a risk group, take it to 65°C and accept the slight loss of moisture. The three-degree difference is about 15% of the juice.

Internal temperature against texture
Pull at	Texture	Juice loss	Safe for
60°C	Soft, almost gelatinous centre	Least	Not recommended
63°C	Best eating	Moderate	Healthy adults
65°C	Firm, slightly dry at the tail	More	Everyone
68°C	Dry throughout	Most	—

Bias cut and serving

Cut on a 45° bias at 1 cm and each slice is wider than the loin is round, which gives a better plate and a more even bite. Straight cuts across a tapering loin produce slices that are 6 cm at one end of the loin and 2 cm at the other, which looks careless.

Tenderloin is best served within ten minutes of slicing. It does not hold like a shoulder; a covered tray at 65°C will keep it for thirty minutes and the texture is noticeably worse after that.

Bias cut at 45°, 1 cm thick
Serve within ten minutes of slicing
Leftovers are better cold on a salad than reheated
The tails, cooked separately, are excellent diced into a hash

Cross-section notes

Slice direction: Bias cut at 45°, 6 mm against the grain

A tenderloin tapers from about 6 cm at the head to 2 cm at the tail, and the thin end reaches 63°C about 25 minutes before the thick end does. Left whole, the tail is always overcooked. The interior is uniform pale with almost no visible fat marbling, because there is about 5% fat in the whole muscle.

Stall: 0°C
Wrap method: No wrap (bare bark)
Wrapped at: never wrapped
Pulled at: 63°C
Rest: 15m
Score: 3.8/5

Verdict: A tenderloin is the wrong shape for a smoker. It is a fast, hot cut being cooked slowly, and the taper guarantees that one end is wrong. Fold the tail under, or cut it off and cook it separately — that is the whole fix.

Adjacent entries

DateCutWood CookerWeightResult

5 Oct 2026 Pork loin, dry cured for back bacon Maple Insulated cabinet 5.3 lb / 2.4 kg Even pink cure, slices at 3 mm for sandwiches4.6/5

8 Oct 2026 Duck breast, skin on Cherry Ceramic kamado 1.5 lb / 0.7 kg (2 breasts) Skin rendered but not crisp; the fat layer was still 5 mm thick4.1/5

27 Sep 2026 Whole turkey Apple Offset stick burner 15.7 lb / 7.1 kg Breast at 74°C when the thigh hit 82°C, with a 25-minute ice-pack head start4.5/5

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