AS PROMISED…
Pickle juice brined baby back experiment. Most of the pictures have text on them but here is a summary
1.. Brined baby backs for 12 hours in Pickle Juice
2. Determining if there is any pickle flavor or change of texture in ribs
3. No noticeable pickle flavor in any of the ribs I tasted. Even the ribs that are ugly categorized as A on one of the posted pictures.
4. There’s a fantastic sourish , acidic punch on the backend of the bite that is a great addition to the flavor profile.
5. I believe it was RustyJake that said a sweeter rub or sauce would probably work well with this experiment and I think that would really balance out the sour. But let me be perfectly clear. The sour aftertaste is SUBTLE. It’s nice. See comment 7.
6. The Goldees’s rub and sauce was actually really good with this. It wasn’t too salty for my taste and the vinegar in the sauce went well with the pickle juice brine. I was shocked. I thought the rub would be way too salty and the sauce would ring out the sour too much from the brine. I was wrong.
7. The Sweet Baby Rays was REALLY good with the sweet, salty, sour, bite. Once again, I only put it on during the last 15 minutes after spritzing with only water and foiling with only water. They were basically steamed in water after a 12 hour pickle juice brine.
8. MY RANKING
#1 The Goldees AP Rub with the Goldees sauce in the foil wrap and sauced with Goldees last 15 minutes
# 2. The brine with Sweet Baby Rays
#3. Was there as a control
to see if any pickle juce flavor came through. It ABSOLUTELY DID NOT.
9. Final findings. The 12 hour pickle juice brine did not change the texture of the ribs at all. It did give a very nice subtle , sour after bite that I believe is WELL WORTH EXPLORING FUTHER. I believe RustyJake is spot on and maybe the Killer Hogs The Rub Would be great here. It’s definitely sweeter than Goldee’s and less saltier. However, the Goldees was fantastic for my Alabama pork bbq taste buds. Maybe a shorter brine too? There are 30 different directions for me to take this and it should be fun to experiment….. HOWEVER
10. MY NEXT SLAB will be what I call a Cross Dressing Pig
I found a 100% authentic recipe for Chick Fil A Brine. Who the hell doesn’t like Chick Fil A ?. I’m going to brine a slab of Baby Backs in it and see what happens. I will tinker with the pickle juice as my boredom continues