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Best brisket smoke ring on a Kamado I've ever had, think its the wood choice

unoriginalusername
unoriginalusername Posts: 1,146
in EggHead Forum
Recently did a brisket for a video I was making on youtube (link - https://youtu.be/Nco-3gEUj6w) 

I only used salt and pepper (50/50) for the rub which I put on about an hour before.  Started off at 225f for about 5 hours spraying with water and then brought the heat up to 270 once I wrapped it in foil.

This is the first time I've used post oak for smoking wood... placed an entire piece of wood on the bottom and added my charcoal on top of it.  To my surprise and delight at the end this is what it looked like.

Everything else I did the same, so I assume the wood played a big role in the results.  Never had a smoke ring like this on a brisket i've done on any of my Kamado style grills before.






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Comments

  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 23,179
    Looks great. Using really good,
    non-store bought wood helps but smoke rings like that are usually rub enhanced- especially when using charcoal as the main fuel. The water helps too. I’m guessing there was some form of nitrite in that rub (which is very common for the reason you can see in the results you got). Usually celery seed or a touch of sodium nitrite (curing salt). So- if you want those results (and why wouldn’t you) use that same rub, that same wood, and keep spraying with liquid during the cook. All of those things together are kind of the perfect recipe to get the results you got there. 


    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • unoriginalusername
    unoriginalusername Posts: 1,146
    The Cen-Tex Smoker said:
    Looks great. Using really good,
    non-store bought wood helps but smoke rings like that are usually rub enhanced- especially when using charcoal as the main fuel. The water helps too. I’m guessing there was some form of nitrite in that rub (which is very common for the reason you can see in the results you got). Usually celery seed or a touch of sodium nitrite (curing salt). So- if you want those results (and why wouldn’t you) use that same rub, that same wood, and keep spraying with liquid during the cook. All of those things together are kind of the perfect recipe to get the results you got there. 



    I made the rub with just black pepper and diamond kosher crystal sea salt, both bulk spices I've used before
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  • stlcharcoal
    stlcharcoal Posts: 4,759
    edited April 2020
    I forget the science, but the smoke ring has little to do with the actual smoke, it has to do with the acidity of the fuel.  It's a chemical reaction.

    So you will get a better smoke ring using briquettes over lump.  There are also certain woods that produce a better smoke ring.  There is some hay or grass that causes a really big ring.  

    This is why KCBS and all the other judging criterias stopped grading the smoke ring........cause it was able to be artificially altered.  Plus judges were judging the smoke flavor based off their eyes vs. Taste.....this I see a big smoke ring so it must be smokey even though I cant taste it.
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