# Pink pork????



## dannyj

I smoked my first baby back ribs today. Used the 2-2-1 method, temp was 245-250.  After 5 hours the ribs were falling off the bone but were redish in color.  Is this a smoking thing?  If I smoke a pork loin, maintain 245-250 for correct time per pound, reach the correct internal temp, will this also be redish?  I always thought pork was white when done. Any info welcome. Thanks


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## fftwarren

yep, you did it great. that is good smoke penetration. when you smoke something larger like a roast, you will see the smoke ring, in ribs its almost all the way through due to their thickness.

with the loin, you are going to see the smoke ring all the way around and will be white in the middle


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## lugnutz

here is a pic of a smoke ring, the meat is hamburger and you can see that the inside is burger color and the outter edges are nice and red.


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## pops6927

The smoke ring is caused by 'curing' the meat with nitrites from the smoking process; when the temp is low to begin with the curing starts working just like adding nitrites to your sausages, pickling brines, etc.  A good example is in the early days smokehouses were built and on one side was a low'n'slow fire smoldering and the rest of the house had meats hung absorbing the smoke and they'd smoke them for 2 weeks or longer.  But, it was a curing process as once the meat was thoroughly smoked it would not spoil.

I just did a couple racks of ribs and formed the same bright pink smoke ring which matched the cured pork I'd smoked along with it for buckboard bacon; it's a natural process from smoking.


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## meateater

dannyj said:


> I smoked my first baby back ribs today. Used the 2-2-1 method, temp was 245-250.  After 5 hours the ribs were falling off the bone but were redish in color.  Is this a smoking thing?  If I smoke a pork loin, maintain 245-250 for correct time per pound, reach the correct internal temp, will this also be redish?  I always thought pork was white when done. Any info welcome. Thanks


For your first smoke job I say you rocked it,nice job. Smoking pork you can toss the white meat thing out the window, pink is in. Here's a example, grab a loin and let the TBS roll.


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## pandemonium

meat you are the loin master!! lol i didnt think you could smoke a loin until seeing yours, i have to try one, looks great!!


meateater said:


> For your first smoke job I say you rocked it,nice job. Smoking pork you can toss the white meat thing out the window, pink is in. Here's a example, grab a loin and let the TBS roll.


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## meateater

Not much different than a butt or shoulder. They do make great tacos by the way.


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## mballi3011

Now you have gotten some really good reasons for the pink in your pork both from the food expert (Pops 6927) and then some really good looking smoke rings on some good looking pork too.


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