Posted: 2/24/2010 6:46:30 AM EDT
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For all you cooks out there. Before you throw ribs, brisket or a pork shoulder on the smoker do you brine it? If so what kind of mixtures have you had success with?
The last couple times I made ribs they were really tasty, but a little tough. I was thinking that a few hour soak in some brine might cure that. |
| No need to ever brine ribs, brisket or pork shoulder. What temps are you smoking at ? Use the 3-2-1 method on ribs. 3 hours nekkid, 2 hours wrapped in foil, last hour nekkid again. Use a good rub and you'll be fine. Low and slow is the only way to go on big cuts of meat. |
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I don't brine my ribs, but I do spray them with apple juice every 30-45 minutes. I brine just about everything else for my PORK I use: 2 cups apple juice 1 cup brown sugar A few Tbsp red pepper flakes re-hydrated in a little water in the microwave for 10 seconds and some garlic, either powder or fresh Edit: I forgot I did some pork chops a few weeks ago, and took pictures. Here is my typical setup. I highly recommend the book. I got it for Christmas and I have made some of the best food I have ever eaten from the recipes and techniques he goes over. Brine ingredients:  In a non-scented kitchen garbage bag to brine overnight:  Next day after pat dry, and rub application:  On the smoker (yes you can smoke awesome food on a $50.00 Brinkmann with about $25.00 worth of mods:  On the Grill for a quick sear and sauce application:  Now I am hungry.  |
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i don't brine. never had. get ya a good digital thermometer with dual probes. one so you can monitor the meat and one to monitor the internal temp of the smoker. the dial style stink and are not that acurate. i try to stay around 220. the 3-2-1 method is the way to go. if ya need some pointers thesmokingmeatforum.com is a good place to go also. |
MMMMMMMMM!
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No, in fact I think you'd run the risk of having a mushy meat and maybe even make it harder to get a good bark.
Try foiling your ribs toward the end if you like. You're removing the outer membrane off the back right? Remember that fall off the bone isn't good ribs, thats overcooked. 
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| I never brine them. I remove the membrane the night before & apply the rub, refrigerate. Pull out a few hrs. before somking & allow to reach room temp. Keep smoker between 200* - 225* . I spritz w/ 50/50 mix of apple juice & bourbon every so often. Smoking is an art of trial & error, it's an ongoing learning experience. |
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I never brine them. I remove the membrane the night before & apply the rub, refrigerate. Pull out a few hrs. before somking & allow to reach room temp. Keep smoker between 200* - 225* . I spritz w/ 50/50 mix of apple juice & bourbon every so often. Smoking is an art of trial & error, it's an ongoing learning experience. I basically do the same thing just no spritzing. I usualy throw them on the grill for about 5 minutesat the end to glaze the BBQ sauce. Should I stop that? |
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Quoted: Quoted: I don't brine my ribs, but I do spray them with apple juice every 30-45 minutes. yeah, if you're going to leave them on for 6 hours, they'll need a spray of juice on occasion to keep them moist. That's the beauty of smoking, you can do what works best for you as long as it comes out good. |
A lot of the shrink-wrapped meat in the mega-stores these days is already "enhanced"  ... injected with with a saline solution, more or less.
Whether you care one way or another about this (I myself wish they would leave it the hell alone... I have no desire to pay $5/lb for salt water), it basically makes brining redundant if it's been so treated. Most of the time the packaging will give you some clue if it's been enhanced or not. |
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I never brine them. I remove the membrane the night before & apply the rub, refrigerate. Pull out a few hrs. before somking & allow to reach room temp. Keep smoker between 200* - 225* . I spritz w/ 50/50 mix of apple juice & bourbon every so often. Smoking is an art of trial & error, it's an ongoing learning experience. I basically do the same thing just no spritzing. I usualy throw them on the grill for about 5 minutesat the end to glaze the BBQ sauce. Should I stop that? It depends what you like, there are alot of different styles of bbq represented by different regions around the country. We mix it up here a little bit, we like Texas style rub & bbq sauce ( but w/ sauce on the side) . As far as wood we have moved away from the strong in your face woods like hickory & mesquite. We are fond of the fruit tree's, mainly apple. We think it lets you taste everything as a blend instead of having a dominant flavor or note. Your the mad scientist, get creative ! |
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I don't brine my ribs, but I do spray them with apple juice every 30-45 minutes. yeah, if you're going to leave them on for 6 hours, they'll need a spray of juice on occasion to keep them moist. That's the beauty of smoking, you can do what works best for you as long as it comes out good. I learned through trial and error and picking up things from the old school local competitors. apple juice in a spray bottle is a standard smoking accessory when doing ribs. Baby backs just don't have the same fat content as spares and they dry out if you aren't watching. |
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We brined and smoked our turkey this thanksgiving and it was awesome. We mostly followed the receipe in the "Serious Barbque" book already mentioned. We have also brined other meats and it helps them stay moist. Always do apply some type of rub of course. Brining poultry is pretty common place. |
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A lot of the shrink-wrapped meat in the mega-stores these days is already "enhanced" ... injected with with a saline solution, more or less.
Whether you care one way or another about this (I myself wish they would leave it the hell alone... I have no desire to pay $5/lb for salt water), it basically makes brining redundant if it's been so treated. Most of the time the packaging will give you some clue if it's been enhanced or not. list of ingredients will tell you. If it has "pork ribs, salt, water" listed, look elsewhere. |
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A lot of the shrink-wrapped meat in the mega-stores these days is already "enhanced" ... injected with with a saline solution, more or less.
Whether you care one way or another about this (I myself wish they would leave it the hell alone... I have no desire to pay $5/lb for salt water), it basically makes brining redundant if it's been so treated. Most of the time the packaging will give you some clue if it's been enhanced or not. list of ingredients will tell you. If it has "pork ribs, salt, water" listed, look elsewhere. Probably hijacking the thread to some extent, but it's just kind of a pet peeve of mine... 
First thing I pulled out of the freezer. 8% "marinade" means I just spent 65 cents on saltwater on this package alone. I know, wah wah wah. But it irks me that the marketers are getting away with this... I seriously doubt they are actually doing it to make products taste better. It's just free money for them. [/rant] |
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When I do ribs, I always use this process:
1. Coat with spicy mustard 2. coat with homemade rub until it wont stick anymore 3. wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit overnight or just throw them on the smoker 4. low and slow with hickory and mesquite 5. every 20-30 minutes, spray with mixture of apple cider vinegar, jalepeno juice, hint of worchestire and maybe hot sauce 6. know how to tell if theyre done 7. eat them with your hands, not a fork. no sauce needed it works for me. |
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A lot of the shrink-wrapped meat in the mega-stores these days is already "enhanced" ... injected with with a saline solution, more or less.
Whether you care one way or another about this (I myself wish they would leave it the hell alone... I have no desire to pay $5/lb for salt water), it basically makes brining redundant if it's been so treated. Most of the time the packaging will give you some clue if it's been enhanced or not. list of ingredients will tell you. If it has "pork ribs, salt, water" listed, look elsewhere. Probably hijacking the thread to some extent, but it's just kind of a pet peeve of mine... http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af227/mid_mo/steaklabel.jpg First thing I pulled out of the freezer. 8% "marinade" means I just spent 65 cents on saltwater on this package alone. I know, wah wah wah. But it irks me that the marketers are getting away with this... I seriously doubt they are actually doing it to make products taste better. It's just free money for them. [/rant] where do you buy your meat from? I buy nearly all mine from Costco and don't ever have to deal with that - not to mention their prices are lower for better quality meat compared to my local grocer or meat market. |
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When I do ribs, I always use this process: 1. Coat with spicy mustard 2. coat with homemade rub until it wont stick anymore 3. wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit overnight or just throw them on the smoker 4. low and slow with hickory and mesquite 5. every 20-30 minutes, spray with mixture of apple cider vinegar, jalepeno juice, hint of worchestire and maybe hot sauce 6. know how to tell if theyre done 7. eat them with your hands, not a fork. no sauce needed it works for me. My only complaint with the "spray bottle" method is that you have to open the lid in order to do so, and have a lot of temperature fluxuations because of it. Mine don't ever dry out. |
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When I do ribs, I always use this process: 1. Coat with spicy mustard 2. coat with homemade rub until it wont stick anymore 3. wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit overnight or just throw them on the smoker 4. low and slow with hickory and mesquite 5. every 20-30 minutes, spray with mixture of apple cider vinegar, jalepeno juice, hint of worchestire and maybe hot sauce 6. know how to tell if theyre done 7. eat them with your hands, not a fork. no sauce needed it works for me. My only complaint with the "spray bottle" method is that you have to open the lid in order to do so, and have a lot of temperature fluxuations because of it. Mine don't ever dry out. I just kind of accepted that as a drawback. Don't like it, but I deal with it. I do my smoking in a BGE so the temps stay pretty constant even with lifting the lid (it'll drop to 150 or so and then back to 225 in a couple minutes). If I'm doing spares, I don't worry about moisture so much, but I've ruined a couple racks of baby backs when they got too dry (for my tastes, the family loved them). |
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A lot of the shrink-wrapped meat in the mega-stores these days is already "enhanced" ... injected with with a saline solution, more or less.
Whether you care one way or another about this (I myself wish they would leave it the hell alone... I have no desire to pay $5/lb for salt water), it basically makes brining redundant if it's been so treated. Most of the time the packaging will give you some clue if it's been enhanced or not. list of ingredients will tell you. If it has "pork ribs, salt, water" listed, look elsewhere. Probably hijacking the thread to some extent, but it's just kind of a pet peeve of mine... http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af227/mid_mo/steaklabel.jpg First thing I pulled out of the freezer. 8% "marinade" means I just spent 65 cents on saltwater on this package alone. I know, wah wah wah. But it irks me that the marketers are getting away with this... I seriously doubt they are actually doing it to make products taste better. It's just free money for them. [/rant] where do you buy your meat from? I buy nearly all mine from Costco and don't ever have to deal with that - not to mention their prices are lower for better quality meat compared to my local grocer or meat market. Actually raise a bunch of it ourselves (no problems there!), but supplement as needed from run of the mill Mid-Western grocery stores. This particular package was from a Hy-Vee store, but have noticed the same in pretty much all of the local stores. Dunno what Costco's policy is... not many around in this neck of the woods. It'd be interesting to see what others experience with this is, though the whole thread is probably more appropriate for the Food & Garden forum. |
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When I do ribs, I always use this process: 1. Coat with spicy mustard 2. coat with homemade rub until it wont stick anymore 3. wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit overnight or just throw them on the smoker 4. low and slow with hickory and mesquite 5. every 20-30 minutes, spray with mixture of apple cider vinegar, jalepeno juice, hint of worchestire and maybe hot sauce 6. know how to tell if theyre done 7. eat them with your hands, not a fork. no sauce needed it works for me. My only complaint with the "spray bottle" method is that you have to open the lid in order to do so, and have a lot of temperature fluxuations because of it. Mine don't ever dry out. I just kind of accepted that as a drawback. Don't like it, but I deal with it. I do my smoking in a BGE so the temps stay pretty constant even with lifting the lid (it'll drop to 150 or so and then back to 225 in a couple minutes). If I'm doing spares, I don't worry about moisture so much, but I've ruined a couple racks of baby backs when they got too dry (for my tastes, the family loved them). If they were dry, that just meant you probably cooked them too long. IMO, you're more likely to dry your meat out by opening and closing the lid regularly than you are by not spraying it. No liquid spray is going to penetrate deep into the meat tissue anyway, so it's not like you're injecting it with more moisture by doing so. Most people that spray the outside do so for the flavor aspects of adding a sweet juice to the outside of the ribs. Just my .02 |
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A lot of the shrink-wrapped meat in the mega-stores these days is already "enhanced" ... injected with with a saline solution, more or less.
Whether you care one way or another about this (I myself wish they would leave it the hell alone... I have no desire to pay $5/lb for salt water), it basically makes brining redundant if it's been so treated. Most of the time the packaging will give you some clue if it's been enhanced or not. Exactly. All of the pork I buy comes "enhanced" so it would be a wasted effort. I pack on the rub the night before and mix up either an apple juice or ginger ale spritz to wet it down with in the last hour or two. I was going to do a buttermilk brine on the turkey I smoked for thanksgiving but I didn't defrost the turkey in time. |
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When I do ribs, I always use this process: 1. Coat with spicy mustard 2. coat with homemade rub until it wont stick anymore 3. wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit overnight or just throw them on the smoker 4. low and slow with hickory and mesquite 5. every 20-30 minutes, spray with mixture of apple cider vinegar, jalepeno juice, hint of worchestire and maybe hot sauce 6. know how to tell if theyre done 7. eat them with your hands, not a fork. no sauce needed it works for me. My only complaint with the "spray bottle" method is that you have to open the lid in order to do so, and have a lot of temperature fluxuations because of it. Mine don't ever dry out. I just kind of accepted that as a drawback. Don't like it, but I deal with it. I do my smoking in a BGE so the temps stay pretty constant even with lifting the lid (it'll drop to 150 or so and then back to 225 in a couple minutes). If I'm doing spares, I don't worry about moisture so much, but I've ruined a couple racks of baby backs when they got too dry (for my tastes, the family loved them). If they were dry, that just meant you probably cooked them too long. IMO, you're more likely to dry your meat out by opening and closing the lid regularly than you are by not spraying it. No liquid spray is going to penetrate deep into the meat tissue anyway, so it's not like you're injecting it with more moisture by doing so. Most people that spray the outside do so for the flavor aspects of adding a sweet juice to the outside of the ribs. Just my .02 I believe you're correct on that one (I was doing spares and BB's). I can't recall the exact particulars from that specific batch, but I know they should've come off about an hour earlier. Family loved them, but I wasn't satisfied. FWIW, I'm getting better candidates for smoking from a local meat merchant that set up in the town over. Thicker BB's and good-looking spares. Since the shift from grocery store/wal mart ribs to my new guy, the results have improved greatly. Don't know if it's because they're more fresh, or better pigs, but I see a much more moist finished product. Downside is the price and PITA factor of having to do some driving to get them. ETA: Now that I think about it, how would spraying not affect moisture content? Here's my thought: If I add moisture to the outside of a smoking meat, would that not prevent the drawing out of moisture from the inside? The "sprayed on" moisture would evaporate first before the interior juices were brought to the surface and subsequently evaporated. |
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ETA: Now that I think about it, how would spraying not affect moisture content? Here's my thought: If I add moisture to the outside of a smoking meat, would that not prevent the drawing out of moisture from the inside? The "sprayed on" moisture would evaporate first before the interior juices were brought to the surface and subsequently evaporated. I doubt spraying moisture on the outside has any effect on the rate moisture is cooked out of the meat (because it's internal temperature that dictates the amount of moisture that's cooked off), it's going to happen simultaneously, not "the outside first, then the inside". After the first hour of smoking the meat, it usually has a decent "bark" on the outside that isn't really going to be penetrated by spraying on some juice. Losing moisture is OK and inevitable, and as long as you don't overcook the meat you won't get dry ribs. Spraying the outside is very common and I see the competition guys doing it all the time, but I think the main reason they do it is because as the juice evaporates, it leaves behind a sugary, sweet coating that enhances the flavor of the bark. I've personally found that removing the lid or opening the door causes great temperature swings in my smoker - first by losing a bunch of the internal heat and quickly dropping, then by a sudden oxygen infusion fanning my coals and spiking much higher. I believe a flat, linear temperature is key to breaking down the fats in an efficient manner, and that the "peaks and valleys" caused by temperature drops and spikes have an effect on this process. While I use the 3-2-1 method as a general guideline, I rely on visual inspection and monitoring how far the meat has pulled back from the tip of the bone. By the time 3/8-1/2" of bone is showing, they're ready to come off. Using better quality ribs can make a big difference provided you do your part. The babybacks I get from Costco have a ton of meat on them compared to the local grocers and meat markets. They always come out excellent, and are significantly cheaper too. I like to BBQ. 
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ETA: Now that I think about it, how would spraying not affect moisture content? Here's my thought: If I add moisture to the outside of a smoking meat, would that not prevent the drawing out of moisture from the inside? The "sprayed on" moisture would evaporate first before the interior juices were brought to the surface and subsequently evaporated. I doubt spraying moisture on the outside has any effect on the rate moisture is cooked out of the meat (because it's internal temperature that dictates the amount of moisture that's cooked off), it's going to happen simultaneously, not "the outside first, then the inside". After the first hour of smoking the meat, it usually has a decent "bark" on the outside that isn't really going to be penetrated by spraying on some juice. Losing moisture is OK and inevitable, and as long as you don't overcook the meat you won't get dry ribs. Spraying the outside is very common and I see the competition guys doing it all the time, but I think the main reason they do it is because as the juice evaporates, it leaves behind a sugary, sweet coating that enhances the flavor of the bark. I've personally found that removing the lid causes great temperature swings in my smoker - first by losing a bunch of the internal heat and quickly dropped, then by a sudden oxygen infusion fanning my coals and spiking much higher. I believe a flat, linear temperature is key to breaking down the fats in an efficient manner, and that the "peaks and valleys" caused by temperature drops and spikes have an effect on this process. While I use the 3-2-1 method as a general guideline, I rely on visual inspection and monitoring how far the meat has pulled back from the tip of the bone. By the time 3/8-1/2" of bone is showing, they're ready to come off. Using better quality ribs can make a big difference provided you do your part. The babybacks I get from Costco have a ton of meat on them compared to the local grocers and meat markets. They always come out excellent, and are significantly cheaper too. I like to BBQ. as do i and have been doing it quite a while. never stop learning though. 6 hours on BBs seems awfully long. 4.5 @225 generally yields good results. I do my spares between 6-7 and they're excellent (but they're easier to smoke IMO). |
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ETA: Now that I think about it, how would spraying not affect moisture content? Here's my thought: If I add moisture to the outside of a smoking meat, would that not prevent the drawing out of moisture from the inside? The "sprayed on" moisture would evaporate first before the interior juices were brought to the surface and subsequently evaporated. I doubt spraying moisture on the outside has any effect on the rate moisture is cooked out of the meat (because it's internal temperature that dictates the amount of moisture that's cooked off), it's going to happen simultaneously, not "the outside first, then the inside". After the first hour of smoking the meat, it usually has a decent "bark" on the outside that isn't really going to be penetrated by spraying on some juice. Losing moisture is OK and inevitable, and as long as you don't overcook the meat you won't get dry ribs. Spraying the outside is very common and I see the competition guys doing it all the time, but I think the main reason they do it is because as the juice evaporates, it leaves behind a sugary, sweet coating that enhances the flavor of the bark. I've personally found that removing the lid causes great temperature swings in my smoker - first by losing a bunch of the internal heat and quickly dropped, then by a sudden oxygen infusion fanning my coals and spiking much higher. I believe a flat, linear temperature is key to breaking down the fats in an efficient manner, and that the "peaks and valleys" caused by temperature drops and spikes have an effect on this process. While I use the 3-2-1 method as a general guideline, I rely on visual inspection and monitoring how far the meat has pulled back from the tip of the bone. By the time 3/8-1/2" of bone is showing, they're ready to come off. Using better quality ribs can make a big difference provided you do your part. The babybacks I get from Costco have a ton of meat on them compared to the local grocers and meat markets. They always come out excellent, and are significantly cheaper too. I like to BBQ. as do i and have been doing it quite a while. never stop learning though. 6 hours on BBs seems awfully long. 4.5 @225 generally yields good results. I do my spares between 6-7 and they're excellent (but they're easier to smoke IMO). do you cut the tips off of the spares? most bbq places around here dont and i think thats nasty |
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ETA: Now that I think about it, how would spraying not affect moisture content? Here's my thought: If I add moisture to the outside of a smoking meat, would that not prevent the drawing out of moisture from the inside? The "sprayed on" moisture would evaporate first before the interior juices were brought to the surface and subsequently evaporated. I doubt spraying moisture on the outside has any effect on the rate moisture is cooked out of the meat (because it's internal temperature that dictates the amount of moisture that's cooked off), it's going to happen simultaneously, not "the outside first, then the inside". After the first hour of smoking the meat, it usually has a decent "bark" on the outside that isn't really going to be penetrated by spraying on some juice. Losing moisture is OK and inevitable, and as long as you don't overcook the meat you won't get dry ribs. Spraying the outside is very common and I see the competition guys doing it all the time, but I think the main reason they do it is because as the juice evaporates, it leaves behind a sugary, sweet coating that enhances the flavor of the bark. I've personally found that removing the lid causes great temperature swings in my smoker - first by losing a bunch of the internal heat and quickly dropped, then by a sudden oxygen infusion fanning my coals and spiking much higher. I believe a flat, linear temperature is key to breaking down the fats in an efficient manner, and that the "peaks and valleys" caused by temperature drops and spikes have an effect on this process. While I use the 3-2-1 method as a general guideline, I rely on visual inspection and monitoring how far the meat has pulled back from the tip of the bone. By the time 3/8-1/2" of bone is showing, they're ready to come off. Using better quality ribs can make a big difference provided you do your part. The babybacks I get from Costco have a ton of meat on them compared to the local grocers and meat markets. They always come out excellent, and are significantly cheaper too. I like to BBQ. as do i and have been doing it quite a while. never stop learning though. 6 hours on BBs seems awfully long. 4.5 @225 generally yields good results. I do my spares between 6-7 and they're excellent (but they're easier to smoke IMO). do you cut the tips off of the spares? most bbq places around here dont and i think thats nasty I believe trimming the ribs in that manner is referred to as "St Louis style". I don't - there's a lot of fat right in the tips but when you render it off, there's some really tender (and tasty) meat there. I rarely do spares though. Babybacks are just too damned good. |
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ETA: Now that I think about it, how would spraying not affect moisture content? Here's my thought: If I add moisture to the outside of a smoking meat, would that not prevent the drawing out of moisture from the inside? The "sprayed on" moisture would evaporate first before the interior juices were brought to the surface and subsequently evaporated. I doubt spraying moisture on the outside has any effect on the rate moisture is cooked out of the meat (because it's internal temperature that dictates the amount of moisture that's cooked off), it's going to happen simultaneously, not "the outside first, then the inside". After the first hour of smoking the meat, it usually has a decent "bark" on the outside that isn't really going to be penetrated by spraying on some juice. Losing moisture is OK and inevitable, and as long as you don't overcook the meat you won't get dry ribs. Spraying the outside is very common and I see the competition guys doing it all the time, but I think the main reason they do it is because as the juice evaporates, it leaves behind a sugary, sweet coating that enhances the flavor of the bark. I've personally found that removing the lid causes great temperature swings in my smoker - first by losing a bunch of the internal heat and quickly dropped, then by a sudden oxygen infusion fanning my coals and spiking much higher. I believe a flat, linear temperature is key to breaking down the fats in an efficient manner, and that the "peaks and valleys" caused by temperature drops and spikes have an effect on this process. While I use the 3-2-1 method as a general guideline, I rely on visual inspection and monitoring how far the meat has pulled back from the tip of the bone. By the time 3/8-1/2" of bone is showing, they're ready to come off. Using better quality ribs can make a big difference provided you do your part. The babybacks I get from Costco have a ton of meat on them compared to the local grocers and meat markets. They always come out excellent, and are significantly cheaper too. I like to BBQ. as do i and have been doing it quite a while. never stop learning though. 6 hours on BBs seems awfully long. 4.5 @225 generally yields good results. I do my spares between 6-7 and they're excellent (but they're easier to smoke IMO). do you cut the tips off of the spares? most bbq places around here dont and i think thats nasty Good for cooking, but I'm not a fan of eating it most of the time. I hate biting in to a good rib and coming down on that spongy cartilage. But like all things, I've got friends who eat around that and don't care one bit if it's there. Like evo said, when trimmed it's a "St Louis style". ah, leave it on, trim it off...doesn't matter much. I usually leave it on and let folks cut it off if they want to. |