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

[Bludawg]

Originally Posted by Bbq Bubba

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?

Originally Posted by Q-Dat

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]

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]

That looks like .... Mindy Vega

Originally Posted by IamMadMan

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Vision

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

[jacksedona]

if it does not taste burned then its okay-i try to use the least sugar in general to cut calories relying more on water-logged hickort for the flavor and the marinades overnight
http://thebarbecuemaster.net

[Bbq Bubba]

This is 100% smoked over Hickory, trust me, its not burnt.

[grilling24x7]

Originally Posted by Bbq Bubba

This is 100% smoked over Hickory, trust me, its not burnt.

Awesome! Let's focus on this picture. Now I know these aren't burnt but they are black. They look amazing but they are very dark. Did you use sugar anywhere in the cook? This is exactly what I'm talking about.

[Bbq Bubba]

I use quite a bit of Turbo sugar but these cooked 10 hrs, unfoiled. This is what proper bbq should like. The bark is smokey, sweet n salty, not burnt tasting at all.
YMMV.

[landarc]

Here are some that I have done, either on a kettle or UDS, always over a mixture of lump, briquettes and applewood, sometimes pecan or peach too.







All of these have sugar in the rub, usually turbinado and I am pretty sure the heat is always around 270F to 280F as that is where I run my cookers normally. There is a range of colors, and some of it appears burned. There is no carbon taste at all to any of these. I believe it is not the sugar, if you are getting burned flavors, look to the fire and how clean it is burning.

[grilling24x7]

So I think its worth posting some results. After reading the above info I realize that a sugary rub, mop, or injection is not the devil. In fact many of you show that you can use this stuff without getting the meat black. Yesterday I focused on not oversmoking, rather than cutting out the sugar. So for 12 hours I only used 3 small wood chucks (seasoned apple in chunks about the size of my fist or a bit larger). No smoke was added during the last few hours. Wood was added only during the first 6 hours, ever other hour.

I used Chris Lillys Injection which was awesome. None of the meat was charred black and I attribute it to less smoke.

I "live blogged" the whole smoke day at http://www.grilling24x7.com/smokeday.shtml
so the exact temperatures and about 15 photos are up there.

Briefly, I aimed for 250 degrees, Kingsford charcoal, minion method, apple wood chunks on the 18.5 inch WSM. After 12 hours none of the meat was black. Everything was perfect.

[jdoughboy]

dangit, now im hungry...........

[IamMadMan]

Originally Posted by landarc

Here are some that I have done, either on a kettle or UDS, always over a mixture of lump, briquettes and applewood, sometimes pecan or peach too.

All of these have sugar in the rub, usually turbinado and I am pretty sure the heat is always around 270F to 280F as that is where I run my cookers normally. There is a range of colors, and some of it appears burned. There is no carbon taste at all to any of these. I believe it is not the sugar, if you are getting burned flavors, look to the fire and how clean it is burning.

Great Looking Pork 'Landarc'

...

[IamMadMan]

Originally Posted by grilling24x7

So I think its worth posting some results. After reading the above info I realize that a sugary rub, mop, or injection is not the devil. In fact many of you show that you can use this stuff without getting the meat black. Yesterday I focused on not oversmoking, rather than cutting out the sugar. So for 12 hours I only used 3 small wood chucks (seasoned apple in chunks about the size of my fist or a bit larger). No smoke was added during the last few hours. Wood was added only during the first 6 hours, ever other hour.

I used Chris Lillys Injection which was awesome. None of the meat was charred black and I attribute it to less smoke.

Briefly, I aimed for 250 degrees, Kingsford charcoal, minion method, apple wood chunks on the 18.5 inch WSM. After 12 hours none of the meat was black. Everything was perfect.

Glad you worked out your issues 'Grilling24x7' .....

.