High Sugar in rub and injection - black bark- am I the problem?

grilling24x7 · Jul 2, 2012

So I complained a while ago here about not liking sugar in rubs and injections because the bark turned so black, almost shiny, for pulled pork and brisket that I did. (pork was on top grate brisket was on bottom)

Then last night on BBQ Pitmasters I see people injecting like crazy with apple juice and all sorts of sugar stuff.

Does anyone know what I mean when I say that a sugary rub or injection will put a blacker bark on the meats? Or am I doing something wrong with smoke intensity and duration?

The last pork shoulder I did tasted amazing (it was injected) but the bark was just too black.

The best pic I have to show the black is within the pulled pork. It was great, as I said, but the bark was too black IMO.

I get concerned because I want to do briskets on the bottom grate but I don't want them this black.

Should I stick with my protest of sugar or what?

John

dfaarc · Jul 2, 2012

What temp are you cooking at? What does the bark taste like?

landarc · Jul 2, 2012

Yep, temperature and taste are the key indicators. I use at least a small amount of sugar in all of my rubs and don't get a dark, black, shiny bark.

grilling24x7 · Jul 2, 2012

dfaarc said:
What temp are you cooking at? What does the bark taste like?

Standard 250, give or take a fluctuation or two. Pork shoulder cooked to the 190ish range. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I don't recall it tasting bad at all. It seemed normal tasting but it just looked burnt.

When I drop the sugar from the rub/injection it's totally not black.

Then I see the guys on TV injecting with sugar and they don't have the black?!

IamMadMan · Jul 2, 2012

My rub has a lot of sugar and I keep the temp between 250 -270 to prevent the sugar from burning. I also inject with apple juice.

Someone recently posted that they have been to 290 without burning the sugar.

That would be my opinion

grilling24x7 · Jul 2, 2012

Also, I used that Apple Juice and sugar injection (chris lilly's). So I think it was high in sugar.

porkingINpublic · Jul 2, 2012

Do you foil ur meat?

grilling24x7 · Jul 2, 2012

porkingINpublic said:
Do you foil ur meat?

No I don't

Pyrotech · Jul 2, 2012

My Rub also has alot of sugar in it.

This was from this past weekend, I did foil at 150*

porkingINpublic · Jul 2, 2012

I use to not foil and I always got dark bark.... Try foiling @ 160*.

gooose53 · Jul 2, 2012

One way of not getting the bark to dark is to foil when you get the bark the color you want. Try it and see if that helps.

Happy Hapgood · Jul 2, 2012

I use Turbinado sugar aka Raw sugar. It does not burn as readily as refined sugar.

grilling24x7 · Jul 2, 2012

Toast said:
I use Turbinado sugar aka Raw sugar. It does now burn as readily as refined sugar.

I assume part of the problem is the apple juice, though.

Bbq Bubba · Jul 2, 2012

Believe it or not, bbq should be dark colored, not that red crap on Pitmasters.

Its not your sugar or juice, its your fire. What are you smoking with?

Q-Dat · Jul 2, 2012

To the untrained eye, bark can be just plain ugly. People think its burnt, because they don't understand the process.

Some of the best Q I have ever had looked like hell but tasted like heaven :thumbup:

By any chance do you soak your wood before putting it on the coals? That can cause dark bark.

Bludawg · Jul 2, 2012

Bbq Bubba said:
Believe it or not, bbq should be dark colored, not that red crap on Pitmasters.

Its not your sugar or juice, its your fire. What are you smoking with?

Q-Dat said:
To the untrained eye, bark can be just plain ugly. People think its burnt, because they don't understand the process.

Some of the best Q I have ever had looked like hell but tasted like heaven:thumbup:

By any chance do you soak your wood before putting it on the coals? That can cause dark bark.

Spot on! Your fire needs more air or your wood isn't seasoned.

Vision · Jul 2, 2012

Sugar doesn't burn until 350 so that's not the issue. It's probably the amount of time and intensity of the smoke.

Are you able to share this amazing injection recipe?

Pitmaster T · Jul 2, 2012

That looks like .... Mindy Vega

IamMadMan said:
My rub has a lot of sugar and I keep the temp between 250 -270 to prevent the sugar from burning. I also inject with apple juice.

Someone recently posted that they have been to 290 without burning the sugar.

That would be my opinion

grilling24x7 · Jul 3, 2012

I use standard kingsford charcoal with chunks of apple wood. I do not soak the wood as I thought that I saw somewhere that soaked wood isn't wet any deeper than the first 1mm around the circumference of the wood and this evaporates about 10 sec into the burn? Not sure.

About the cleanliness of the fire. My method is the minion method where I have about 3/4 of the fire area with unlit coal and then I dump in about 1/2 chimney of lit coal. Then i toss in wood. Throughout the process I'll add in unlit coal. I do not oversmoke throughput the process. I'll have soft smoke for the first 6 or so hours then no more smoke after.

grilling24x7 · Jul 3, 2012

Vision said:
Sugar doesn't burn until 350 so that's not the issue. It's probably the amount of time and intensity of the smoke.

Are you able to share this amazing injection recipe?

The injection recipe is all over the web I think. But I put it on my grilling blog here if you want to see--> http://www.grilling24x7.com/porkontop.shtml

High Sugar in rub and injection - black bark- am I the problem?

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