Ribs have blackened look


 
R

RJ Lasek

New member
Hi All,

I've been smoking some Baby Back ribs in the WSM, and lately am not happy with the final look. I think I may be smoking the meat too much. I smoke them about 3 hours at 225-240. I apply a generous rub after painting with yellow mustard. They taste good, the meat is very pink and I can definitely taste the smoke. However, it seems like lately the final look of the meat is 'blackened'. I am used to this type of a bark or color for a large cut of meat. What are your thoughts? Too much smoke?
 
You say they taste good, that kinda says it
icon_smile.gif
 
If you are used to that coloring for a large cut of meat and the ribs taste good, you have no problem. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
If you're smoking baby backs in 3 hours, my guess would be that your temps are higher than 225-240 and if that's the case, I would guess the sugar in your rub is caramelizing causing the "blackened" appearance.
 
Sugar won't caramelize at those temps. What it will do is melt. If there is substantial sugar melting and substantial smoke to stick to the sticky melted sugar... .

Meanwhile, anything already dark (chilies, e.g.) doesn't help as dark smoke particulates piling on to already dark substances make them darker still.

I'm not a fan of dark, often almost black ribs either. Lessen the smoke, sugar, chilies (especially, and/or other dark rub ingredients) or do combination of all of this.
 
RJ - what kind of smoke wood and how much are you using? Give a quantity, I.E. - how many chunks of what nominal size (golf ball, fist, etc)

When you are cooking are you seeing black smoke or white/bluish smoke coming of the top vent?

Although I personally don't see the purpose to use mustard to make rubs stick I know lots of folks do. I don't think that has anything to do with the color.

One thing to try is a single rack cook the same way but no smoke wood. Just to see if you can eliminate that as the key element.

Otherwise you can keep things the same and foil for one third of the time or so as another way to keep things the same and elimintae amount of smoke as the culprit.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
Sugar won't caramelize at those temps. What it will do is melt. If there is substantial sugar melting and substantial smoke to stick to the sticky melted sugar... .

Meanwhile, anything already dark (chilies, e.g.) doesn't help as dark smoke particulates piling on to already dark substances make them darker still.

I'm not a fan of dark, often almost black ribs either. Lessen the smoke, sugar, chilies (especially, and/or other dark rub ingredients) or do combination of all of this. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Kevin what rub would you recommend that meets that criteria? (I have the same issue as well)

Thanks
 
Here is an example of one. I developed it for a comp team a few years ago. Note the small quantities of dark items, especially relativly to the light items:

T=tablespoon t=teaspoon

4 T organic natural sugar (one could use regular white)

1 T turbinado (one could use regular white)

3 T gran onion

1 T gran garlic

1 t mild Chimayo (NM) ground chile (one could use ancho)

2 t hot Chimayo (NM) ground chile (one could use guajillo)

1/2 t ground African bird chile (one could use cayenne or chile de árbol)

1/2 t ground white pepper

1/2 t ground clove

1/2 t ground cardamom

1 t ground coriander

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t ground allspice

2 t Worcestershire powder

1 t amchur (aka amchoor; it is ground dried unripe mango--great fruit
and sourness)
 
3 hours at 240?? They're not done unless they are really small, thin ribs. That, or you're not really at 240.

There is the possiblity also that your fire is very cold and you're putting a lot of soot on the ribs and giving it that blackened look. But that would have to be a very cold fire. How much of a charcoal load are you putting in? For a 3 hour cook at 240 it should be something like a half chimney of unlit and a half chimney of lit.

Russ
 
Thanks for all the comments. I should clarify that I'm smoking for 3 hours but then wrapping with a liquid baste for another hour, then back on for 30 minutes. But the blackening happens by the end of 3 hours. I probably used too much charcoal and wood. I used 5 or 6 fist-sized chunks on just one rack of ribs. I also do have quite a bit of brown sugar and white sugar in the rub. I think the temp is pretty accurate. I have a grate-level digital stat that was staying around 230-240 the entire time. I didn't think about charcoal. I had probably a full chimney of lit and almost a full of unlit.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RJ Lasek:
Thanks for all the comments. I should clarify that I'm smoking for 3 hours but then wrapping with a liquid baste for another hour, then back on for 30 minutes. But the blackening happens by the end of 3 hours. I probably used too much charcoal and wood. I used 5 or 6 fist-sized chunks on just one rack of ribs. I also do have quite a bit of brown sugar and white sugar in the rub. I think the temp is pretty accurate. I have a grate-level digital stat that was staying around 230-240 the entire time. I didn't think about charcoal. I had probably a full chimney of lit and almost a full of unlit. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm, 5 or 6 fist size chunks I think is the root cause IMHO, not the amount of charcoal. I don't think you need that much lit but you seem to be controlling/maintaining temps just fine.

Photo of the ribs - they look great to me as far as interior. So you just have a minor tweak to your process to figure out I wouldn't change too much.
 
I agree, too much smoke wood. Especially if it's hickory, mesquite, or oak. For one rack of ribs I would cut it back to maybe two. Possibly start off with one for the first hour and then drop the second one in at hour two.

Was the bark on the ribs bitter tasting at all? What kind of wood was it?

Russ
 
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