BBQ 101: An Introduction to Smoked Meat, part 3https://blog.thermoworks.com/bbq-grilling/bbq-101-an-introduction-to-smoked-meat-part-3/Having covered smoker types, fuel types, meats, and the essence of what BBQ is, we are left with a few remaining questions. In Part 3 of our BBQ 101 series, we’ll address bark, rubs, sauces, competitions, and a few other odds and ends that have come up in some comments. To begin with, we’ll cover the one-two- punch of rubs and bark.
Contents:
BBQ Bark and BBQ rubs
BBQ Bark
BBQ Rub
BBQ sauces
Spritzing and mopping BBQ
Notes on other BBQ meats
Notes on competition BBQ
Summary
BBQ Bark, BBQ Rubs
While temperature control is the key to perfect BBQ doneness, the key to delicious flavor often lies in the bark. Bark is the tasty, savory-spicy crust on the exterior of barbecue-cooked meats and is made by the interaction of proteins, heat, and rubs. For this reason, rubs are an essential part of barbecue cookery. They season the meat, form the bark, and provide another opportunity for pitmasters to differentiate themselves from each other—competition teams often keep their rub formulations secret, and it’s understandable that they do! Bark quality can make or break a barbecue, and having the best bark can really set your ribs (or butt, or brisket…) apart. Let’s take a look at bark and rubs.
What is bark?The first several times I ever applied rub to a meat’s surface, I wondered to myself how on earth it was going to stick. Wouldn’t it slide off as the juices run out of the meat? It barely seemed stuck on at all. I didn’t understand then how bark forms or what it is.
Bark forms when the juices from the meat are drawn out by osmosis into the salty/sugary rub. The uncooked juices that then lie on the surface of the meat mingle with the rub and cook in place, forming a solid protein network infused with spices, sugars, and salt. If allowed to set properly, this protein “glue†holds the spices in place throughout the cook, while a bark that hasn’t solidified will melt away once you wrap the meat for the stall.
So how can you know if the bark is formed? Scratch it! Many ‘Q pros simply check the bark by scratching it with a fingernail. If it adheres to the meat, it’s safe to wrap. If it comes off easily and leaves a bare spot behind, it needs to cook longer before crutching. It’s a simple test for readiness that will result in excellent bark.
The bark on your brisket is going to look wonderful once it sets, and it’s going to be tempting to take the meat off the smoker right then, but make sure you cook it all the way to 203°F (95°C) as measured on your ThermaQ® or other leave-in probe BBQ thermometer.
BBQ RubsThe bark is made of the rub and protein, but the rub itself can be made of many things. A rub usually has an element of saltiness, sweetness, spice, and heat, but the basic proportions for a rub, according to Aaron Franklin, start with equal parts kosher salt and 16-mesh black pepper:
Every rub I make starts with a base of salt and pepper. Then I add other spices to complement the meat that I am cooking. The goal of any rub is to complement a nice piece of meat, not to obscure a crappy piece of meat. All spices should react well with one another. No one spice should stand out or be too recognizable, so add just enough to taste. It would be a shame to buy a nice piece of meat, spend a ton of time prepping and cooking it, and have it taste like an overzealous mixture of flavors. Restraint is the name of the game when using seasonings other than just salt and pepper.â€
—Aaron Franklin, Franklin Barbecue
When designing your own rub, you can experiment with using different amounts of paprika, chili powder, granulated (not powdered) onion and/or garlic, or sugar (Franklin recommends against sugar for long cooks as he doesn’t like the finished flavor). For an easy rub, substitute a portion of seasoning salt for your kosher salt in the salt/pepper mix and call it a day, but really the sky is the limit for your creativity. Other coarse or finely ground spices can be great additions if used judiciously. Crushed mustard seeds, ground cumin, powdered bay leaf…go for it. Be creative but cautious and you’ll come up with an amazing secret rub recipe of your own.
There are two more points regarding rubs that we should address before we move on. One is rub binders, and the other is wet rubs. Though the proteins will glue the rub to the meat, sometimes you want even more rub to stick from the get-go. In that case, you can use something to act as an adhesive, and the best thing for that is mustard. Pale yellow or dijon mustards have great binding properties already, and they taste great with pretty much every meat. They bring no extra sugar to the party and the vinegar they contain is essential for most barbecue anyhow. If you don’t much like the flavor of mustard (especially the hot stuff), don’t worry about that. The sharp, nose-burning mustardy taste actually breaks down in the heat, leaving only a faint mustard ghost in the flavor profile. The bark you get from using mustard as a binder for your dry rubs is fantastic and I highly recommend trying it out. Just slather all sides of the meat with mustard before applying your rub.
And that leaves us with wet rubs. Wet rubs are any rub that is made into a paste or liquid for application. They can be syrup, oil, or vinegar-based and often include fresh ingredients like fresh herbs or minced garlic. While they are great for relatively shorter cooks like chicken or smoked beef tenderloin, they usually aren’t great for long cooks like brisket, butt, or even ribs. The herbs and garlic can dry out and burn and the sugars can caramelize and burn. In general, use wet rubs for faster cooks and dry rubs for slower cooks. If you want a wet-rub type element for your long cook, you should look to sauces.
Barbecue SauceMost Americans seem to think that if something is slathered in sticky-sweet barbecues sauce, then it’s “barbecue.†Of course, the truth couldn’t be more different. Lots of kinds of BBQ don’t even have any sauce at all, and it sure isn’t the saucing that makes something BBQ. That being said, there is a long and storied tradition of BBQ sauces in American barbecue. But what they are, how they’re used, and when to apply them differs from region to region and from meat to meat. Let’s take a look.
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