Bark improvement

[Chuck-roaniecowpony]

Almost all the mop guys use sugar. Sugar will burn a bit and make harder bark. Personally, I put moist brisket flat as a goal over bark. I just can't take much dry brisket flat.

 

[Donna Fong]

For the most part I am satisfied with my butt and brisket cooks.
I just think I could and should do a better job with my bark as a finished product.
It just seems to stay soggy after the wrap.

I mean I guess it’s all right.
I have never had a complaint but I’d kinda would like it to have a chicken skin crispiness to it.
Maybe “chicken skin crispiness” is not the best way to describe what I want but I want to do better than the dark mush on the outside I sometimes scape off.

I think I can do better.
I might go Texas S&P only style then a sear to finish it off and just add my mixture of flavors into the sauce as an experiment.
Maybe I’m spritzing too much to keep it moist.
I dunno.

Thoughts?
Thanks.
Andy.

Andy,
You might be spritzing too much. However, if you live in Danville, CA then we are in the same weather zone. I have the same problem and did noticed it when I compared my product with other smokers. It was most noticeable when I was at a contest and I agreed to serve the public with a buddy who had an ABS smoker. We cooked pork butts on it and I was floored how lovely the crust was.
What was the difference? The ABS system he used had rotating racks and air was also being pushed through the smoker. The only time I have reproduced a nice crust was when we were at Weber in Illinois. We didn't use any blower and just cooked wagyu briskets, which we use often, overnight. I couldn't believe the darkness and solid crust we got. The approach was the same as always but being in a high humid area made a difference.
I think it is a combination of airflow and humidity which can be fixed to some degree. But nothing replaces cooking in a perfectly humid area with good airflow throughout the cook. Living in the Bay Area it is nice and dry. Good for us. Bad for bbq.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

So what exactly is bark and what makes bark on some meat look better than another? Part of it is the meat surface drying out, right? But you can get the meat too crusty where it's a layer of jerky and hard to cut through. In Texas we'll refer to the layer of seasoning and smoke over rendered fat as bark but that's not really the same thing is it? There's bark you get from a sear. You have that delicious interaction of smoke, seasoning(including sugar) and surface in any case. How to improve it depends on what about it you want to improve.

I think texturally we can do things like use coarser or finer grinds of our seasoning. The drying out of the surface enough before wrapping so that the wrapping doesn't ruin the surface matters. Do we add or remove humidity? Getting a good enough rendering of fat on the surface before wrapping for that Texas style brisket bark. We can add something like tallow, lard or ghee to get a shinier surface. For color we can use different seasonings and levels of smoke. Anyway, these are just some thoughts on the subject without any real solutions.

 

[MartinB]

Don't wrap it until you have the bark that you want.

Wrapped in paper, not tin foil.

Most of the time I don't wrap butts anymore because they just don't need it. I don't spritz them much either

There's a distiction between a bark that's savory and edible and one that's too tough and crumbly and hard. I've been on the wrong side of that a couple of times with a brisket where I overslept and woke up and wrapped it when it was 175 to 185. If it crumbles when you start to slice into it that's not good.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

Donna says air flow, Dustin says seasoning .......... I think a combination of the two.

In the Carolina Pork vid posted above, Chef Tom uses Malcolm Reed's TX Brisket rub ( which btw, he got great bark on that butt ) . I've used that rub, its SPOG basically, but its very course. A course rub combined with good air flow creates bark.

 

[MartinB]

I've never struggled with bark on a pork butt or brisket on the WSM. The pork butt of course has sugar, but the brisket does not. They both come out with great bark, as long as i do wrap the brisket somewhere between 160 and 175. This may just be a fortunate characteristic of a WSM that not all smokers have, I don't have much experience with other things.

I have gotten poor to no bark on ribs when I first got started, when I wrapped before they were really ready, and what was thought to be bark....just got soggy and ran off after wrapping. When taking out of the foil they look like they'd been braised in the oven. Light brown all over, swimming in juice. They still ate fine after saucing.... But they didn't have that slightly tough slightly chewy surface that a good rib should have IMO. That surface holds the rib meat together when it's cooked to the point that it can be plucked off the bone with my teeth.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

This Chef Tom vid will start with him talking about a course rub he's using on a pork butt, he says it helps bark development.

 

[RichPB (richlife)]

I never wrap butts.

I wrap brisket, after it a good bark is set. Once it's set, wrapping should have a negligible affect on it.

Rick or anyone who knows, when do you wrap your brisket? I've wrapped at 150-160 and always found the bark softened -- hardly "bark" at all.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I've done the Harry Soo fingernail test where you see if it comes off easily for years. But with briskets lately I've also been taking into account the rendering of the surface fat, trying to get that sticky yellow fat.

 

[Lynn Dollar]

Rick or anyone who knows, when do you wrap your brisket? I've wrapped at 150-160 and always found the bark softened -- hardly "bark" at all.

I wrap after it comes out of the stall , in the 175 to 180 range. And the bark has to be what I want, before I wrap.

In the stall, it will still be " sweating " the moisture from inside the brisket.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Rick or anyone who knows, when do you wrap your brisket? I've wrapped at 150-160 and always found the bark softened -- hardly "bark" at all.

for me, post-stall, always for firmed and set bark. my goto temp is 173-175, when the entire brisket is out of the stall. then paper wrap and back on the grill to finish to temp.

 

[MartinB]

Rick or anyone who knows, when do you wrap your brisket? I've wrapped at 150-160 and always found the bark softened -- hardly "bark" at all.

Too low temp. I don't start looking till 165. It's usually between 165 and 175 i wrap ,with my thermometer in the thickest part of the brisket. In the deckle. Just wrap it when you get the outside looking right.

Bark is essentially caramelized toasted surface and seasonings and smoke. The maillard reactions have taken place on surface. But if you go too far it will be dry hard crumbly even burnt. It's really what you're looking for on the outside of just about anything you cook, a browned toasted surface.....why.... Because it is so flavorful.

It's tricky at night because under a flash light it doesn't look black it only looks light brown. And it will get darker when it's soaked with grease while wrapped, and look blacker.....but you really won't get any more bark once you wrap it. No right or wrong amount, it's personal preference. But I'd say if it crumbles when you try to slice into it, it wasn't wrapped early enough. So simply wrap sooner the next time. It's still good.

 

[RichPB (richlife)]

Thanks all for the great info!

 

[Rick P]

Rick or anyone who knows, when do you wrap your brisket? I've wrapped at 150-160 and always found the bark softened -- hardly "bark" at all.

After it passes the "scratch" test.
It's usually in the neighborhood of 170°

 

[MartinB]

I'm curing most of the flat off of a brisket to make pastrami so I was going to cook just the point today.
So I thought I'd take some pictures

Left to right: 157F , 163F , 165F, 167F , 170F , 172F, final

I of course wrapped it 172 F. Because this is just a point it's fairly hard to mess up there's a lot of fat in it so it could go farther, but I'm trying to get it done to eat tonight. Using slightly higher heat too accomplish that, 315 F . The point can take the abuse. I'll take it to 210 just to make sure the point renders sufficiently. Maybe more