A trick I learned from Good Eats a number of years ago involves brines.  Any time I’m going to cook pork –  be it chops, tenderloin, or even the base of a pulled pork – I brine it for a few hours ahead of time.  I don’t get too fancy and a lot of this is eyeball.  It’s hard to mess this up, so use this recipe as a base and adjust as you like.  The salt and brown sugar are the two required ingredients.  You can add aromatics like lemon peel or onion if you want.  I don’t.

Here be dragons: Make sure the liquid is chilled before you put the pork in.  Add more ice if you need to, but there should be a few cubes left floating before you put the pork in.  Warm water + uncooked pork may equal sick you.