The Red /Pink Ring on the edge of the slice

[AlaskaKodiak]

Every beef brisket I have done on the bradley has been good but I can't get any color on the edge of the meat.   All the great BBQ places I have been to always have a red ring along the edge of the slice of the beef.  What do ya think?

[RAF128]

I'm not absolutely certain but I suspect it has something to do with the salt or cure in the rub.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Chemistry.  The color ring you're talking about is called a "smoke ring".  It's not really from smoke but from the chemistry associated with producing smoke at a high enough temp.  The color comes from nitric oxidises of nitrogen (NO2) and maybe even some carbon monoxide (CO) produced in the fuel combustion process reacting with myoglobin in the meat.  The electric Bradley's burn the bisquettes at a low temp so that the production of NO2 and CO are too small to lead to a smoke ring.  I believe, however, that the propane model will give a smoke ring because the wood burn temp is higher.

[EZ Smoker]

I usually get a very nice smoke ring on brisket, butts, and ribs in my Bradley (OBS).   I usually use 4 hours of smoke on ribs and 7 hours on briskets and butts.  

[EZ Smoker]

Correcting myself, thinking back, perhaps the smoke ring is not so prominent on my briskets, but it's there on pork butts and ribs.

[BuyLowSellHigh]

I'm not absolutely certain but I suspect it has something to do with the salt or cure in the rub.

Nitrate and nitire cures will give an overall pink color (to the extent they penetrate) for the same reason, reaction with myoglobin.  That's why corned beef and pastrami are pink.  Leave out the nitrate /  nitrite stuff and it would be cooked beef gray.  Same with sausage, etc.

[ArnieM]

As BLSH said ...

I learned a little trick from Pachanga.  Use Morton's Tender Quick in place of salt in your rub.  The sodium nitrite in there will penetrate the meat some turning it reddish and looking like a smoke ring.

Other than that, the ring comes from combustion - charcoal, wood or propane, not electric.  It might look nice but doesn't add anything.

[DTAggie]

An age old debate

[BuyLowSellHigh]

Here's referencethat explains it a bit more
http://smokingpit.com/Info/SmokeRing.pdf

And then there's this as a general article on myoglobin - see the section titled "Meat Color"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myoglobin

[classicrockgriller]

Correcting myself, thinking back, perhaps the smoke ring is not so prominent on my briskets, but it's there on pork butts and ribs.

This has been discussed before and I think the conclussion was to get a smoke ring from a Bradley smoke you have to have

introduce something other than an electric element making heat.

Some have put a bed of charcoal in the Bradley and got a smoke ring.

On beef, it is fun to look at every now and then, but doesn't taste any better.

On Pork, IMO due to the color nature of the meat it forms a pinkish hue around the edge.

But I have been wrong before ....

[ArnieM]

But I have been wrong before ....

Aw c'mon 

[classicrockgriller]

But I have been wrong before ....

Aw c'mon 

Ok, twice, but once wasn't my fault.

[Habanero Smoker]

The only Bradley you can get a pink ring without any modification is the Bradley Propane Smoker, because it uses an organic fuel (propane) as it's heat source. You can also produce a ring on a charcoal or gas grill or even you gas kitchen oven; because they all use organic fuels. The other factor is that the ring can only occur if the meat is cooked barbecue style (low & slow), so that the other proteins denature an hour or more before the meat reaches the denaturing temperature of the myogolbin.

[TestRocket]

Thanks for all the good information people! I didn’t ask the question but I did learn something!

[NePaSmoKer]

Ditto with Habs

Never got a ring in my OBS/DBS. Only in the BPS.