Ring envy.


 
D

David Somerville

TVWBB Fan
I have an itty bitty smoke ring
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Brisket after resting

I smoked a 10 lb brisket for 12 hours at ~250 with what I thought was plenty of hickory. I had plenty of smoke (I thought) for the first few hours before I went to bed.

Sliced

When I sliced it open I was very dissapointed in the size of my ring.

I started with a mustard slther and a typical salt/sugar/pepper rub. I let the brisket sit at room temp for an hour before I put it on the WSM fat side down. I did not touch anything until the brisket was fork tender (~195) when I pulled and wrapped.

Any suggestions for getting a better ring?
 
straight from fridge to WSM. and if you are doing minion method put the meat on as soon as you put the lit coals and wood on the unlit coal and wood.
 
Is it possible the mustard slather sealed the meat from the smoke, retarding the nitrite reaction? Also, there's some stuff on the web that moisture on the surface of the meat helps, so using water in the water pan and/or soaked wood can increase the humidity and that helps.

I'm thinking the mustard is probably the problem. However, the mustard also has some big benefits, so maybe it's better to not worry about the smoke ring.
 
i use mustard and have no problems with my smoke ring. but then i'm not that worried about the smoke ring as long as the meat is soft and tastes good. how was the meat?
 
George,

Meat was a mixed bag. The flat was tender but rather tasteless. I chalked that up to the brisket being Select rather than Choice. Will probably end up in some chili.

The point was GREAT. Melt in your mouth, meaty and smokey.
 
Interesting... we've always had great smoke rings, and I didn't realize how much science went into achieving those... guess it was just luck every time on our part.
 
David, Steve is right . The colder the better. I've even put meat on partially frozen. As long as long as I can get my temp probe in the meats ready for the smoker. Did some butts last week . They were really cold when they went in. The color was fantastic when pulled apart.
 
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