Pork Cheeks and Chops

Well, it is hard to decide, whether this was a miss or a hit.  This is the cook part of the previous post where I had brined some pork chops and pork cheeks.  By now, I had hoped to be back on the kettle, but, the nagging ankle injury remains both nagging and injured.  These little morsels would have been so much better with some smoke and more time.

Here is the finished shot, they do look good.

And the flavor is where I had wanted it to be.  Of course, this was not going to be the hard part, what with brining, then letting them sit in rub for 24 hours and slow roasting them.  The chops got a liberal coating of Simply Marvelous Cherry Rub and the cheeks got a similar treatment but with Simpy Marvelous Sweet and Spicy rub.  Then wrapped in plastic and stored for 24 hours.  Here is what the meat looked like minutes before cooking.

Notice how the cheeks look sort of like little, smooth, pink brains...no?  Perhaps it was just me.  Anyway, as you can see, the rub as dissolved, and I hope gotten into the meat a little.  Good old osmosis, eh?  Into a 265F oven for 3 hours hopefully to mimic the low and slow cooking, if not the actual smoke.  These really miss the effect of smoking over a fire, and I think that is where the disappointment lay for me on this one.  Here are the morsels upon removal.

Not really a failure, just a slight miss.  I think another hour and the use of the kettle would have really helped a whole lot with the texture and an even better flavor.