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If you wrap brisket with foil, your final product will taste like metallic pot roast. The butcher paper wrap allows some transfer of moisture out and smoke flav

If you wrap brisket with foil, your final product will taste like metallic pot roast. The butcher paper wrap allows some transfer of moisture out and smoke flavor in, and is the best combination. Most of the “moisture” you notice in the final product is from rendered fat, not water content. Though of course you don’t want the meat to dry out, which is why all long cooks should be accompanied by a water pan. Brisket bark is not at all the same as the pork rib char you’re referring to; it’s the product of hours of reaction between smoke, salt, pepper, and fat on the surface of the meat. I agree on ribs though, I think the steamed + grill finished rib style outshines most smoked ribs!

tptacek 5y ago
Allowing moisture out is what's causing the stall. Over the span of a brisket cook, you'll have no trouble at all getting enough smoke flavor in. You don't wrap the brisket for the whole cook.
- bgentry 5y ago
  Of course you’re not supposed to wrap for the whole cook, I never suggested anything of the sort. Generally you wrap around the time of the stall or when the meat has developed enough bark. For a brisket, this tends to be in the ~170° range. Humidity is a major factor in shortening the stall, because the stall comes from evaporative cooling as the meat loses moisture. If you keep a large water pan at the hottest spot of your cooker, this makes the stall dramatically shorter because there will be less evaporation in a humid chamber. I will reiterate that for a brisket, the flavor you’ll get from wrapping in butcher paper is far superior to that of a foil wrap. I live in Austin and have tried all of the best brisket around here. Anything wrapped in foil (i.e. Snow’s) is in a tier far below the best places (Franklin, La Barbecue, Micklethwait), every one of which wraps in butcher paper. There’s a reason for that! The aluminum foil really does inflict a distinctive pot roast flavor from the steaming of the brisket, a flavor that does not occur with butcher paper wrapping. Beyond that, the other most important advice (noted elsewhere in this thread) is to allow a very long rest period after the cook, ideally 12+ hours at around 140-145°. This is what causes the brisket to really relax and the rest of its collagen to melt without drying out. My brisket cooks these days use a schedule similar to Franklin: cook all day, aim to finish just before bedtime, and then rest in a low warmer all night for lunchtime bbq the next day. Pork butts are a very different beast and none of the above advice is applicable there, except the importance of a water pan.
  - crazygringo 5y ago
    Just wanted to say thank you for all that. Super super helpful and informative.
    - bgentry 5y ago
      Sure thing! Most of the good stuff I’ve learned from Aaron Franklin one way or another. He’s got his PBS series, along with the extended segments available on YouTube, his Masterclass, book, etc. Really great resources :) I’ll also add that I was originally doing a cook all night type of schedule. It was fun to do a couple of times, but the sleep loss isn’t great. The cook all day / rest all night schedule is a lot more fun and gets a better result too!
- splitstud 5y ago
  Gospel truth

tptacek 5y ago

Allowing moisture out is what's causing the stall. Over the span of a brisket cook, you'll have no trouble at all getting enough smoke flavor in. You don't wrap the brisket for the whole cook.

bgentry 5y ago
Of course you’re not supposed to wrap for the whole cook, I never suggested anything of the sort. Generally you wrap around the time of the stall or when the meat has developed enough bark. For a brisket, this tends to be in the ~170° range. Humidity is a major factor in shortening the stall, because the stall comes from evaporative cooling as the meat loses moisture. If you keep a large water pan at the hottest spot of your cooker, this makes the stall dramatically shorter because there will be less evaporation in a humid chamber. I will reiterate that for a brisket, the flavor you’ll get from wrapping in butcher paper is far superior to that of a foil wrap. I live in Austin and have tried all of the best brisket around here. Anything wrapped in foil (i.e. Snow’s) is in a tier far below the best places (Franklin, La Barbecue, Micklethwait), every one of which wraps in butcher paper. There’s a reason for that! The aluminum foil really does inflict a distinctive pot roast flavor from the steaming of the brisket, a flavor that does not occur with butcher paper wrapping. Beyond that, the other most important advice (noted elsewhere in this thread) is to allow a very long rest period after the cook, ideally 12+ hours at around 140-145°. This is what causes the brisket to really relax and the rest of its collagen to melt without drying out. My brisket cooks these days use a schedule similar to Franklin: cook all day, aim to finish just before bedtime, and then rest in a low warmer all night for lunchtime bbq the next day. Pork butts are a very different beast and none of the above advice is applicable there, except the importance of a water pan.
- crazygringo 5y ago
  Just wanted to say thank you for all that. Super super helpful and informative.
  - bgentry 5y ago
    Sure thing! Most of the good stuff I’ve learned from Aaron Franklin one way or another. He’s got his PBS series, along with the extended segments available on YouTube, his Masterclass, book, etc. Really great resources :) I’ll also add that I was originally doing a cook all night type of schedule. It was fun to do a couple of times, but the sleep loss isn’t great. The cook all day / rest all night schedule is a lot more fun and gets a better result too!
splitstud 5y ago
Gospel truth