Smoke Ring

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aya8442005

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2012
15
10
Houston, TX
Hello, i smoked a brisket 10lbs @ 190-200 degrees for 11 hrs using red oak with bits of peach wood. When i cut the meat by the way was tender and taste great but no smoke ring at all. Does any one know if maybe the peach over powered the oak and no smoke ring was created. I have a big pit able to make 12-15 briskets. Thanks
 
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Thanks
 
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aya8442005- The smoke ring forms as the meat is subjected to the smoke and is caused by a chemical reaction between the nitrites/nitrates in the meat and the rub and the compounds in the wood smoke.  The ring quits forming when the internal temps of the meat passes through the 140° range but the meat will continue to take on the smoke flavor as long as smoke is present in the chamber. 

Stickburners and charcoal burners (using wood chunks for flavor) produce some nice rings; propane burners can produce a decent ring and electric smokers come in last place when using the factory chip tray as they don't get proper ventalation to smolder correctly and they don't hold a lot of chips.

As strange as it sounds, a nice looking smoke ring doesn't alway mean that you have a quality product.  I have a number of friends that are certified bbq judges and though they say a ring looks nice-it has no bearing on the judging. It's all about the meat.

What are you burning in your pit? All wood; charcoal/wood mix; all charcoal?

Enjoy the Smoke!
 
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Hello, i smoked a brisket 10lbs @ 190-200 degrees for 11 hrs using red oak with bits of peach wood. When i cut the meat by the way was tender and taste great but no smoke ring at all. Does any one know if maybe the peach over powered the oak and no smoke ring was created. I have a big pit able to make 12-15 briskets. Thanks
Was there a definite smokey taste?
 
All wood, i usually just use red oak but someone gave me some peach to try and when i did no smoke ring maybe i used to much peach
I will cook again just not with peach but it did give a great flavor.
 
What was your finished temp of the brisket, or did you just go by probing for tenderness?

Is your chamber temp gauge accurate?

The reason I ask about temps is that an 11lb brisket for 10 hours wouldn't be fully cooked, unless you have a rig with extremely high convective efficiency, meaning it is has optimal heat flow through the smoke chamber which allows for faster cooking at lower temps than the average smoker is capable of achieving. I'm thinking your chamber temp gauge is reading way too low, by maybe 60-70* or more, which would mean you cooked @ over 250*. This is highly possible, if the brisket was fully cooked in that short of a time period.

Smoking with a wood fired rig should give the deepest smoke penetration out of all other types of heating, and I get a nice smoke ring if I start out at lower temps and then bump to 225* or so with propane or charcoal fired rigs. The smoke ring, as we refer to it by, is actually initiated by the burning of fuels which create NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) in the cooking chamber, and therefore will not happen in electric smokers unless excessive amounts of smoke wood are used and are burning more rapidly than needed to produce smoke.

If I start out with higher temps, I do notice a slightly less pronounced smoke ring with less penetration, and this is pretty normal. As the meat cooks and the internal temp rises, the smoke reaction begins to taper off, and eventually ceases @ about 140* I/T, hence, lower start-up temps giving the most depth of smoke ring in uncured meats.

Eric
 
10lb for 11 hrs was the brisket ratio my gauges were working properly i used a temp probe to check temp it read 167 degrees at the thickest part
 
All wood, i usually just use red oak but someone gave me some peach to try and when i did no smoke ring maybe i used to much peach
I will cook again just not with peach but it did give a great flavor.
If peach gave it a great flavor why wouldn't you want to use it again?
 
My temp was 167 degrees at the thiclest part of the brisket my gauges were properly my digital gaalso.uge was working
 
I will try all oak first then add less peach but here in tx smoke ring determines if u know to cook a brisket or not. Its seems like everyone i speak to says its all about the smoke ring the thicker the better.
 
If your temps were too low then there's a good chance that your food was undercooked. Most most smokers that you can by a Lowes or Home Depot have been known to have inferior thermometers. They can be off as much as +- 30° off at 250°.  If your meat temps rise through the 140° range fairly quickly, chances are you'll get a minimal ring.  Some folks will let their meat warm up at room temp while they are getting the smoker up to temp, others will leave their meat in the fridge and then put the meat on the smoker cold. I have done both ways and I have found that the cold meat takes longer to pass through the 140° and has given me a thicker ring than when I place meat on the smoker that has been sitting out for a while.

I would recommend that you do a couple of things- #1 pick up a couple of digital probe themometers that will allow you to monitor both the internal meat temps and the chamber temps at grate level. #2 Calibrate if possible the themometer on your smoker or get a tru-temp thermometer and once calibrated, swap out the factory thermometer.
 
I have a question about curing salt, if i cure my meat with curing salt before i cook it will it give a bigger smoke ring. Yes or no
 
The rule of thumb for most pits is 1 1/2 hours per pound of meat, so in theory your bisket should have taken 15 hours.  There is a chance that you got a brisket off of a fairly young animal and it hadn't delveloped a lot of connective tissue.

I know on my Lang because of the convection of heat up through the reverse flow plate a 12 lb brisket will take about 9 1/2-10 hours.
 
I have a question about curing salt, if i cure my meat with curing salt before i cook it will it give a bigger smoke ring. Yes or no
No, smoke ring will not be visible with curing, as the cure reacts with the pigments in the meat to give it a pink to light red (depending on species) coloring throughout the meat, if it is fully cured.

Eric
 
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