&TO WRAP OR NOT TO WRAP
uch ink and ire have been spilled on whether,
when, and how to wrap meats—especially
brisket—during smoking. Partisans argue that
wrapping seals in moisture and steam that helps
break down tough meat fibers. Opponents counter
that wrapping (particularly in aluminum foil) gives
meats a stewed, pot roast-like consistency that’s
unworthy of being called great barbecue.
Who’s right?
Wrapping has some pretty powerful proponents:- Wayne Mueller at the celebrated Louie Mueller
Barbecue in Taylor, Texas, double-wraps briskets,
first in plastic, then in paper. - At Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas, pit master
Tootsie Tomanetz wraps briskets in aluminum
foil two-thirds of the way through the smoking
process and finishes cooking them in the foil.
wrapped) in an insulated cooler. Butcher paper
has two advantages over foil: Being porous, it
“breathes,’’ releasing steam that would otherwise
make the bark (crust) soggy. And being absorbent,
it pulls out and absorbs excess fat. Indeed, the
more it becomes saturated with fat, the more it
seals in moisture.RAICHLEN’S BOTTOM LINE:
- Seal brisket in unlined butcher paper the last
2 hours of cooking and while resting. - Seal ribs in unlined butcher paper if you are
resting them. (I usually serve them hot off the
smoker, so I skip this step.) - If you've always wrapped your meat in foil or
plastic wrap and you're pleased with the results,
carry on. You, too, are doing it right.
Critics of this technique deprecatingly call it the
Texas crutch, and yet Snow’s ranks consistently
among the top-rated barbecue joints in the Lone
Star State. For many years I used the Texas crutch,
wrapping my briskets halfway through smoking.
My briskets—always moist and tender—drew raves.
And yet. in retrospect, they did have a pot-roasty
texture and taste that fell short of the very best
Texas pit-roasted briskets.
Which brings me to another aluminum-foil
wrapping technique used for ribs: the 3-2-1
method, in which you smoke ribs 3 hours
unwrapped, then 2 hours wrapped in foil, then
finished for 1 hour unwrapped. Yes, it produces ribs
that are exceedingly moist and tender. But they,
too, have a stewed quality that deters me, at least,
from wrapping in foil.
Since then, I’ve come to use what I call the
butcher paper method: wrapping the brisket
in unlined butcher paper for the last 2 hours of
cooking, then resting the meat for 1 to 2 hours (still
NOTE: The butcher paper must be unlined. Do
not use the plastic-lined butcher paper used
in a growing number of supermarket meat
departments. It will not breathe or absorb fat. :BEEF | 71