To wrap or not to wrap a brisket?

[The Burn]

I wrapped early on in my experience - way back about 2 years ago - but not anymore. I've done several on my Weber with SnS and did a great one Xmas day on my CampChef/Browning pellet. With the pellet, I give it a couple of hours on the "High Smoke" setting, which apparently cycles more to produce the smoke, but regardless of whether I'm doing that or set at 225, it cycles between about 200-240. Took it to 203 in the flat and 206 in the point and there was nothing dry about that brisket.

Here's a flat from the SnS



And here's the flat portion of a whole packer prime brisket that I cooked as two separate pieces on pellets. It was about 11.5 lbs after trimming and it cooked for about 12 hours. Then I wrapped it in foil, sat it in an aluminum pan, put that in a pizza delivery-type bag, and then put the whole thing in the cooler with towels for 4 hours until we brought it with us for Xmas dinner where it was still hot.



And today I smoked a pastrami until I got a good bark at about 170 and then it's wrapped and refrigerated for steam to 203 tomorrow night.

[Ernest]

Sonoman I get prime packers from Costco. I ask for a a small packer.
I trim it but not as much as most folks do.
You can always ask your butcher to Cut the point section.
That flat is always a headache.

[PaulstheRibList]

Judging by the empty case boxes of 1855beef.com briskets all stacked up as trophys in my garage, I've cooked about 70 briskets this year, on my WSM, on my #LilTex Stickburner, on my #WhoDat1 Insulated Cabinet, and now on my new Jambo Backyard. I've done no wrap, foil wrap and mostly Butcher Paper Wrap. I'll bullet point a couple of comments based on the questions I recall being mentioned above.

> No wrap can produce too hard a bark, depending on your cooker and heat, particularly on the stickburner if the brisket is closer to the firebox opening.

> Foiling works great, and sure collects the jus. I find that the bark doesn't rub off much, but I normally have a long run unwrapped, like 10 hours, so my bark is darker and more set than the average bear.

> I have settled into using Butcher Paper as my preferred vehicle for Brisket Heaven. It looks cool, is easy to work with, and the results are great! The way I wrap, I can now slide a brisket off the shelf and onto my table, then move the spatula to the inside layer of the wrap, lift, and can then unwind the outer layer of paper, exposing the brisket for me to look at it and probe for temp and tenderness without fully unwrapping or losing the jus in the wrap, and easily rewrap and put back on the cooker.

> FYI, i work hard at my trim, with sharp knives, ice cold briskets and not too many beers in me. I can now get that 1/4 inch trim down pat! These last briskets I did were my best trims yet. It takes forever! I use Meathead 's BBBR, and typically I inject with Butcher's Prime, unless I don't have time to mess with that (it does take time to inject). And I like to cook briskets around 275 of late in the Cabinet and Stickburners, though in the WSM I was exclusively in the 225-250 range.

> Buy the roll of butcher paper and the cheap cutter and stand, they work great, and are super cool when serving brisket or other BBQ to friends on that paper! http://www.webstaurantstore.com/ has it in 18 inch and 24 inch rolls. 24 makes a much easier wrap, but you can do it in 18.

> The biggest, most difficult thing for me in cooking a brisket is being near my cooker (not off at work, running errands, etc.) when it's getting close to time to pull. Pulling them at exactly the right time is CRITICAL to getting the perfect brisket. You can't skimp on the prep, the trim, the injection, the rub, the fire management, etc. But if you fail to pull at the right time, or pull too soon, you get good brisket, not great.

> I went to one of the most famous Texas BBQ Joints on Tuesday, Louie Mueller in Taylor, and got Beef Ribs and Brisket. The Ribs were Spectacular! The brisket, well, it should have stayed on the pit longer, the fat was not all the way rendered to perfection, and the muscles were still a little tight. It was still really good; my brother in law ate every bit on his plate and went from sort of complaining about the hour wait we had to saying that you'd have to blow up the pit to make better brisket than that! However, my last 20 briskets where I was near the pit when I should have been were mostly all better than that one. Brisket is the hardest BBQ meat to get perfect! I'm thinking Aaron F. says that knowing when to pull is the hardest part.

> I don't thinking cooking to the end unwrapped is the big issue on having a dry flat, but I haven't done side-by-side experiments.

> The moral to the story: Keep cooking, try them each way, keep some notes, and make friends with all the delicious BBQ you are making!

Your friend,
paul
@BishopofBBQ

[PaulstheRibList]

Generally, probe tender happens when it gets to that magic 203 degrees. But the thinner parts of the flat will get to probe tender & 203 before the thickest portion does, unless you find a really uniform thickness flat.

So, the thinner portions of the flat will be above 203, and the point will often be above 203, while that thickest part of the flat is getting to the beauty of probe tender.

I have noticed when I've wet aged a brisket to over 6 weeks, stretching out to 8 weeks, then it gets to probe tender quicker.

[Dr ROK]

Great summary! Thanks for the info!

[Craigar]

Fantastic summary! You are the first one I can remember about talking about paying attention to the thinnest part of the brisket as opposed to the point and it makes perfect sense. Next time I smoke a brisket I am going to use two probes, one for the flat and one for the point, to see how this all boils down, per se. Thanks again PaulstheRibList.