[pnoon]

Originally Posted by T.G

BBQ is one of those things where everyone eventually develops their own style and technique for this and many other things since we all cook a bit differently and prefer different combinations of ingredients and methods and individual pits work and behave differently.

For me, it can be a garlic paste coating (on lamb for example), or a heavier coating of rub - the rub having some brown sugar in it and no salt, so I can get away with this. That and 230F-240F pit with some smoke and that's about it for me. I hardly ever baste or mop.

Personally, I think Brad, gator and Luke get better looking barks than I do most of the time, so take my advice for what it's worth.

Traegers burn very clean, so you might never see a super dark bark.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these photos might not be representing the color correctly. A lot of the food I take pictures of looks darker on the screen than it actually is (or at least on my monitors - which might or might not be properly calibrated).

BTW - I've had dark crunchy bark that looked great but when you bit into it, it was due to oversmoking or overtemp and was bitter and nasty, so ehhh.

Thanks, Adam.
That helps a lot.