SMOKE RINGS

SMOKE RINGS (or Nitrates Are Your Friends) By: Kit Anderson Taken from: Newsletter of the California Barbecue Association One of the results of smoke cooking is the formation of the pink smoke ring. Its intensity, depth and its effect on flavor are within your control.

The cause is the reaction between nitrates and myoglobin, the oxygen carrying protein in muscle tissue. Nitrates have been used to cure meat for thousands of years but not on purpose. Sea salt contains nitrates as naturally occurring impurities. The nitrates incidentally cured meat that was salted for storage. When nitrates, through further reactions, combine wit the myoglobin the result is the pink color of ham, hot dogs, and other cured meats.

The resulting ham-like flavor adds one more layer of complexity to our carefully tended meats. Nitrates also are responsible for the killing the botulism spores. But since we are not getting them in high enough concentration from smoke, smoke cooking is not a preservative.

From the wood ash being carried by the smoke. That's why using an electric or gas smoker or cooking in an over without wood chips will yield no smoke ring. Gardeners will confirm that ash is loaded with nitrates. In fact, ammonium nitrate, one of the components of gunpowder, was made by combing pig urine with wood ash. So don't let your pig pee on the fire.

It is a temperature dependent reaction. Bacteria are needed to change the nitrates to nitrites. Bacteria are active between 40 and 140 degrees F. Once the meat reaches 140F, the ring formation stops. So to maximize the extent of the smoke ring, put the meat on right out of the refrigerator and start out cooking at a lower temperature. Also, above 140F proteins start to denature and the myoglobin is no longer available. With small cuts, like baby back ribs, the smoke ring will go all the way through. Heavier smoke early on will affect the depth and intensity of the smoke flavor meat.

That has to do with the myoglobin in the meat. Technically, the oxidative state of the Fe ion, but the older the meat, the purpler the ring will be. The fresher the meat, the more it will tend to be pink. The handling of the meat during and after slaughter will also affect the color.

Nitrates and nitrites occur naturally in many foods including onion, pepper, celery, spinach, beets, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant and tomatoes. There is no evidence of increased cancer rates with dietary nitrates.

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