Smoked Three Pig Cordon Bleu

It was my birthday recently. At my age, you don’t want to admit you have a birthday let alone celebrate it. However, if it is an excuse to make something great and to get She Who Must Be Obeyed to exercise her culinary chops, you bite the bullet and admit it is your birthday.

I took the opportunity to try something I have been thinking about on my Louisiana Grills Pellet Smoker.  I made a Smoked Three Pig Cordon Bleu, The three pigs are a pork loin, ham and bacon. Stuffing a pork loin with Swiss cheese and ham make it cordon bleu.

I started by taking a 2 1/2 pound pork loin roast and cutting 1/3 of the way from the bottom almost to the other side. Then I rotated the roast 180 degrees and cut 1/3 of the way from the top almost to the other side. This lets you open the roast up into a long strip.

I sprinkled both sides of the strip with Louisiana Grills Bourbon Molasses seasoning on both sides of the strip.

I laid a layer of thin sliced ham over the strip. I topped that with a layer of thin sliced Swiss cheese over that. Then I rolled the roast and tied around each end of the roll.

I put the roast in the pellet smoker preheated to 210 F for about 2 hours until the internal temperature was about 120 F. The lower temperature and slower cooking time allowed for more smoke exposure to the roast.

Then, I increased the pellet smoker temperature to 400 F and cooked it until the internal temperature was 155 F. The higher temperature crisped the bacon.

If you do not have a pellet smoker, you could cook it in the oven at 350 F for about 1 1/2 hours to an internal temperature of 155 F but it won’t be as good. Just get a smoker.

I took the roast out of the smoker, put it on a cutting board and tented it with foil to rest for 10 minutes.

We sliced it up and served it with She Who Must Be Obeyed’s Macaroni and Cheese plus her great spinach salad.

The Verdict

This was a great way to celebrate my birthday, The pork roast had a great sweetness from the seasoning mix, salty from the bacon and the ham and was very pretty. This will become a special occasion meal.

The Old Fat Guy