Pork butt too dark

[newbie2 smoker]

Hi all the expert smokers out there. I have a problem I can't seem to fix. I am semi new to smoking meat but love it so far. My problem is both my butts and ribs come out too dark. I use a pretty standard rub with brown sugar and salt and a few extras, cook it between 224 and 240, wrap it with double HD foil around 160 or when I like the color. But when it is done at 205 IT, it is really black. Yes it still tastes great but I would like the bark to be dark brown, not black. Would wrapping in butcher paper help instead of foil?
Picture is a bit before I wrapped it. No picture of finished product, had hungry family waiting!
I have only done ribs once and same thing happened and people didn't like the black color.
Any help is appreciate!

 

[EdP]

I’m guessing the sugar is burning, maybe try a no sugar rub and you can spritz some apple juice closer to when you’re ready to wrap it.

 

[Kevin DeShazo]

As said above, but if you like the brown sugar, switch to sugar in the raw. I think the pict above looks pretty tasty.

 

[chef jimmyj]

So...The Butt goes in foil a beautiful brown. The Temp never goes above 250. The IT rises 50 degrees or so to 205. You open the foil and the meat is Black? The only way this happens is a Chemical reaction between the foil and the surface of the pork...Or...The smoker temp is rising above 350°, the point Sugar begins to burn. Since you are not experiencing any acidic or acrid flavor on the meat, the above seems unlikely. I would like to see a pic of what you call Black. One man's Burnt is another man's Bark...JJ

 

[forktender]

So...The Butt goes in foil a beautiful brown. The Temp never goes above 250. The IT rises 50 degrees or so to 205. You open the foil and the meat is Black? The only way this happens is a Chemical reaction between the foil and the surface of the pork...Or...The smoker temp is rising above 350°, the point Sugar begins to burn. Since you are not experiencing any acidic or acrid flavor on the meat, the above seems unlikely. I would like to see a pic of what you call Black. One man's Burnt is another man's Bark...JJ

Nailed it, Chef.

The first thing I would do is calibrate your thermometer to make sure it is dead nuts on.
My guess is your thermo is WAY off and the sugar is burning. The next time you make one just use salt, pepper, garlic, paprika and powdered mustard in your rub.........no sugar. When you wrap in foil add half a can of Kern's peach nectar or 6oz of pineapple juice or a combo of both. If it still is too dark your smoker is WAY hotter than you thought it was running. As said above use Sugar In The Raw instead of brown sugar if you must use sugar. I actually found that I like pork without any sugar at all because the que sauce that we like is more than sweet enough. People get way to caught up on how the smoking champs do things on TV but you have to remember that their judges are taking 1 to 2 bites max, you don't need all of that sugar and butter to make some amazing tasting ribs and hogs butt/ shoulder.....try it some time.

 

[newbie2 smoker]

So...The Butt goes in foil a beautiful brown. The Temp never goes above 250. The IT rises 50 degrees or so to 205. You open the foil and the meat is Black? The only way this happens is a Chemical reaction between the foil and the surface of the pork...Or...The smoker temp is rising above 350°, the point Sugar begins to burn. Since you are not experiencing any acidic or acrid flavor on the meat, the above seems unlikely. I would like to see a pic of what you call Black. One man's Burnt is another man's Bark...JJ

I use a ThermaPro dual probe thermometer which shows about 25 degrees hotter than built in thermometer. Pork butt took 12 hours ao seriously doubt running over 300. In fact one time finished in oven as it was very late and didn't want to babysit. Yes there is brown sugar but I bet many people use that also. The butt being black isn't as bad as the ribs. The butt tasted great and I ate the burnt ends part as others were avoiding it. This is just frustrating. What about using butchers paper?
But I do appreciate the replies and thought.

 

[chef jimmyj]

I've not used Paper so I am not sure what difference it will make. Sealed foil HD moisture in and helps keep temp down. Paper let's moisture out but more slowly than naked meat. Depending on what is causing this, paper could make things worse. Try it...JJ

 

[daveomak]

Yep... Chemical reaction with aluminum creates a balckish residue...
What seasonings or spices are you using....

 

[gary s]

If it tasted good (the way you like it) you just have a good Bark, Which in my opinion is a good thing,
When you pull ii and the bark gets mixed in with the rest pure heaven.

Gary

 

[Kevin DeShazo]

The more I think about it, as Davomak and may couple others said, its probably a chemical reaction.

I put a brined turkey on an aluminum baking sheet once to carry to the smoker, anyplace the turkey touched on the pan turned black. I wasnt sure about it, so I trimmed the black off and it was only skin deep and didnt affect the taste

 

[daveomak]

Yeah, baking pans aren't Marine Grade Aluminum......

 

[schlotz]

Agree with chef in regard to one man's definition of black is another's bark. Really need to see a photo of what the OP considers black.

 

[zwiller]

Good points made so far. If it is simply a color thing only, I get that. It takes some adjustment. I remember seeing butts posted here so dark and was like "poor guy totally ruined it" but I'd see many positive comments about great bark, etc. I didn't get it for a long time. I ran around 7-8 butts and never got dark bark but one time I was determined to get it to see what all his bark talk was about. I finally pulled it off and life was not the same after. EVERYONE loved it. My butts come off the smoker black like meteorites but tasty. Everyone loves the bark so much I halve butts for more. If this is not the case, something is off. Temps or reaction. I would imagine there would be a bad, burnt, acrid taste too.

 

[newbie2 smoker]

Yep... Chemical reaction with aluminum creates a balckish residue...
What seasonings or spices are you using....

I used a pretty standard rub, with brown sugar, salt, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne and some commercial rub thrown in too, Grill mate mesquite.
I agree the butt being dark isn't the end of the world as it tastes great. I have avoided ribs because the last two times they also came out blackened. I use Reynolds HD foil, not some generic. I could try using raw sugar instead of brown sugar if you all thing that would help. I will document any other meat that comes out black. Thanks again everyone. I have learned so much being a member.