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Okay, so I was totally stuck on getting a good bark on my brisket for months, and my buddy in Austin told me to try spritzing with straight-up pickle juice instead of apple cider vinegar.
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the_riley5mo ago
Yeah, the pickle juice thing sounds wild... I would have agreed with @bennett.patricia a year ago. I was sure it was just a weird trick. Tried it on a flat last summer and the bark set up so much faster. Something about the vinegar and salt in the juice just makes a really good crust. It doesn't taste like pickles, I promise.
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bennett.patricia5mo ago
Pickle juice won't help the bark, right?
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jake_owens5mo ago
Oh come on, you guys are all missing the real issue here. It's not about the pickle juice itself, it's about the brine pH and how it interacts with your specific smoker setup. I run a stick burner and a pellet grill, and the pickle juice trick works way different on each one. The pellets burn cleaner so the bark sets faster anyway, but on the stick burner you need that extra acid to kickstart the Maillard reaction. Nobody ever talks about how the wood type changes things too. Hickory and pickle juice together get this weird chemical thing going that mesquite doesn't pick up. Just something to chew on.
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