Rub flavour: high heat cooking vs conventional

[Rob R.]

I'm trying a high heat cook today for the first time, the test will be with a couple of small packer (~8 lbs each)

I'm testing two different rubs - my own brisket rub recipe vs a commercial blend I have high hopes for.

Is there a noticeable difference between the flavour of a rub after cooking with these different methods? I'm just thinking that the high heat might affect the rub ingredients differently than low & slow.

(I'm comparing cooking at 240 (conventional) to 340 (high heat)

Thanks

 

[K Kruger]

It depends on the actual ingredients and whether you foil during the low/slow. (I assume you are foiling during the high heat.)

 

[j biesinger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">(I'm comparing cooking at 240 (conventional) to 340 (high heat) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

will you be able to make a direct comparison? or do you generally run 240 and this time with be 340?

Please give us a run down of you rub ingredients.

I'd be curious to know which has a greater impact on flavor degradation: a 30% increase in temp or a 50% reduction in time.

Kevin, can you be more specific about the effects foil may have flavor degradation?

I'm thinking two things here: 1) foil reduces cooking time and increase heat transfer 2) moisture inside of foil tends to collect some of the rub flavors.

 

[K Kruger]

An increased temp and a shorter cook can boost flavors due to the shorter time. (I get this all the time with high heat ribs.) With brisket, especially packers at high heat, foiling tends to subdue flavors-- they become more blended and some ingredients lose distinctiveness. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on the ingredient(s) and your intent. Foiling can do a similar thing with flavors during low/slow cooks, again, depending on ingredients, depending on the length of time in foil.

 

[j biesinger]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">An increased temp and a shorter cook can boost flavors due to the shorter time. (I get this all the time with high heat ribs.) With brisket, especially packers at high heat, foiling tends to subdue flavors-- they become more blended and some ingredients lose distinctiveness. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on the ingredient(s) and your intent. Foiling can do a similar thing with flavors during low/slow cooks, again, depending on ingredients, depending on the length of time in foil. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

seems logical. for once I'm not totally confused with counter-intuitive information.

so you'll bet the 50% reduction in time will improve flavor and be more important than the 30% increase in temp (all other variables equal)?

 

[K Kruger]

Yes. The operative phrase is 'all other variables equal'.

Were the increase in temp to be much more dramatic the issue at hand might be different. When one cooks at temps high enough that meat surface temps will be pretty high (remember: due to evaporation at the surface the temps there are lower than ambient cook temps-- at least until the water content is significantly reduced), then one is faced with different dynamics at the surface-- sucrose and/or other sugars (alone or as components of various rub ingredients) caramelizing excessively or burning, 'toasted' flavors becoming more pronounced, the possible introduction of bitter flavors from excessive drying (if moisture loss due to increased evaporation is realized) or from actual burning-- those sorts of things. This is why I put ingredients likely to be more affected by high heat under the skin of chicken and turkey, reserving those that will less affected (or not affected) for use on the skin's surface, as I cook most chicken at temps of 450-500.