The smoke ring is that small layer of pinkish discoloration that forms on the outside edge of smoked meat beneath the crust (also known as bark). It is created when smoke from wood interacts with the meat you are cooking. A good smoke ring is about 1/4 inch (6 millimeters) thick.
I have seen many smoke rings in over 40 years of barbecuing. I’ve always thought they added a certain status level to smoked meat. In the barbecue world, a smoke ring is a symbol of a job well done.
What is it actually? In this post, I will explain what causes a smoke ring and how to get one. Also, I will discuss what it really means to have a smoke ring on your meat.
Keep reading to find out more.
What Causes the Smoke Ring?
The smoke ring is caused by a chemical reaction that happens when pigment in meat reacts with nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) gases. These gases are released when wood or charcoal is burned. NO and CO are made by the combination of carbon and nitrogen with oxygen.
A second reaction between the NO and the water in the meat creates nitrogen dioxide gas. Smoke contains 100 times more CO than NO, but most smoke rings are created by NO.
The smoke surrounds the meat as it cooks and it absorbs the nitrogen dioxide. Because nitrogen dioxide penetrates from the outside, it can’t absorb too far into meat that is drying as it cooks. This is why the smoke ring is only a few millimeters thick.
Nitric oxide and myoglobin have a lot to do with forming the smoke ring.
Myoglobin is the iron rich purple protein that gives meat its red color. It reacts with oxygen and turns bright red when meat is exposed to oxygen in the air. When meat is cooked or is continually exposed to air the myoglobin turns brown.
But when nitric oxide is present, the myoglobin binds tightly to it and prevents oxygen from attaching. This prevents the color change that normally happens during cooking.
How to Get the Best Smoke Ring?
There’s more than one way to get a good smoke ring, but some are better than others.
Moisturize
A sticky and wet meat surface will hold more nitric oxide.
So keeping the surface of the meat wet is important. When cooking low and slow, moist meat holds smoke easier than dry meat. The amount of smoke absorbed decreases as you continue to cook because the meat surface starts to dry.
There are a bunch of ways to keep the surface wet. You can spray or baste with a thin water-based solution. Another way is to spray with apple juice, which contains fructose that helps with browning.
Another option is to place a pan of water in the smoker to keep the meat moist.
Don’t use acidic liquids like vinegar or lemon juice. They will prevent the smoke ring from developing.
Trim Excess Fat
You can remove some fat from the meat surface to allow smoke and nitric oxide to penetrate better. Combined with low and slow cooking, the nitric oxide is absorbed before the myoglobin turns brown at high temperatures.
Cook Low and Slow
When you cook meat hot and fast, the gases barely get a chance to penetrate the meat before the color change. Low and slow cooking allows the muscle proteins to break down before the myoglobin turns brown. So, the meat holds on to its pink color.
Avoid gas and electric smokers. Propane produces CO but not much NO when burned. An electric element doesn’t produce NO or CO at all.
This explains why you may have seen a small smoke ring on meats cooked in a gas smoker in the past. But normally, you need to use wood and ensure the meat surface is moist during cooking to create a smoke ring in an electric or propane smoker.
Cheat
Probably the easiest way to get a smoke ring is to not use smoke at all. Take a short cut. It’s okay to cheat for once!
All you need is a curing agent that contains sodium nitrate. Coating your meat with it will add more than enough nitrogen dioxide to produce a good smoke ring.
Does a Smoke Ring Matter?
The short answer is no. The smoke ring a traditional sign that the pitmaster got the right heat levels and let the meat cook for many hours. By just seeing it you can almost taste the melt-in-your-mouth smoky flavor the meat has to offer.
If the truth be told there is no flavor, and there is no real benefit of seeing this ring of pink in meat.
That’s the funny thing about it: A great smoke ring looks amazing, but it’s not the part that tastes smoky. That’s caused by flavor compounds penetrating the meat, and it does this throughout the cut.
At many barbecue competitions, the judges are directed to ignore the smoke ring when judging meat for appearance because it can be produced artificially using curing agents.
The Bottom Line
There is no doubt that a smoke ring is a highly desirable outcome from smoking meat. Yet, it has nothing to do with how good a job you did when you cooked it or how it tastes.
You can even create a nice smoke ring without smoke. No one would ever know the smoke didn’t do it.
For more information about smoke cooking, check out our meat smoking guide.
