Wrapping in butcher paper...before cooking

[Red Man]

So I’ve got a question, might be kinda dumb . I just finished trimming a brisket for Saturday. I’m bringing it down to my parents house on Friday and I’ll smoke it there the next day. Today I trimmed and salted, then wrapped in pink butcher paper and wrapped that with plastic wrap for transport. I’ve used this paper many times for wrapping brisket with no issues. But...the liquid after wrapping has lots of fat, the liquid before cooking does not. I’m concerned that wrapping in pink butcher paper during the dry brine will cause the liquid that comes out of the brisket to turn the paper to mush, especially because of the plastic wrap around the outside. My plastic wrap isn’t wide enough to properly wrap the brisket, that’s why I used the butcher paper as the first layer. What do y’all think, is the paper gonna be ok?

[mountainsmoker]

There is no plastic wrap available to the common cook that will fully wrap a brisket. I just dry brine mine and then wrap it with several layers of plastic wrap. It doesn't leak that way. You can't get the butcher paper tight enough.

[Troutman]

What he said

[ComfortablyNumb]

I don't know the answer to your question, but when my meat is bigger than the wrap I wrap in one direction then, without cutting the wrap, twist the meat so it is wrapping the sides. Another way is to wrap it like you would your arm or leg with an Ace bandage. I'm wrapping for freezing, so I have to get the wrap on before the freezer paper.

[Troutman]

What he said 2

[Flavorsavor]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NEW8ZE/?tag=amazingribs--20

Ordered this 2 years ago. Never looked back.

[Huskee]

Never thought of doing that, I don't think there's enough liquid to mush the paper. When I dry brine & fridge mine I put it in a lasagna pan or cookie sheet and usually 2 sheets wide of plastic wrap on the top. There's rarely much more liquid in the pan after 24-48hrs than a tablespoon smeared around if I had to guess....I suspect you'd be fine. With pork I get tons of liquid but not brisket.

[Spinaker]

+1

[jfmorris]

+1 here too!

[jhapka]

FWIW I wrapped some SLC ribs in butcher paper during brining once and the paper turned mushy and stuck very persistently to the meat. I even had to trim some meat off because the meat and paper fully integrated. It’s probably because I got cheap butcher paper from Amazon.

[Red Man]

Alright...so last night I wrapped in butcher paper, then plastic wrap. This morning I was nervous and didn’t feel good about it. I unwrapped it and the butcher paper had turned soft and tore easily. I had no trouble (carefully) removing it from the meat, but it probably would’ve been worse tomorrow. I just wrapped it in a lot of plastic wrap. Normally I dry brine on a rack in a sheet pan, uncovered. This time I need to put it in a cooler to transport. I was hoping to use a small cooler and a half sheet pan is too big to fit. It’s weird how butcher paper can be completely saturated with brisket juice when used to wrap during cooking, but can’t handle raw brisket juice.

[Dan Deter]

This seems like a good use for the white butcher paper with the plastic coating.

[Spinaker]

I would just wrap it in the paper and you will be fine. When you are cooking there is a lot more moisture and fat being pushed out so the paper has more to suck up.

When I dry brine, I always do it fun the fridge, uncovered on a elevated rack. It is generally pretty dry on the tray below the meat. Wrapped in the paper, that brisket will transport just fine. I bought real Cambro a while back, and I slide the uncovered brisket into a pan with he elevated rack, then I transport it in the cambro. I don't even wrap it during transport. I simply make sure the cambro is kept cold. (Yeti Packs work great for this actually. They slide right into the runners.)

[jfmorris]

Is there a reason not to wrap in foil for storage and transport? I seem to have better luck with my 18" wide roll of heavy duty foil than I do any plastic wrap. That said, I've wrapped butts and brisket in multiple layers of plastic wrap before for holding in the fridge prior to cooking - I just took the roll out of the box, and did like ComfortablyNumb said, and wrapped it in multiple directions before I cut the plastic.

[Troutman]

Exactly what I was going to add, what’s wrong with foil. You’re just transporting not cooking.

[Murdy]

Quality plastic wrap adheres to itself pretty well. If you tear off a couple long sheets of plastic wrap and overlap them, you should be fine.

[Oak Smoke]

I keep a couple of boxes of these in the pantry. They will easily hold a brisket with room leftover. The longer you have these around the more uses you will find for them.

[fzxdoc]

Are those bags food grade, I wonder?

Kathryn

[Troutman]

They are food grade fzxdoc. I've used them for brining big turkeys, they work great !!

[Red Man]

There’s nothing wrong with foil or any other thing large enough to wrap it with. Butcher paper was the only thing I had large enough to wrap without overlapping. At this point I discovered butcher paper was a bad idea and I wrapped with plastic wrap. I tore off long sheets of plastic wrap, laid them down overlapping them, then laid more sheets over the seams, folded that over the brisket, then wrapped more all around it. I’m sure this’ll seal it up fine. Thanks for all the replies and lesson learned about using untreated butcher paper on raw meat

[Troutman]

I've also wrapped in bubble wrap, just got to remember to poke a hole so you can breath