Rubbed a brisket with straight coffee grounds on a whim and the bark turned out like charcoal

I tried it on a 12-pound packer last Sunday from a local farm in Vermont and the crust was so bitter and hard I had to shave it off with a knife, has anyone else had a rub experiment go that wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

leelewis1mo agoProlific Poster

Troyreed nailed it with that brown sugar and paprika combo. I've been doing a 2:1:1 ratio of brown sugar to coffee to smoked paprika on my last three briskets and it came out with this deep, rich bark that wasn't hard like a rock. The brown sugar caramelizes and softens the edges of the coffee bitterness, plus the paprika adds that color without making it look like a burnt log. You just gotta be real careful about how fine your coffee grounds are too, anything finer than a medium grind and you're basically making a concrete crust.

troyreed2mo ago

Nah, coffee works great if you cut it with brown sugar and paprika.

margaret3042mo ago

Heard about that from an old timer who swore by it for cutting bitterness. Might be worth a try next time I mess up a batch.