Had a competition judge tell me my bark was too bitter, here's what I changed

I was at a small local comp in Kansas City last summer, I got a score sheet back from one judge that said "bark tastes burnt and bitter." I was pretty upset at first because I thought a dark bark was the goal. But I went home and tried cutting my pepper amount in half, and I started wrapping my pork butts a little earlier, around 165 instead of 180. The bark still came out dark but way more balanced on the flavor. I also stopped using straight oak and mixed in some fruit wood to mellow it out. Since then I've placed in the top 10 at two other smaller events. Has anyone else had to dial back their rub or change their wood to fix a bitter bark issue?

2 comments

2 Comments

jackson.wesley3h ago

Funny you mention that, it reminds me of how I see people overcomplicate things all the time. Like my neighbor spends hours tweaking his lawn mower deck height when half the time it's just the gas he's using. Same with cooking, we get so locked into one way of doing something we forget the simple fix is right there. You dropping the pepper and wrapping earlier is a perfect example of stepping back and just seeing what's actually causing the problem instead of fighting it. It's like when my buddy kept getting bitter coffee and finally realized his water temp was too high, not the beans. Sometimes the best change is just pulling back on one thing instead of rebuilding the whole system.

kevin_murray884h ago

Wait, you were wrapping at 180? thats way too high man, no wonder you got bitter bark. You basically just let it burn up before you even wrapped it. I always wrap my shoulders around 160-165 too, and I cut my pepper in half a while back after a similar complaint. The fruit wood trick is something I gotta try though, I've been stuck on hickory forever and never thought to mix it up.