Smoke Absorption taste test?


 
J

J Reyes

TVWBB Pro
Has anyone completed a smoke absorption/taste test between a complete cook in a smoker vs. part smoker and part finishing in an oven?

Example:
Please two equal sized butts (brisket, etc.) onto the WSM with equal amounts of rub, mop, etc. except take one out when the meat reaches 120 to 140 and place in the oven and take both off their heat sources at the same internal temperature (say 190 or so) and compare how they taste.

More than most would want to learn about smoke absorption is at this link.
http://www.dallasbar-b-q.com/look.htm

The article above concludes that smoke continues to be absorbed into meat through the end of the cook, but most smoke is absorbed below 120 degrees.

Positive taste results of the oven finishing may diminish some of the benefits of the automatic temp control devices or even the WSM if satisfactory smoke adsorption at low temps can be completed with a kettle and finished in an oven.

John
 
There is mis-information at the first link and the information at the second lacks clarity and is occasionally inaccurate or confusing.

Optimal temps for smoke flavoring is not 1200F, it is 570-700F. At temps above 700F there is significant breakdown of flavor molecules resulting in mostly flavorless elements and many harsh elements. (Note that these are not cook temps but combustion temps.) Additionally, smokering formation is not 'the result of a long slow cooking process'; it need not be very long at all. The process is chemical-specific and somewhat temp-specific but not very time-specific. Furthermore, though it can be argued that a smokering has flavor, it is not necessarily smoke flavor and it's presence or lack of presence in no way indicates the presence or lack of significant smoke flavoring. "Low heat, less than 200 degrees F, applied over a long period of time enables the meat to actually cook and heat evenly from the inside to the outside." Well, no, not necessarily. Temps that low over a long period can ruin a piece of meat--it depends on the specific cut in question.

Smoke flavoring of meat is primarily adsorbtion and diffusion not absorption (though if one is not making a semantical distinction between absorbtion and diffusion, fine). To suggest that there is a 'driving force' that 'push[es] the smoke gases into the meat' is erroneous. After a meat cut has undergone significant moisture loss diffusion might very well still be occurring within the meat cut (and will likely do so for some time, even after removal of the meat from the cooker), it is adsorption that continues unabated from start to finish if smoke, visible or not, is applied throughout the cook. Creosote does not diffuse or penetrate into the meat as contended, but off-flavor elements can; it's likely to be on a fairly minor scale though. This is immaterial however as it takes little in the way of off-flavor elements to give one the illusion that the entire cut is permeated.
 
Thanks Kevin,

So how do you feel about my original question.

Do you feel there will be significant difference between finishing in an oven vs. a smoker.

John
 
John
There is a difference in the fact that as long as smoke is being laid on the meat it will effect the overall flavor. Once it goes into the oven smoke is no longer being laid on.
Jim
 
Precisely.

And, John, I think Jim would agree that the result so often depends upon the cut of meat (or fish) and the taster.

Some meat cuts have a structure that is naturally more easily permeable. Some fishes have more dispersed fat than others. These things, and several others, affect how smoke flavoring will disperse within a given cut and, perhaps more important, whether, how, and at what rate the smoke flavor will continue to disperse once the meat is either removed from the smoke or the smoke is withheld. Couple this with the subjective nature of individual taste and all bets are off. Yet, I think probably most people most of the time would and could tell the difference between virtually the same cuts being smoked using the variations in procedure that you propose. I will couch my opinion however: I think that there is a point where the distinction blurs. I think that if smoke is applied to a particular cut for a long enough period of time, that moving that cut to the oven to finish is not likely to result in discernably 'less' smoke in the final product tasting. I think that there is a smoke threshhold that, once crossed, makes it far more difficult for anyone to determine whether the cut was oven-finished or not. Pulling the cut from the smoker early in the game, however, is different.
 
THanks Kevin, my smoking experience comes from smoking salmon on a Little Chief where smoke is placed on the fish for a couple of hours and then is is left to cook/heat for another 8-12 hours.

I've also done a fair amount of low and slow cooking on a Webber kettle going back 20+- years, but having to monitor temps every 45 minutes or so.

So far, the WSM does a decent job of holding those temps steady.

John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top