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Smoke Bark

SmokyArkie
SmokyArkie Posts: 65
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I love using my BGE but I miss the smoke bark I obtained using a cast iron smoker. I have tried using wet hickory chips scatterd throughout the lump but that did not provide the bark and the ash messed with my air flow and dropped my temps.

I also tried two types of chip holders one was cast iron and held about a 1/2 cup of chips and the other was homeade aluminum foil "cigars" (2 inches thick and 6 inches long) stuffed with chips and barely open on each end. With all of them I get some smoke but it doesn;t last long enough to actually create that tasty and visually appealing bark. The cast iron holder was almost impossible to reload because of the logistics of moving the food, raising the grate, refilling the pan and replacing the grate and food.

Surely someone has a way to truly smoke meat using the BGE. What the technique?

Comments

  • the bark isn't really created by smoke, but rather the heat and dry air. difficulty in an egg is the dry air, or rather the lack of it.

    i don't know what kind of bark you had before... my bark is pretty decent, but there's a lot of rub on mine pork butt, and a lot of brown sugar in the rub to boot. the sugar carbonizes in the high-ish heat and low oxygen (doesn't really 'burn', but the result is the same).

    continuous smoke is a separate thing, though. if you want continuous smoke, try building the fire with chips introduced into the lump all the way up thru the lump from bottom to top in the center. my fire burns down, not outward. the chips down low won't smolder until the lump above them catches fire as the fire moves down. soaking is not necessary in the egg, because there isn't enough spare (extra) oxygen in there to allow them to truly ignite. they will smolder.

    for more bark, i'd say to omit any liquid in a drip pan. the egg is moist to begin with. you can also bump the heat to maybe 275, 300. you'll be done sooner too.

    people always wonder why chicken skin (and in your case, the bark) is not as dry as in other metal cookers. much is made of the ceramics "locking in moisture". well, sorta. in a metal cooker, much (most?) of the heat is radiated outward, and for the fire to maintain the same level of heat, the fire must burn more. that increases airflow, and airflow is what dries the meat. that moisture needs to come from somewhere, and so the meat dries out. the egg has minimal airflow. tweev will be repeating this in a week as though he discovered it, but it has been out there all the time, it's just forgotten and oversimplified.

    good luck. you may be used to a heavy bark. the smoke gave it flavor, but wasn't what "made" it. it was the likely the drier environment, assuming your rub is exactly the same.

    not to drag this out, but some add mustard first, then rub. building up a lot of stuff to eventually become bark. sugars will do the trick too, but you may not like it too sweet.
  • jeffinsgf
    jeffinsgf Posts: 1,259
    Use chunks mixed in with the lump. No need to soak. Half a dozen 2 x 2 x 4 will give you a deep smoke ring.
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    i get alot of bark. i put the rub on, usually heavey with dizzydust, then cover with mustard, then cover the whole thing with more rub. i get less bark when i baste during the cook so dont baste. the butts i get have no exterior fat, cut off the fat, when the fat melts it washes off your rub. soaking chips doesnt help, burying some for more smoke flavor and longer burn does. i like chunks better though for a long cook.
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • ..but that's only because of the smoke (nitrites in the smoke, really) from the burning lump, with its residual organic shtuff-a-ma-goo what helps provide fer the nitrites. so "smoke" is responsible... just can also be smoke from the lump

    smoke just doesn't do anything for the bark itself (aside from the smoke ring, i mean) besides smoke flavor and (maybe) some color
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    i used to think smoke played a smaller role with the smoke ring until i started cooking high temp briskets, with the high temp and quick cook you need to give it a really heavey smoke and the ring can be great.
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • jeffinsgf
    jeffinsgf Posts: 1,259
    The smoke can come from raw wood or from charcoal that is not fully carbonized, but no smoke = no smoke ring...or, much more importantly (at least to me), no smoke flavor.

    My point was that a bunch of chips thrown in a low and slow isn't going to do much good. They'll be burned up too quick. Larger chunks perform better, in my opinion.
  • i agree with you re: the smoke. but i think the same amount of wood, whether in chip form r chunks, will yield the same results.

    for what it's worth, i find i need a lot more chunks to give me smoke. not because each chunk doesn't provide enough, but i need to spread them around in the hopes the fire finds it. when i use chips (i'll use anything, just will set up differently), i use as much wood as in a good sized chunk, but it is vertical, mixed in the lump, and the fire (mine at least) tends to find it as it burns down.

    i think debating chips or chunks as better than the other is futile. they both work. just (somewhat) differently
  • jeffinsgf
    jeffinsgf Posts: 1,259
    amount whenever I tried chips. I was never very successful with them.

    I also have unlimited access to chunks, and would have to work to make them into chips. :P
  • i dunno if it is truly "equal", because some chips dont burn.

    i just remember one time using a single chunk, and the thing stayed on top while fire burned under it ooops :laugh:
  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    You don't need smoke to make a smoke ring. All you need is the presence of nitrogen dioxide (or some other source or nitrates and nitrites).

    Those compounds react with the myoglobin in the meat and create the pink color. This colored compound is pulled into the meat by diffusion and absorption until the exterior surface of the meat hits approximately 140&deg at which point the myoglobin goes through a chemical change independent of the nitrogen and will no longer create the nitrates that cause the pink coloration.

    Or so I read on my cereal box this morning.
  • I rarely use wood but when I do I get the chunks burning with the mapp torch. Tried soaking them in oil and wrapping them in napkins but got a lot of black smoke.

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • Why yes it did. I used first cold press extra virgin and did not think it should smoke like that. The napkins were the good ones too

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    im not so convinced about that 140 rule either, always see it mentioned that keeping the meat below 140 and maximizing that time creates a bigger ring, but my hot and fast briskets have a larger ring than my low and slows
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • As you are

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • Thanks,

    Your explanation of how the egg traps moisture may explain another recent event. I slow cooked quite a bit of chicken on the BGE for a dinner party and was disappointed to find the skin was like rubber. Who wants to be the guy known for serving rubber chicken?

    The chicken was delicious and we didn't have any leftovers except for the rubber skin. This has never been a problem before when I used the cast iron smoker.

    How do you slow cook meats like chicken on the BGE and still have that crispy skin texture?
  • Ok. I will give the chunks a try.
  • two points to LittleSteven

    :laugh:
  • jeffinsgf
    jeffinsgf Posts: 1,259
    At that point, I wouldn't consider it a "smoke" ring, just a chemically altered hunk of meat.

    Not that there's anything wrong with that. B)
  • chips are fine....
    smopke doesn't make the bark
  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    That's all the "smoke ring" is...unfortunately it has been tagged with this misnomer because of the situation in which the phenomenon is usually observed.
  • It's difficult to get crisp chicken skin at low temps. But you can finish the chicken at a higher temp to brown/crispen the skin. You can also add some cornstarch to your rub. This pulls moisture out of the skin and crispens it. You can also heat a cast iron pan and set it on top of the heretofore rubbery skin. It will sear and crispen the skin.
    Don't be the rubbery chicken guy!
  • SmokyArkie wrote:
    Thanks,

    Your explanation of how the egg traps moisture...
    How do you slow cook meats like chicken on the BGE and still have that crispy skin texture?

    SmokyArkie, I haven't slow cooked chicken but, I do cook them raised over medium high heat like 400 degrees direct and I get crispy skin all the time. Tim :)
  • jeffinsgf
    jeffinsgf Posts: 1,259
    But, if it is caused by smoke, it IS a smoke ring. Just making the meat pink isn't what SmokeyArkie is trying to do, he's trying to make it tasty.

    This is all delightful repartee, but to make a tasty pulled pork you need a seasoning base that will create a bark, and a source of smoke, be it added wood or under-burned charcoal. Since the later is difficult to control, I choose to add wood to the fire. My experience has been that chunks work better FOR ME than chips.

    The OP wanted "smoke bark". Some here have pointed out that smoke doesn't make bark, which I suppose is true, but the bark in a good pulled pork will most certainly carry quite a bit of smoke flavor, and the OP has asked about "smoke bark".

    My opinion is that SmokyArkie needs to add more wood and open up his dampers a bit to increase airflow. It works for me.
  • Fidel
    Fidel Posts: 10,172
    I agree completely, and we got off on a tangent, but the smoke ring itself actually has no smoke flavor. It is simply the product of a chemical reaction.

    Picking nits, perhaps, but in all it goes for the greater good if a few people are spurred on to do their own research independent of my understanding of the reaction.

    My intent it to get people to think and analyze, not to accept what I say as verified truth.
  • are you saying people were actually taking what you say as verified truth? i don't think that's the case, rod. no worries there. :whistle: