To Crutch or Not to Crutch on my WSM

[jsaniga]

Firing up R2-D2 with a butt on top that I will move to the second rack when I put the brisket on about 4 hours later.. I am considering not going to the Texas Crutch in the morning and just let her cook through. What do you do? If I don't crutch, are there any watch-outs i need to consider?

[RonB]

I have never wrapped a butt and I do enjoy the results. I did unwrap a few when I wuz much younger.

[STEbbq]

Nice. How has it been so long before someone made that one?

[jsaniga]

Not the butt, but the brisket.

[RonB]

Oops. I have never wrapped a brisket either.

[STEbbq]

Let it ride! I am a member of the never crutch always lazy club. Nothing to really watch out for except it will take longer so keep an eye on fuel if you are low.

[texastweeter]

I crutch shoulders in foil, brisket in paper.

[Donw]

Nothing I can think of. I don’t crutch pork at all unless I’m making kula pork and then I use banana leaves.

[ecowper]

You’re putting the butt on before the brisket?

[jsaniga]

Always. Takes longer to smoke on the second rack.

[Santamarina]

I’m with jsaniga on this one. I’ve never had a brisket take more than 9 hours, but butts typically run 14+ hours!

[ecowper]

jsaniga and Santamarina ….. very interesting, my pork butts usually run 12 hours or so and briskets more like 14.

[Clawbear57]

I'm with ecowper why wait for brisket?

[jsaniga]

No crutch worked pretty good…

[ecowper]

Looks good to me!

[luvthemstillers]

Great looking bark on that butt. You made the right call.

[Santamarina]

Looks tasty! Now I don’t have a WSM, but typically I don’t wrap butts at all during the cook…only for holding. Brisket I wrap in butcher paper after the bark is set to my liking - well after the stall.

[LA Pork Butt]

The only time I ever crutch is if finish time becomes an issue. I do wrap and hold at 200 in an ice chest for 2 hours. If I serve just after it finishes I am always disappointed.

[captainlee]

I've done it both ways and feel that I get better results with the wrap. Things tend to dry out a bit here because of altitude if the stalls are long. I use a pan and foil for the wrap to retain the drippings. Ribs do fine straight through.

[RichardK]

I do not crutch, but I wrap just past half way through the cook. The wrap I believe gives me a little more moist Boston Butt. The main reason I wrap is to prevent soot from getting on the meat. My butts take around 20+ hours (I average just under 3 hours/pound cook time), so I run out of charcoal before the end. Adding charcoal causes soot, so the wrap protects the meat.

[outta_ammo]

Saint Harry of Soo crutches in his WSMs. It seems to have worked out quite well for him. Good enough for me.