Hammy Tasting Fresh Pork

[Dewesq55]

Barbara mentioned that the ribs from today tasted like ham, which isn't good, since she doesn't like ham. Truth be told, I agree with her that they had a bit of hammy flavor which didn't bother me. Does anybody have any idea why this happened or what to do to prevent it in the future? Does it have to do with dry brining overnight?

[JGo37]

Some seem to think the overnight brining is magnified by the brand of ribs. Please check using the right amount of salt - a bit more than called for can do this. Nitrates/Nitrites in a preservative solution can do this too. There are other threads on this that I hope those in the know chime in on and post what rib brands to avoid.

I get ribs from local farmers even in the grocery store, which is easy in Missoura. Consider that alternative and do the same cook, and see if you don't get different results.

[Red Man]

I always dry brine ribs overnight, it does not make them taste hammy. Were they Tyson ribs?

[Dewesq55]

I don't think so. They were from Aldi.

[mountainsmoker]

Ribs only need a 2 hour dry brine as they are so thin. A lot of them are also being wet brined in there cryovac package. So you don't even need a dry brine or a very minimal one. The last Smithfield's I did had a 2% solution brine. So I rinsed them and did a 1/4 tsp dry brine on them for 3 hours. They were excellent.

[scottranda]

I had this happen one time. I’m pretty sure it was too much salt over too much time (cure effect).

[HawkerXP]

I don't dry brine ribs. I just put my rub on in the morning of the cook and put back in fridge until time to cook.

[Dewesq55]

I'm assuming these were pre-brined at the processing plant and I just didn't realize. I usually pay attention to that and don't brine then any more, but perhaps I didn't with these.

[Dewesq55]

Mystery solved: I had to go to Aldi's today for something else, but I went by the meat case to check out their pork ribs. Sure enough, all of the ribs, at least the Aldi's branded packages, are injected with a 12% brine solution. So no more dry brining of Aldi's ribs going forward. I don't think I dry brined the second rack because it was not thawed out until the morning of. Perhaps they will be less hammy. We didn't eat any of them yet.

[ScottyC13]

I just came across this with some frozen ribs I bought. I didn't see that they were brined. I cooked one of them and they came out just ok. The other one I will rinse first and use no salt.