Are your ribs really smoked...?

How can you tell if the brisket or ribs at your local BBQ joint are really smoked, or if they are pulling a fast one on you? First of all, the flavor and texture of meat that is properly smoked is impossible to duplicate. It can only come from the long and slow exposure to right kind of wood. I know what you are thinking, and no you can't! Under no circumstance can you use liquid smoke for anything. It is created from the residue left on the walls in commercial smokers. The sticky brown goop is scraped off, boiled with water and food coloring, then bottled. It is full of dangerous carcinogens and just tastes awful. So back to the question at at hand, besides the flavor, the best way to ensure that meat has been properly smoked, is by looking for what professionals call the smoke ring. The smoke ring is a pink ring that may range from 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch thick. In beef the ring is reddish-pink and in pork, chicken or turkey it is a much brighter pink. Bellow is an example of pork ribs (left) and brisket (right) from City Market in Luling, TX. Notice how much darker the ring is around the brisket. (The most Amazing Ribs in Texas)

I will avoid boring you to death by repeating your high school biology teachers lecture that you didn't care about then, and definitely don't care about now. Basically, meat gets it red color from myoglobin, burning wood emits notorious dioxide or NO2. The reaction of NO2 with the myoglobin, in a sense, "preserves" the meat, locking in the red color. The NO2 can only penetrate so far into the meat, which is why the meat does not turn pink all the way though. This reaction is very similar to one that occurs when meat is cured by marinating or rubbing it in a mixture of salt, spices, and nitrates. Bacon, ham and hot dogs are examples of meat that has been cured.

The one thing you have to be careful for is places that cook BBQ in combination smoker / gas ovens, or worse in a regular old gas oven. NO2 is a by product of natural gas and propane, along with other additives like sulfur, that make you meat taste and smell terrible.