Butcher Paper versus Foil - Texas Crutch

[Andrrr]

#2 all day!

jsaniga I'm not sure what temp you're cooking at but if you get crunched for time and need to power through a stall, especially with a butt, just push the temp to 275 or a little more.

[Joey877]

Santamarina I understand not wrapping the meat until you have the bark you want, but I do not understand why you wrap the meat after you have the bark if you are already through the stall. What is the purpose of wrapping the meat after the stall? To me there doesn't seem like any reason to wrap it at that point. Hope this doesn't come across as confrontational or anything, I am just curious.

[Santamarina]

Once the meat has all the smoke and color I want it to have I wrap. Often times those two come before the meat is done, but never once in my years of smoking has the bark been set before or even during the stall. Wrapping at the stall might get it done faster, but it won’t have the color or smoke flavor I’m after.

[Joey877]

I wrap everything in paper…but not until AFTER the stall. Nothing gets wrapped until the bark is set. For brisket that tends to be the last hour or two. Pork shoulder rarely gets wrapped before it’s done.

I'm curious...why would you wrap at all if you wait until after the stall? The only reason I wrap at all is to power through the stall in order to stay on the right timeline. Not sure why else you would wrap if not to save time?

[jsaniga]

Yeah, makes sense. And I think I need to start earlier so I don't have to worry about using a wrap.

[DavidNorcross]

I only wrap brisket in paper. Foil for everything else.

[ecowper]

CaptainMike a picture … a thousand words … etc

[CaptainMike]

'Nuff said.

[ecowper]

So, I never wrap unless I must to get the cook done on time. I believe the bark and smoke profiles are much better when the meat is cooked nekkid from beginning to end. paper or foil is a good tool to get past the stall when you have to finish the cook at a certain time.

Here’s an example of pork butt that was wrapped vs pork butt that was nekkid the whole way …. Both cooked on my WSM 22 … same cooker, roughly same temp, 2 hour difference in cook time.

9 hour cook, 250F grate temp, wrapped about 6 hour mark


No wrap at all, 11 hours cook at 250F

[ecowper]

I’m not convinced about better bark using paper …. Posting a pic below.

[Santamarina]

I wrap everything in paper…but not until AFTER the stall. Nothing gets wrapped until the bark is set. For brisket that tends to be the last hour or two. Pork shoulder rarely gets wrapped before it’s done.

[jlazar]

I do not crutch if time permits. If needed, I crutch brisket in paper and pork butt in foil (both at about 175-180). I think the key is to wrap the meat as tight as possible.

For pork butt, I prefer not to wrap and to catch all the drippings in a foil pan. I place a cooling rack in the foil pan and place the butt on top of the cooling rack. Juices are added back into the pork when pulled.

[Hulagn1971]

When I do crutch a pork butt, I use foil. When doing brisket I use butcher paper after 4 naked hours in the smoker when bark is set.

[CaptainMike]

I am also in the no-wrap camp. I have tried both methods and feel no-wrap is a notch better. I could see myself trying the boat method, but I'm still leery of the pot roast effect that can occur. But, then again, every day is Saturday so I have plenty of time nurse a cook along. That said, for expediency's sake if I were doing a bunch of clods I'd opt for foil then reset the bark towards the end of the cook. Or sous vide.

[Joey877]

Every time I have wrapped brisket in foil I lose the bark. That doesn't happen when I use paper. Granted, it's been years since I have used foil (for this reason), so maybe something has changed. Not sure what could have, though. Brisket has become expensive enough that I want to crush it every time, and that means good bark.