Brining Ribs

I've tried Kosmos on ribs and butts. Will add a little extra moisture and flavor I will do anything for a little extra.

Smoke on Wheels injection is good for more than just injecting.

Most of the brines will help with moisture retention but do little more than add flavor to the exterior of the ribs. The moisture retention comes from the salt and phosphates that are in the brine. The flavor molecules are too large to penetrate the meat so they will stay on the surface while the water and phosphate molecules can penetrate the meat. The salt and phosphates have a negative charge which attracts the positive end of a water molecule and "holds" it in the meat better during cooking.

I have found that I get just as good of a result using a dry brine on the meat with not having to worry about the phosphates imparting a rubbery texture which can happen if you use too much. If you are doing very fast cooking such as pan frying a chicken breast the brine might be slightly better but any advantage to brining goes away when cooking on a smoker.

I dry brine in one of two ways;

1) I either salt the meat with 1/2 tsp of table salt per pound of meat (for ribs assume 50% of the rib is meat and 50% bone so us 1/4 tsp per pound of ribs) and then use a salt free rub.

2) I figure out the salt content of the rub and apply the rub so that the salt content is equal to the 1/2 tsp (1/4 tsp for ribs). This is easy if you make your own rub but a little more difficult if you use a commercial rub.

I salt or rub as far in advance as I can, but at least 1 hour, prior to cooking.

I started doing this after reading about brines on Amazingribs and the work of Dr. Greg Blonder and it worked well for me.

Add Sweetwater Spice Company out of Austin, Texas to the list of those making brines for pork, 1 to 5 ratio mix with water. Good stuff!

Brines don't do ANYTHING for flavor except for the portion of seasoning that sticks to the surface of the meat. The flavor molecules are way too big to be drawn into the meat through osmosis. If you rinse the meat after you brine it, you just washed away any flavor you tried to add. The meat will still be saltier and will retain more water, but any extra flavor you added will be gone.

If you want that flavored liquid in the meat, your only real choice is to inject.

Add Oakridge BBQ Game Changer Brine to your list!

swamprb said:

Add Oakridge BBQ Game Changer Brine to your list!

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That brine on chicken is awesome, never thought to use it for ribs,,,,,:clap:

arbeck said:

Brines don't do ANYTHING for flavor except for the portion of seasoning that sticks to the surface of the meat. The flavor molecules are way too big to be drawn into the meat through osmosis. If you rinse the meat after you brine it, you just washed away any flavor you tried to add. The meat will still be saltier and will retain more water, but any extra flavor you added will be gone.

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I must respectably disagree.

Just be careful not to wet brine too long, or you can end up with freakishly bloated ribs.

I think the brine concept on ribs has merit. I like the ingredients presented. Heck, we brine our chops dont we. Just watch the per portions.

Burnt at Both Endz said:

I must respectably disagree.

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You can disagree all you want, but the science is clear. Harold McGee wrote about it (Tip #6 in this article). The flavor compounds in the brine are simply too big to enter the cells of the meat. Sodium and Chlorine ions are small and they can pass through fine, flavor compounds tend to be very large complex molecules.

You will get some flavor on the meat. The flavor compounds can attach to the outside and if there is exposed fat (And there should be some), fat soluble compounds can adhere. But you're only flavoring the surface. And if you rinse that surface almost all of the flavor you put on is going to go down the drain. If you're just patting dry however, a lot of the flavor and aroma is still going to be on the surface of the meat.

You can get around this by marinating. Adding acid will break down the meat, and allow compounds to get inside. But even this only works on the outer layers of the meat. It will never penetrate to the center. I've seen MRI studies of marinated meat, and even after days, only a small layer is actually changed by the acid.

arbeck said:

You can disagree all you want, but the science is clear. Harold McGee wrote about it (Tip #6 in this article). The flavor compounds in the brine are simply too big to enter the cells of the meat. Sodium and Chlorine ions are small and they can pass through fine, flavor compounds tend to be very large complex molecules.

You will get some flavor on the meat. The flavor compounds can attach to the outside and if there is exposed fat (And there should be some), fat soluble compounds can adhere. But you're only flavoring the surface. And if you rinse that surface almost all of the flavor you put on is going to go down the drain. If you're just patting dry however, a lot of the flavor and aroma is still going to be on the surface of the meat.

You can get around this by marinating. Adding acid will break down the meat, and allow compounds to get inside. But even this only works on the outer layers of the meat. It will never penetrate to the center. I've seen MRI studies of marinated meat, and even after days, only a small layer is actually changed by the acid.

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I'm just a cook not a scientist....but have you heard about protein modifiacation?

Protein modification:

Brining alters the chemical structure of proteins by breaking some of the bonds that give proteins their shape. The salt denatures the meat proteins, causing them to unwind and form a matrix that traps the water. According to David Krauss, a professor of biology at Boston College, those bonds are sensitive to changes in temperature, acidity and salinity, causing the proteins themselves to break down a bit in brines and allowing the salt, sugar, and other flavoring agents to permeate the food's flesh.

Burnt at Both Endz said:

I'm just a cook not a scientist....but have you heard about protein modifiacation?

Protein modification:

Brining alters the chemical structure of proteins by breaking some of the bonds that give proteins their shape. The salt denatures the meat proteins, causing them to unwind and form a matrix that traps the water. According to David Krauss, a professor of biology at Boston College, those bonds are sensitive to changes in temperature, acidity and salinity, causing the proteins themselves to break down a bit in brines and allowing the salt, sugar, and other flavoring agents to permeate the food's flesh.

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Me too, but I always thought brining worked via diffusion not osmosis. Subtle difference I guess.

I have used Kosmos Pork Soak on ribs in practice, not in competition. They were better than unbrined but not as good as the ribs we use in competition. It helps with moisture retention but really didn't add any flavor, or if it did, the flavor was overpowered by the rub, sauce, glaze, etc.

if brines work or dont work, do a test as find out for yourself. try a simple brine and one thats heavily flavored, no rub or anything else and see what happens.

ynotfehc said:

if brines work or dont work, do a test as find out for yourself. try a simple brine and one thats heavily flavored, no rub or anything else and see what happens.

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I've done it, and if you well rinse the brined food, nearly all the flavor is gone. It's very hard to tell the difference. I tested by cooking country style ribs sous vide so that no flavor could escape.

The one difference I found is that I could taste both clove and cinnamon when they were in the brine. My theory (though my chemistry background stops with college organic chem) is that the flavor compounds (eugenol in particular) in them turn into various forms of alcohol in when they enter water which somehow enters the cell walls more easily. Or it simply could be that the flavor compounds are much more attracted to fat and attached themselves to the exposed fat on the meat.

That being said, the differences were VERY subtle. Combined with a rub and smoke, I doubt even an experienced taster could tell the difference.

When I repeated the test with an injections though, the flavors of the meat were more than subtle. You could taste them quite easily. The most obvious difference was the taste of the liquid that the meat expelled. Since I was cooking in a vacuum, all the juice was captured. The juice from the meat that was injected tasted like the injection. The meat that I injected with just a salt/sugar solution just tasted like meat, salt and sugar and was pretty much indistinguishable from the either brined product.

I personally do not think that wet brining ribs really helps them. Brining can help other pork cuts.

But I believe that hydrolyzed soy protein pork injections can help the ribs in a contest. The small amount of moisture that is retained might make a difference.

For home or commercial cooking, I believe a good rub is sufficient.

Kind of leads to the question do you brine spares and baby backs? Do you prefer one over the other for comps?