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Smoke ring secrets

Bossmanbbq

Bossmanbbq

is Blowin Smoke!
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Ok my here is my sob story, I smoked a pork shoulder and a whole brisket yesterday, everything turned out great, tast,texture, smoke flavor, only one problem very little or no smoke ring. The pork shoulder had a nice ring, but the brisket had hardly anything at all, so what gives?
Didnt do anything diffrent then I have in the past, and it doesnt make sense why I would have a good smoke ring on the shoulder and very little on the brisket. Anyone have any secerets on getting a nice smoke ring on your brisket?
I smoked both the shoulder and brisket for 5 hours, foiled for 3 hours and then back on the smoker for an additional 2 hours. I used a 50/50mix of Oak and Sugar Maple. Tempature was steady between 225 and 255 throughout the cook. Any suggestions or thoughts?

Bossman
[email protected]
 
The Boss Man man,
Smoke Ring Stoke Ring. Did it taste good? Was it tender and moist? Sometimes you get a ring, sometimes you don't. A smoke ring has nothing at all to do with flavor, tenderness and moisture.
There have been posts about what causes the ring before, can't remember what they said. Too testnicle for me, but nothing to do with taste and flavor of the meat.
Only my opinion and I don't know Jack Didley about nothing!!!!!!!!!!!
Smoke On!!!! Ring or not.
ed
 
did you say something mean to the brisket before putting it in?
 
You are right, the ring has nothing to do with the flavor, tenderness, taste. It is a function of a chemical reaction of the meat with smoke.

Slice samples and ship them to ICEMN62 Testing labs and we will send you a report of the smoke ringness or lack there of.
 
icemn62 said:
It is a function of a chemical reaction of the meat with smoke...
Click to expand...
... a reaction that quits once the meat reaches 140. The colder the meat is when it goes in the cooker, the longer it will take to get to 140. Going straight from the fridge to the grate might give you more of a ring.
 
I be damned learn something on this site every time I log in.
 
You are right, the ring has nothing to do with the flavor, tenderness, taste. It is a function of a chemical reaction of the meat with smoke.
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct.

You can use Prauge Powder or Morton's Tenderquick to get a solid smokering while cooking in an oven, but you won't get smoke flavor. On the other hand, you can use good wood and have plenty of smoke flavor and not get much of a smokering.

Going straight from the fridge to the grate might give you more of a ring.
Click to expand...

This will help, but don't chase smokering as a goal. It won't make you Q taste any better.

BTW-smokering is a reaction between nitrates/nitrites in the smoke and the myoglobin/hemoglobin in the meat.
 
While I agree with everything above, in my opinion the smokering does help the presentation score in a contest. Put a little bit of TQ salt in your rub - you will get a smokering.
 
The TQ trick is one reason special effort is taken to explain to new KCBS and FBA judges to not put too much weight on the smoke ring...yes, it does, I think, help the overall presentation -- but it is certainly not as important as taste, tenderness, and neat appearance....I love it when I get a good natural smoke ring but I don't actually pay much attention to it anymore.
 
Dont get me wrong, no complaints on the taste and tenderness of the brisket it was and is awesome, I was just expecting a nice smokering and when it wasnt there It surprised me.
I do agree thought that it helps in judging, even though they are being taught not to put alot of weight on the smokering, but lets face it, it helps and when as a judge you have seen a smokering on brisket all day and all of sudden you have one without your going to ask yourself why and it is going to effect your score one way or another regardless if they say it doesnt matter or not.

Bossman
[email protected]
 
Some folks actually rub thier brisket in TenderQuik and leave for an hour - then rinse thoroughly. you get a massive smoke ring.

Some folks add it to brine and do the same thing.

It is dangerous stuff though -- you leave it too long and you get a corned beef, or a chunk of salt pork. Brother Wayne's idea works well - but again, get too much, and you ruin your meat. Having said that, I have it in my BBQ for all contests - only use it on really tough cuts of meat - like if I get stuck with a bad flat.

Another option for contest smoke ring, is to paint one on after the fact. One of the guys on our team likes to paint a sauce ring on - then put back in the smoker to glaze it into the slice.... pull out of foil and stick in tray; brush with sauce ( or mist or whatever you like to do) and it is a nice darker red. viola. I thought it was nuts, but it has placed well twice.... so who knew!
 
Bossman, I just picked up from another thread that you're cooking on a Treager, this changes everything. There are a couple of things you can do to impove smokering in a pellet pooper.

1-start with cold meat
2-use the step method for cooking. This is a method where you begin you cook on the smoke setting for 2 hours (this step works best using pure flavor wood pellets, no blended oak) then step up to 180 for 2 hours then up to 240 for the remainder of the cook, higher if you like. When you go from 180-240 you should change over to your more standard blend of oak for btu's along with whatever flavor you want to go along with it.
3-Don't rub in advance. Remove the meat from the packaging, rub it, and put it in the cooker.

I've used these methods and get a solid 1/4" minimum smoke ring on briskets everytime, along with great smoke flavor.
 
I moved myself. See one for the books
 
Last edited by a moderator:
kcquer said:
3-Don't rub in advance. Remove the meat from the packaging, rub it, and put it in the cooker.

I've used these methods and get a solid 1/4" minimum smoke ring on briskets everytime, along with great smoke flavor.
Click to expand...

Scott, not rubbing in advance doesn't change the flavor of the seasoned meat when done? I'd be interested in seeing how length of time a seasoned brisket sat effected the taste. That could definitely save me a couple of days vacation if I could pull in at 5pm, set up and start cooking! :grin: I bet it helps cut down on mushy bark.
 
Jeff_in_KC said:
Scott, not rubbing in advance doesn't change the flavor of the seasoned meat when done? I'd be interested in seeing how length of time a seasoned brisket sat effected the taste. That could definitely save me a couple of days vacation if I could pull in at 5pm, set up and start cooking! :grin: I bet it helps cut down on mushy bark.
Click to expand...

I would be interested in that too.... let me know how it goes :twisted:

So if you are a disciple of Mokan Chicken...... does that make WAYNE your Patron Saint :shock: < bow before the margarita....>

Lord help us all.....:roll:
 
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