Pitmaster Secrets to Crafting Exceptional BBQ Flavour – Part 3!

The Final Steps Right at the Finish Line That Can Make Your BBQ Go Over-The-Top! And Getting Better Flavour From Your Smoker.

Flavour Options as You Finish Cooking! (Points 12–15)

You’ve nailed the pre-cooking flavouring steps (Pitmaster Secrets to Crafting Exceptional BBQ Flavour), the cooking cycle is coming together nicely, and you’ve got some really good flavour going on (Pitmaster Secrets to Crafting Exceptional BBQ Flavour – Part 2!). Your BBQ is almost ready.  But there are still four more considerations for achieving ultimate, peak flavour.  This is the final post of the three-part series that shares 15 steps a BBQ-er can use to add more flavour to what they are cooking. 

At this point, the cook is well along, and there are two considerations that add flavour and help with the presentation of what you have cooked, andtwo often-neglected aspects of improving your BBQ flavour that involve the actual cooker (smoker) you are using.

I.  The Finish Line: Presentation and Final Boost of Flavour (Points 12–13)

• 12.  Put a Blanket on It – Using Sauce as a Glaze

Concept: Your choice of sauce can be a piece of the flavour puzzle that pulls everything together.  Sure, you have added salt through your cooking, some acid along the way, some sweetness, some aromatics, and even some spiciness, crispiness and texture, but each of these things seems to be compartmentalized and separate.  It could be “everyone is in the room, but they aren’t working together.”  This is where the sauce comes into play. 

Pitmasters apply a sauce to add moisture or at least retain it in the cooked meat, to add another layer of flavour to the multi-layered food, and to make it shiny and appealing.  We first eat with our eyes, and our food needs to look REALLY attractive – a sauce can do that.  Another way a sauce can help is by adding texture to your BBQ.  That is, a sauce can become sticky, all over your fingers and lips, and needing to lap it all off can somehow make BBQ taste better.  Never skip out on considering a sauce. 

Detail: Timing is critical – applying a sauce too early can allow a sugary sauce to caramelize too much.  A sauce can allow the meat to become sticky and ash from the smoke or smouldering fire can become overwhelming.  Too much smoke makes BBQ food taste acrid – even sour.  Meanwhile, a sauce applied too late won’t set, leaving a sloppy texture and a disappointing (messy) eating experience. 

Tip: To help apply your sauce evenly and cover every nook and cranny of your meat, warm your BBQ sauce, then brush it on or dip individual pieces into the warmed sauce.  Warming the sauce will make it runnier and easier to apply evenly across the meat.  Some Pitmasters will melt butter into their sauce to help with shine, even coverage, and taste.

• 13.  Finishing Seasoning or Dust

Concept: Early on in your cook plan, you added a BBQ rub, but the fragrance is a bit worn off or even muted from when it was “fresh”.  Applying another layer of seasoning, or a “dust”, can boost the fragrance of your dish or even add the final layer of flavour.  It is not uncommon for pitmasters to dust the meat with MSG, vanilla, or another super-fragrant spice to draw judges’ attention to it.  A pinch of salt can also be a helpful final touch. 

Detail: Using your original rub, grind it into a powder with a mortar and pestle or a blender.  You can also add one or two “enhancements” to it to create your own finishing spice, such as cinnamon, allspice or vanilla.  Use a coffee mill or a food processor to make the powder. 

Tip:  A dust at this point in time for your cook can also be a saviour.  That is, if you have a split fat cap and there is a piece of the meat that doesn’t have any bark or crust.  A lightly applied dust at this stage of the cooking process can help address this naturally occurring issue when using a BBQ smoker and help create a better-looking, finished product. 

II.  Your Smoker: The Good, the Bad and How it Can be THE Ugly Flavour Agent (Points 14–15)

The ingredients are excellent, and your cooking plan is perfect, yet your smoker could still negatively affect the flavour.  Say what?!  Is my smoker killing my flavour?

• 14.  Wood, Charcoal, and Pellet “Flavours”

Concept: The fuel source for your smoker can significantly affect the quality of your food.  Different charcoal and wood types can provide different performance as they burn.  The fire offers more than heat: it sends ash and gases into your cook chamber, all of which contribute to flavour.  If you are using whole pieces (chunks or chips) or logs, the wood type is easier to determine compared to some pellet fuels.  It is common for pellet manufacturers to use a common wood sawdust (e.g., birch or alder) and add oils or extracts to provide an aroma or flavour of another wood type (e.g., maple).  If you use a pellet smoker, search for a pellet brand that uses high-quality, single-sourced ingredients and delivers a great burn and flavour.  In short, the wood type can provide a good flavour for your BBQ; however, time and time again, the actual tree type is indistinguishable to BBQ judges, so they can’t declare what wood was used.  (Except for, arguably, mesquite, which can be quite strong.)

Consideration 1:  If you are using a charcoal BBQ as an example, choose a “base” charcoal that is consistent (i.e., oak-based such as Royal Oak) and then add chips, chunks or even logs (i.e., cherry or maple) to that charcoal base to add another smoke element to your BBQ.  This is a way to break out and control the flavour of your smoke. 

Consideration 2:  It could also be valuable to understand what smoke is, or better put, what it contributes to your cook chamber.  First, the most significant component of “smoke” is moisture (about 80-90%) – that is, water from burning wood, along with the ambient humidity in the air, passes from the fire into the cook chamber.  The second is unique gases from the specific wood that is burning (about 8-12%).  As an example, oak will release different gases than apple wood.  Lastly, and the smallest component of smoke, is ash or airborne particulate carried through the gases and moisture.  Ash is what we “see” for smoke.  Ash accounts for only a few percent of the total smoke volume (2-4%).  This is why a clean-burning fire, with clean, blue-coloured smoke, is considered the best for good BBQ.  Ash is also what we “taste” as it accumulates on the meat during cooking. 

Tip:  Competition Pitmasters have also mastered what a “clean” fire is and how its smoke is different from a thick, air-choked smoke.  The best cooks on the competition trail have hard-to-see smoke coming from their pits.  The fire burns very clean, and you can barely see smoke if at all.  That might be a clue for newer cooks: if you can see smoke, you might not have a clean fire. 

A Short Video Explaining What Clean Smoke Is and How it Works in a Pellet Smoker

• 15.  Seasoning and Coatings Inside the Cooker (Oil, Grease, Ash Build Up)

Concept: The “seasoning” of your pit is the layers of rendered fat, creosote, and ash that build up over time on the walls, grates and vents of your smoker.  This coating can accumulate with smoker use and build up on the inside walls.  Over time, this surface can deteriorate, fall off onto whatever you are cooking or become rancid or creosote-laden, which can negatively affect flavour. 

Detail: A well-maintained “patina” on the inside of your smoker is good, but thick, flaky black “grease” should be scraped away for both health and flavour quality.

Consideration: If you are using an offset or pellet smoker and the vent stack or cook chamber is “bunged up” with too much coating, the airflow within your unit will be restricted.  Think of the build-up (the coatings) as a filter that restricts airflow through the cooker.  This can contribute to temperature-control issues and poor bark or crust development on your BBQ.  Go clean your cooker!

Conclusion (Bringing It All Together)

By considering the final steps for great BBQ flavour and maintaining your cooking equipment, you can ensure every effort you’ve put into the many layers of flavour comes together as your masterpiece.  Again, this three-part series of articles outlined 15 steps or considerations for BBQ cooks as they craft flavour.  Maybe you are already taking a few steps as you cook, or just one, such as a single BBQ rub…  You can now see there are plenty of things you can do to up your game as a pitmaster!

Part One:
1.  To Trim the Fat or Not?
2.  Brine to Increase Moisture AND Flavour
3.  So, Why is Injecting Meat so Popular with Pitmasters?
4.  Marinade – let’s give it a soak!
5.  Use a Slather or Binder to Help Get the Flavour Going
6.  BBQ Rubs and Seasonings – quite possibly the most popular BBQ flavouring step

Part Two:
7.  Add a Moisture Tray to the Smoker
8.  Spritz
9.  The Old-School Mop and Basting of Meat
10.  Give Your BBQ a Bath – Leveraging Flavour by Braising
11.  Wrap it Up!

Part Three:
12.  Put a Blanket on It – Using Sauce as a Glaze
13.  Finishing Seasoning or Dust
14.  Wood, Charcoal, and Pellet “Flavours”
15.  Seasoning and Coatings Inside the Cooker (Oil, Grease, Ash Build Up)

Flavour can be simple or a multi-layered, complex process.  It is this multi-step process that top-notch pitmasters take as they compete at events.  The steps may provide an edge for remarkable flavour, but they also contribute to moisture, texture, visual appeal and so on.  The goal of this series of flavour options is not just to highlight considerations, but to show why each step could improve your BBQ.  The homework, however, is yours….  go fire up that pit and craft your best BBQ yet! And don’t be shy, add one more layer and see what happens!

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