Good ribs, no smoke ring

[Fire Water Music]

So I cooked a rack of St Louis style ribs on my pit barrel and they turned out great. They cooked real steady for 6 hours at 225 and I used pecan wood for the smoke. For the rub I used Memphis dust. They were very good but there was no sign of a smoke ring. Any thoughts?

[Jerod Broussard]

Did you put them in cold or closer to room temp? I don't use any wood and always get a mack daddy smoke ring using Kingsford, which is due to all the gases it produces that actually produce the smoke ring, which could technically be called a "gas ring."

Best has been with beef ribs.

[jrobertson50]

I smoke a ton of meat. Rarely do i have a smoke ring. but i always get really good flavor. and everyone likes it. Smoke ring is like a push up bra. it may look good but it isn't really any better.

[OneCharmingPig]

Haha, nice

[Fire Water Music]

mmmm push up bra.... anyway, I put the ribs on straight out of the refrigerator and I also use Kingsford Charcoal

[Jerod Broussard]

Tis odd to say the least. Have you done any without adding any wood?

[Ernest]

No wood, just Kingsford competition briquettes

[PaulstheRibList]

I'm not a PBCr yet, but on my WSM, I found that if I set up the fuel where I can have the vents more open and the temp stay where I want, I get a much better smoke ring, from having the cleaner fire.

I switched from Minion to Fuse, and only put less charcoal. I'm still fine tuning, and sometimes I need to add some more fuel toward the end of the cook.

I think I would need to do a side-by-side, one WSM on the Fuse, the other on the Minion, to see if the more choked down fire with more smoldering soot would turn our a less desirable taste?

Old Way


New Way

[PaulstheRibList]

In looking back, I notice a much harder time finding pictures of the rib slices in my old pictures...meaning even before I became more of a BBQ snob, I took pictures of what I found appealing, and the beautiful exterior of the ribs was always appealing. But the all gray slice profile of a sliced rib with a tiny touch of pink on the outside...not so appealing.

But when I listened to the smoke podcast, I noticed my vents were nearly allways 95-100% closed on the bottom after just a little while to keep temps to 225. When I changed that, I noticed I took way more slice pictures!

Before (minion)


After (fuse) (This pic is the thickest ring i could find, lol. Most aren't quite this good)

[Fire Water Music]

I have not tried the ribs without adding wood although when I do add wood it's just 2 - 3 small pieces. Could the lack of oxygen be affecting the smoke ring? I'm running the pit barrel at 225 and it's meant to run at 300. I haven't done a lot of ribs on the pit barrel so I don't have much to compare to.

[Jerod Broussard]

Choking it down that much might could be the cause.

[DirtyAussie]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I was having a similar problem and found a solution. Apologies if this is the wrong spot, but thought I would share in case it helps anyone with a the same problem

I was getting great cooks from my PBC, but could never get a smoke ring on any of my meats. I tried plain kingston, apple chips, apple chunks, cherry chips and cherry chunks. Smoke taste was there, but no ring. Sounds like such a minor problem, but it just doesn't feel like barbecue when your meat comes out a uniform grey! Then I read that hickory produces more smoke so I tried using that instead. And like magic I got a beautiful smoke ring. In my last few cooks I have used half hickory and half fruit woods to get the best of both worlds - nice fruit undertone on the smoke and nice bright pink ring. Good luck!