What causes ribs to taste hammy

bbqwilly

bbqwilly

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I bought 3 racks of ribs to take to a party this weekend. I smoked 4 butts, 3 ribs and 1 pork loin. The ribs had a strong ham taste to them. What causes this?
 
Read the packaging. If they aren't all natural then they have solutions added, avoid them.


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Did you rub them the night before? Ribs can get hammy if rubbed too far in advance.


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Did you inject them with ham?

Seriously though, stay away from "enhanced" ribs and don't rub them until about 1 hour before cooking. But, 2 hours shouldn't have been a problem unless your rub had Tender Quick in it.

When cooking, keep the temp between 275* and 290*.
 
also, if your sure its not enhanced ribs, which are pretty much brined, too much salt in your rub will cure the meat and make it hammy. Even a low salt run left on overnight will wreck havoc. A high salt like head country rub will turn them hammy in a 4-5 hours.

its all related to salt level and how long its left on.
 
BBQchef33 said:
also, if your sure its not enhanced ribs, which are pretty much brined, too much salt in your rub will cure the meat and make it hammy. Even a low salt run left on overnight will wreck havoc. A high salt like head country rub will turn them hammy in a 4-5 hours.

its all related to salt level and how long its left on.
Click to expand...

This. Not that Phil needs validated at all lol. Also, too much smoke can multiply the salt-caused ham effect IMO.
 
I have used the 7% inhanced and have not noticed any taste difference. I see some ribs are up to 14% inhanced, I cannot tell you what they will be like. They put it on the label in fine print.
 
You bought them at the grocery store! :biggrin1: Seriously most groceries have injected them with a sodium solution. Read the label. I only buy my ribs/pork from Sams. No injection, no ham taste.
 
You cannot trust the labels in supermarkets. I found pork at Krogers that said nothing about enhancement, but when I checked with the meat manager, he told me all Kroger pork was enhanced. I only trust the processor labels on cryopacked meat.
 
This also can be a result of the smoking process. I can take two identical racks of ribs. The one I cook on my offset will produce a hammy flavor and the one I cook in my Oval will not. The offset has a lot more smoke than the Oval. It is like curing in place. I've tried and can't seem to get this result with the Oval.
 
I'm pretty sure I remember a thread where some one said Smithfield's were enhanced.

Kroger's ribs are definitely enhanced but they have a habit of putting the price tag over where the enhanced with solution is mentioned. Any Kroger product that says moist and tender is enhanced.
 
I'm pretty sure enhanced meat are labeled as such. The lettering might be really small on the label, and may be hidden at the very bottom edge of label, but it will say "enhanced with xx% solution" or "contains a xx% marinade solution" on the label.

Next time you go shopping for meat, bring your magnifying glass and study those labels on the cryo'd pork and whole chickens.

It'll be on there somewhere. If it's not on the label, than they are not enhanced. It aint right to cover up the labels with a price tag either. It's probably against all the rules about visible nutrition labels etc.

"Moist and Tender" or "Always Tender" are dead giveaways for enhanced meat.
 
Let's not forget the words "self basting", that also means enchanced.


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Gore said:
This also can be a result of the smoking process. I can take two identical racks of ribs. The one I cook on my offset will produce a hammy flavor and the one I cook in my Oval will not. The offset has a lot more smoke than the Oval. It is like curing in place. I've tried and can't seem to get this result with the Oval.
Click to expand...

My ribs used to come out hammy someone asked me was I keeping the exhaust closed during the cook. After I started leaving the exhaust open throughout the entire cook, no more hammy taste

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