GWS General Chat: Damn I feel like a boss when I have one in each hand.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > GWS General Chat: Damn I feel like a boss when I have one in each hand.

Yaltabaoth: Mar 24, 2007

i shoot friendlies posted:

Let me respond with the following:

Gee, I did not pay attention in physics. It looks so good but because I did not probe it and pay attention in physics, it probably will taste lousy. Oh well.

You know, if only we have a PhD in physics to really break this down for us...

I love how this entire post is dripping with :smug:

and then posts some mediocre-at-best photos as if they are supposed to blow everyone away with their sheer awesomeness.

Seriously did you even smoke that shoulder? It looks like you cooked it in an oven for about 5 hours. I don't see any smoke ring or bark.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2012 00:22

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:59

Yaltabaoth: Mar 24, 2007

Lyssavirus posted:

Something looks really off about the meat itself, too. If someone served me that, I would not eat it, for fear of food poisoning.

I thought so too, but maybe it's the pictures. It looks really greasy.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2012 00:41

Yaltabaoth: Mar 24, 2007

SubG posted:

My guess is that it wasn't properly rested after cooking. But that's probably just my book knowledge talking.

If only we had someone with a PHD in cooking to explain all this jargon! loving meat smoking, how does it work?!

# ¿ Apr 23, 2012 01:17

Yaltabaoth: Mar 24, 2007

Chemmy posted:

Not that the posted pork shoulder looks good, but the smoke ring won't form in an electric smoker. It's a byproduct of combustion in a charcoal smoker.

I use a wood smoker and still get smoke rings.

Edit: I was under the impression that smoke rings are from carbon monoxide, which is a byproduct of combustion. Oops got too scientific there, wouldn't want to upset Ikillhostages!

# ¿ Apr 23, 2012 03:05

Yaltabaoth: Mar 24, 2007

SubG posted:

Nitric oxide, not carbon monoxide, but yeah. When nitric oxide comes into contact with water in the presence of atmospheric oxygen it'll react to form nitrous acid. This in turn will react with a pigment in meat called myoglobin (it's the chemical that gives fresh meat a rich purplish-red colour) to make nitric oxide myoglobin (the chemical that gives uncooked cured meats a pinkish tinge) which will, when heated, become nitrosohemochrome, which is the pinkish-red colour you see in a smoke ring or cooked cured pork (like bacon).

This is a simplification; the chemistry of myoglobin is actually more complicated than this: in a living creature it functions as an oxygen storage mechanism for muscle tissue, binding oxygen to form either oxymyoglobin or metmyoglobin, the concentration of metmyoglobin being enzymatically regulated. In dead tissue (that is to say, meat) this regulation mechanism is effectively absent and, because metmyoglobin is the most stable of the aforementioned molecules, the concentration of bright, comic book blood red oxymyoglobin goes down and the concentration of greyish metmyoglobin goes up as meat ages.

Nitrite will react with any of the above, but because metmyoglobin is more stable than the other forms of myoglobin, the higher the proportion of metmyoglobin in the meat, the less smoke ring formation you see. And once metmyoglobin denatures, you get the brownish colour of meat that's ~~Ducassed~~ `done', and this can't be reversed by any conditions that are likely to arise in a kitchen. Even i shoot friendlies'. So once that happens there will be effectively no further smoke ring formation.

This is a simplification, but I think it's accurate, unless Nathan Myhrvold has revolutionised the gently caress out of all this chemistry too, and it turns out smoke ring formation is actually governed by patent trolling or something.

Do some smokers (electric) not produce nitric oxide?

# ¿ Apr 23, 2012 07:09

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