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Bark Bark Bark Bark

crunk
crunk Posts: 94
edited July 2012 in EggHead Forum

I wanted to reach out to everyone on this great forum and ask "What is your secret to obtaining great Bark on a Butt?" Ive become pretty solid at everything else in the process but i just ca't achieve that great bark you always see.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated..

 

Crunk

Comments

  • tell us how you do your butts
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • Black_Badger
    Black_Badger Posts: 1,182
    Cen-Tex is right (nothing new there) it will probably be more informative to figure out how to do what you're doing better than to re-design the wheel from scratch.

    I'm a newbie around here but my two cooks have had a great tasting, dark, rich bark. If anything maybe slightly TOO much. I think that's attributable to two things.

    1) I use a liberal amount of John Henry's Sugar Maple Rub over a lighter coating of a spicy rub (tried two so far). I had the JH Sugar Maple on some ribs at my first Eggfest where I bought my XL and fell in love with the stuff. If you ever put maple syrup on breakfast sausage, bacon or ham buy a bottle and see for yourself, it's GREAT!  

    2) In both cooks I've had my fire die during the night (I talk about that a LOT around here). Both times I pulled everything off (in the middle of the night) and restarted another batch of lump. The net result was that my temp was higher (~300 - 325 F) for a period during the late part of the cook. One simple solution might be to open the vents up a bit and run your temp up 100F or so for 10-15 minutes right at the end to set the bark. I also go straight from grill to rest (~ 30 mins) to pull, no wrapping, so that helps preserve the bark.

    Good luck, and let us all know what you're doing now so the real experts can chime in.

    Cheers All -
    B_B
    Finally back in the Badger State!

    Middleton, WI
  • crunk
    crunk Posts: 94

    Thanks guys...

     

    Ok, so i usually rub with either a dizzy dust of some sort....as far as my cook goes, i am pretty standard 225-250 until i get up to desired temp. Depending on time restraints or lack there of, determines whether i foil starting around 265 or so. I try not do foil unless i absolutely have to. I do understand that foiling will take away from the bark (correct?).

    Maybe i just need to use a rub that is more sugar based or maybe mix some turninado with some brown sugar and apply on top of the dizzy dust? Will that help?

     

    What about spraying with apple juice/cider during the cook? What are the results of that on the bark?

  • jlsm
    jlsm Posts: 1,011
    Definitely about the sugar. I use a rub of about a fourth  sugar by volume. Would think moisture on the meat would deter instead of encourage bark.
    *******
    Owner of a large and a beloved mini in Philadelphia
  • Dizzy is bark in a bottle so no worries there. I get bark with dizzy that you could hit with a hammer.

    Are you using any kind of binder for rub like olive oil or mustard?

    If you are doing 225-250 dome, the is too low. That is around 200-225 grid. I like mine around 250-260 on the grid.

    Don't ever foil unless you have to. Foil is the enemy of bark.

    I don't spray but apple juice has tons of sugar and if you wait until the rub sets, you can spray if you want to and it will caramelize.

    I would say you may not be using enough rub and you are cookimng too low.

    Put enough rub on to where you cannot see the meat at all. Then take your dome temp up to 260-275 and plan for an hour to 1.5hrs per lb.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • Newville
    Newville Posts: 84
    I use Dizzy Dust (at least the past 4 or 5 cooks) and setup over an aluminum pan with one or two cans of apple juice concentrate. The juice and drippings keep the atmosphere in the egg moist - allowing for egg magic! It is important to raise the pan above the indirect devise/plate setter - that is what the feet are for (or you cn use a couple flattened cans or other improvising - just get air between the stone and pan). Have never used mustard (to bind he rub) but understand that to work even better. Not sure how much better you can get than practically perfect.
  • crunk
    crunk Posts: 94

    Thanks Cen-Tex!!

    I think you are right about maybe not enough rub and too low of temp....I will try again in the morning and certainly post some pictures of the result....

     

    Crunk

  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
    I find I get the best bark when the butt is trimmed of as much surface fat as possible

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • ncbbq
    ncbbq Posts: 257
    I use Bad Byron's Butt Rub and a mixture of apple wood and hickory wood chunks. 250 low and slow indirect (plate setter) for 1.5 - 2 hours per lb. I cook to 195 - 200 internal temp and get a wonderful bark every time.
  • Griffin
    Griffin Posts: 8,200

    If you are looking for bark like this, I went about 250 grate temp, scored teh fat, mustard, Dizzy Pig, no foil and every few hours or so (whenever I got bored) I was actually pulling out the placesetter and tossing on a few chuncks. Not quite common practice here, but I wanted to see how it would come out if I did that.

    image

     

    image

    Rowlett, Texas

    Griffin's Grub or you can find me on Facebook

    The Supreme Potentate, Sovereign Commander and Sultan of Wings

     

  • AleBrewer
    AleBrewer Posts: 555
    Thanks Griffin.....I think I just drooled on the keyboard
  • scottyintx
    scottyintx Posts: 13

    I cooked 2 butts this weekend for a party and they turned out great. Here's what I did:
    1. trimmed some fat
    2. rubbed mustard all over, light with some garlic powder, light with some brown sugar, and finally liberal with the Bad Byron's butt rub.
    3. Preheated egg to 400 dome.
    4. put in Platesetter, drip pan with 1" apple juice, grid, and both butts.....
    5. Temp dropped of course and easily got it stable at grid between 230-250.
    6. after 4 hours I lifted lid just long enough to spray butts with a coat of apple juice.

    7. every couple of hours I sprayed apple juice.
    14 hours total cook time...both butts were done with incredible bark!!
    Guest said it was the best they ever had! I owe it all to the Egg and the advise that I was given from reading this site.

     

  • Griffin
    Griffin Posts: 8,200
    Thanks Griffin.....I think I just drooled on the keyboard


    **Disclaimer - I am not responsible for damages caused to keyboards from drool**

     

    =))

    Rowlett, Texas

    Griffin's Grub or you can find me on Facebook

    The Supreme Potentate, Sovereign Commander and Sultan of Wings

     

  • RandallB
    RandallB Posts: 67
    I cut my larger pork butts in HALF, so there is MORE surface (more bark)!
  • tyenic1
    tyenic1 Posts: 150
    I agree with Griffin no foil, 250 degrees and a lot of good smoke. I smoked about 40lbs. of pork butt for my wife's 20year class reunion this weekend.
  • ncbbq
    ncbbq Posts: 257
    I agree with Griffin no foil, 250 degrees and a lot of good smoke. I smoked about 40lbs. of pork butt for my wife's 20year class reunion this weekend.
    That's a lot of butt. Do the parts near the edges get over done from the direct heat coming up around the plate setter? Something I've wondered about as I haven't tried cooking that much yet.
  • tyenic1
    tyenic1 Posts: 150

    It was definelty a lot of butt. I was a little nervous and was gonna borrow a buddy's egg and do half of them at his house, but he lives about 10 miles from me and wasn't to thrilled about driving back and forth checking on em so I squeezed them all on. They turned out pretty good all things considered.

  • AleBrewer
    AleBrewer Posts: 555


    **Disclaimer - I am not responsible for damages caused to keyboards from drool**

     

    =))
    Ehh....it's a company laptop...so no worries
    :D
  • tyenic1
    tyenic1 Posts: 150

    It was definelty a lot of butt. I was a little nervous and was gonna borrow a buddy's egg and do half of them at his house, but he lives about 10 miles from me and wasn't to thrilled about driving back and forth checking on em so I squeezed them all on. They turned out pretty good all things considered.

    Their were a couple that got a little over done on the edges, but it made for a good snack when we started pulling the pork.
  • Rubmyrock
    Rubmyrock Posts: 266
    Here are my four on a large this past weekend. Perfect bark every time regardless of whether I cook the 5 hours or 15. Same results...

    Photobucket Pictures, Images and Photos