Can I get that "cue" taste perfected?


 
C

Chris Mo

TVWBB Member
Hey all,

When I smoke ribs they always turn out pretty darn good, but the other day my buddy brought me some ribs they were cooking in the parking lot of a local place over charcoal and it just had the most amazing flavor. You could really taste that "cue" flavor and I was wondering how to replicate that on my WSM. I always cook ribs on the top rack and use the water bowl with no water in it. I smoke around 225-250 for about 4 hours until done and foil during the cook for a few. But while my ribs are smoked, they only have the smoked flavor and not the charcoal flavor. Does anyone have any ideas how to obtain the flavor I'm looking for? I didn't know if I cooked them directly over the coals would make the ribs burn so I'm unsure if it's possible. I thought about little direct heat for maybe a half hour and then pop the bowl back in for indirect? Well, if anyone has had any success in this field and has some advice I'd greatly appreciate it. I might test some things out this afternoon. Thanks everyone!
 
My first thought is that they were probably giving them a good sear to get that flavor you are talking about. You can sear them and then move to indirect or sear at the end. To sear, I remove the middle section of the WSM and place the top rack over the coals for a few minutes.
 
A friend of mine recently took the water pan out completely and put ribs on top rack and cooked entire time. No foiling either. The fat dripping into the coals in the bottom and the smoke from that gave them that charcoal flavor. He used a few wood chunks as well. I'm sure the bottom of his smoker is a mess but they were very good.
 
Well, I tried doing a cook with two slabs of baby backs and no water pan. It was awesomely delicious! I used four chunks of wood (2 small hickory and 1 apple and 1 cherry) and then I dumped a hot load of coal in the smoker followed by another load of unlit on top. Once the unlit started to get a little bit white, I added the chunks and assembled the cooker with the top lid open and the three bottom ones closed for the whole cook. It took about an hour and a half to get the temps down to 250 and I cooked the ribs for 3.5 hours and basted with Sierra Nevada beer mixed with apple cider vinegar and some 7-UP soda. I knew the results where great when my wife gave me compliments on how good they were. I haven't checked the bottom of the smoker yet to see how messy it got, but if it's not too bad I'll be doing it this way again. I would have gotten pics, but we dug in too fast! Next time! Thanks for the advice everyone!
 
To me, BBQ is slow & low. Either with coal and wood or just coal. As long as it's slow & low and I get a nice pink smoke ring I'm a happy boy. Grilling is what I consider fast & hot in my book, either with gas or coal, but it it ain't slow & low it ain't BBQ. I achieved the flavor I was searching for by a good balance of both with the wood and coal and didn't really feel that one taste overpowered the other.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chris Mo:
To me, BBQ is slow & low. Either with coal and wood or just coal. As long as it's slow & low and I get a nice pink smoke ring I'm a happy boy. Grilling is what I consider fast & hot in my book, either with gas or coal, but it it ain't slow & low it ain't BBQ. I achieved the flavor I was searching for by a good balance of both with the wood and coal and didn't really feel that one taste overpowered the other. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll rather call the flavor in question "fat in the fire" or "pit" flavor, as opposed to "grilled" or "charcoal" flavor, but personally, I prefer wood smoke alone, at least if fat is dripping on coals in a small, closed environment such as a wsm or UDS. Believe it or not, I've added a bit of pit flavor to pork butts in my wsm by simply tossing a couple of fat chunks on the coals. Made my wsm pork taste very similiar to bbq off my old UDS.

Taste aside though, fat in the fire can really attract some flies.
 
I'm not sure what flavor you were experiencing, but charcoal doesn't really have a flavor by itself. The usual charcoal flavor is burnt fat smoke on the meat. That flavor is probably a part of grilling rather than BBQing. Your description is a little vague to be more precise.



<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chris Mo:
Hey all,

When I smoke ribs they always turn out pretty darn good, but the other day my buddy brought me some ribs they were cooking in the parking lot of a local place over charcoal and it just had the most amazing flavor. You could really taste that "cue" flavor and I was wondering how to replicate that on my WSM. I always cook ribs on the top rack and use the water bowl with no water in it. I smoke around 225-250 for about 4 hours until done and foil during the cook for a few. But while my ribs are smoked, they only have the smoked flavor and not the charcoal flavor. Does anyone have any ideas how to obtain the flavor I'm looking for? I didn't know if I cooked them directly over the coals would make the ribs burn so I'm unsure if it's possible. I thought about little direct heat for maybe a half hour and then pop the bowl back in for indirect? Well, if anyone has had any success in this field and has some advice I'd greatly appreciate it. I might test some things out this afternoon. Thanks everyone! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
<snip>I've added a bit of pit flavor to pork butts in my wsm by simply tossing a couple of fat chunks on the coals. Made my wsm pork taste very similiar to bbq off my old UDS.

Taste aside though, fat in the fire can really attract some flies. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

next time I do ribs I might omit the water pan (unless the bottom rack is needed for capacity which it usually is) or maybe just throw some rib scraps on the fire.
 
I also suspect that they were grilling the ribs. Another thing you should be considering is what fuel they were using. There is a huge taste difference between Kingsford brickets and a good quality lump charcoal.
 
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