Does Hickory make beef taste like pork?

[MKEvenson]

So this smoke day I smoked beef short ribs uncut for 6 hrs at around 225-240. The meat came out very tender and delicious. When I asked my favorite taste tester (my wife), how her meat was she says"it tastes like pork" I used Lazzari lump coal and 4-5 small chunks of hickory wood for smoke. I used a dried mushroom rub with garlic,onion and celery seed. Salt and green pepper. Also a mop of beef broth and my rub. So I'm thinking "maybe the wood"

Thanks, Mark

 

[TravisH]

Maybe it's not "pork" it's tasting like?

Do you use the same rub and hickory for pork?

It could be these familiar flavors she's associating with pork, not pork itself.

Awhile back, my wife fell in luv with using Zesty Italian dressing as a marinade for chicken and then started using it for just about everything. Eventually, everything started tasting the same ... like "chicken".

 

[MKEvenson]

Travis, first time for this rub and 2nd using hickory smoke. Who knows. Seems that I read somewhere that if you used "something" it made the meat tast like ham. Can't remeber what the "something" was, but thought that it might be the hickory smoke.

 

[dylan]

what you are thinking of is too much salt on ribs/butt in your rub will result in "hamming" the meat. recently and unrepeated(unfortunately)i had my best brisket cook practicing for a comp. the flat was tender and moist, with good beef flavor. the point, however, had tanscended into a whole different flavor profile. my wife said pork. it was so flavorful and tender, i think it gave the impression of being great pork. i took it as a compliment. she has a stong culinary background.

 

[MKEvenson]

Dylan, thanks, the mystery solved. Actually on this rub I decided not to add salt to the rub at all, instead I salted the meat as if it were cooked and applied rub on top of the salt. It certainly wasn't too salty. I think that I will chalk it up to a combination of flavor profiles.

Mark