I need help getting more bark


 
J

John_H

TVWBB Member
I've had my wsm less than a year and have tried a few different butt rub recipes. I've finally gotten the hang of handling temps and I'm ready to start tweaking my recipes. One thing that I want to be able to do is to increase my bark. Does anyone know how this is done? Are there any links here discussing it? As always, thanks in advance for the great answers you all always provide.

John
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Don Dukes:
You could try butterflying the butts so that rub is applied on more surface area.

-Don </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep. Smaller pieces. Only thing you need to be careful of is drying out the small pieces since the surface area that creates more bark is also more prone to drying out.
 
I had neverly really thought about smaller pieces. Good idea I poorly worded my original question. What I really meant was how do I get a thicker bark? Somehow get more spice to stick to the meat?

John
 
I will generally rub very thoroughly and let it sit overnight if possible.......I use rubber gloves and really apply a generous portion of rub, really applying pressure and rubbing into the meat.....making sure every square inch is covered quite well.

I will then let the meat rest for an hour or two prior to smoking to get it closer to room temp before going in the smoker.

I will then rub the meat again before smoking. I find that a good deal will stick to the meat again if you follow this process.

Try adding a little rub to your meat at the end, as you're pulling and mixing together; that will also give you a little more kick throughout the meat.

Good luck.......now you got me thinkin' about smoking something special for this weekend's games!!
 
For better bark, you could try skipping the water in the pan. I especially notice a difference in the bark of my ribs when comparing water with a dry pan, cooking in the 250-275 range. The water steams the ribs, hampering the bark formation quite a bit. However, I'm plenty satisfied with the bark when doing a long cook at 225-250 with water in the pan.

As to your rub, try more sugar, and if your meat is stone cold right out of the fridge, salting or smearing on some mustard first will help the rub adhere. However, as long as you're not in a big hurry and you let the meat sit out a bit, the rub will adhere just fine by itself. You can rub up to 12 hours before and reapply some more, or just apply rub right before smoking. I've had good results either way, as long as the rub has started making the meat "sweat", but to be honest, foiling has really been my only hurdle to good bark. For butts, you really want to apply the rub quite heavily, or about as heavy as will adhere to the meat.
 
I would look into any or all of the following. I'm pretty sure that all of them play into controlling the amount of / depth of / texture of the bark:

SUGAR - What is the sugar content ot the rubs that you have been using? In my experience, the sugar combines with the meat juices and helps to harden the other herbs / spices together. (I use turbinado sugar, which I've been told is less prone to scorching / burning.)

SURFACE AREA OF MEAT - How big of meat chunks to you usually get. The shoulder that I buy usually comes in chunks around 6-7 lbs. After cooking, I find that I like the ratio of inside meat to outside meat that I get. If you use bigger chunks - you'll have less Surfac Area and, therefore, less bark. If your meat market / butcher sells big 12-pounders, maybe ask if you can get them sawed in half?

FOILING - I do not foil butts. Foiling traps moisture, which softens the bark, sometimes when you do this, the dampened rub and juices stick to the foil and come-off with it when you remove the foil. If you are into foiling, it helps to put the meat back on for a while after un-wrapping it, in order to allow the bark to dry-out and re-solidify a bit.

AMOUNT OF RUB - As others have stated, when cooking PP / shoulder, I pat it down thoroughly with rub. I basically do not see the meat through the rub, until it starts to pull a bit of moisture out of the meat, while it's cool.

LET THE RUB SIT A WHILE - I find that I do not need to let it sit too long, but I start with cold meat, and apply the rub before I start my fire. This way, it sits with the rub for about a half hour before I put the meat into the WSM.

The solution may be a combination of all of these factors, plus I'm sure that there are others that I have overlooked.

Hope this helps!
 
All good ideas. I appreciate it. Do you think that basting a couple of times after the bark has set would help any?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ron G.:
I would look into any or all of the following. I'm pretty sure that all of them play into controlling the amount of / depth of / texture of the bark:

SUGAR - What is the sugar content ot the rubs that you have been using? In my experience, the sugar combines with the meat juices and helps to harden the other herbs / spices together. (I use turbinado sugar, which I've been told is less prone to scorching / burning.)

SURFACE AREA OF MEAT - How big of meat chunks to you usually get. The shoulder that I buy usually comes in chunks around 6-7 lbs. After cooking, I find that I like the ratio of inside meat to outside meat that I get. If you use bigger chunks - you'll have less Surfac Area and, therefore, less bark. If your meat market / butcher sells big 12-pounders, maybe ask if you can get them sawed in half?

FOILING - I do not foil butts. Foiling traps moisture, which softens the bark, sometimes when you do this, the dampened rub and juices stick to the foil and come-off with it when you remove the foil. If you are into foiling, it helps to put the meat back on for a while after un-wrapping it, in order to allow the bark to dry-out and re-solidify a bit.

AMOUNT OF RUB - As others have stated, when cooking PP / shoulder, I pat it down thoroughly with rub. I basically do not see the meat through the rub, until it starts to pull a bit of moisture out of the meat, while it's cool.

LET THE RUB SIT A WHILE - I find that I do not need to let it sit too long, but I start with cold meat, and apply the rub before I start my fire. This way, it sits with the rub for about a half hour before I put the meat into the WSM.

The solution may be a combination of all of these factors, plus I'm sure that there are others that I have overlooked... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, I believe ya pretty much covered it, Ron, and the same always works for me. I didn't mention butterflying or such like some competitors do as I thought it more important to stick to the basics, as in "good bark" before "more bark".
 
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