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Do Long Smoking Times Make Meat Dry?

by Ernie Krekewich
(Chatham, Ontario, Canada)

I recently just purchased an electric smoker, and our family loves it. I am confused, though...

Wouldn't cooking for an extended period of time cause the meat to dry out? You hear of people doing pork butt, or briskett for 10-12 hours. Why wouldn't that dry out the meat?

I've been smoking, consistently. at 224F. I best guess is roughly an hour, per inch of meat thickness. I'd love to do ribs, but wouldn't smoking for 2-4 hours dry out the meat? Yes, there is a water tray at the bottom of my smoker.

Please help...

Ernie Krekewich

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Do Long Smoking Times Make Meat Dry?

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starstarstarstarstar 		Time is your friend...:)-
by: Anonymous

You're hearing of Pork Butt and Brisket-both tough/fatty pieces of muscle.The connective tissue needs time to breakdown and the meat to tenderize. I generally give 1-1/2hrs./lb. of cooking time at 200*F to 225*F;this means if I have a 16lb. Brisket,I will be cooking for 24hrs.
Now, as with all things,there are problems to over come:with meat it is a Plateau(thus the reason for the long cooking times). This is a period of time in which the meat seems to do nothing but sit there.What do I mean? When I smoke meat I use a thermometer in the meat at the thickest part and watch for an Internal Meat Temperature of 190*F to 200*F. The breakdown of tissue prevents the rise of IMT until the tissue has "melted" and the muscle can continue to increase.
All this time and heat doesn't affect the moisture of the meat. The fats have basted it during the cooking-(the tissue thing).
As for Ribs? Well I cook mine for 6 hrs. at 220*F and have never had complaints,(spares,not babybacks).Again the fat does the moisturizing and renders away turning into a crust(Bark).
Hope this helped, and SMOKE HAPPY;}-

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