Foiling and putting in cooler question
 

I always see where people wrap their brisket in foil after they take it out of the smoker and put it in a cooler for several hours. Why is this done? I have read several brisket posts and never saw why this is done. Thank you.

TSD, Once the meat is pulled from the smoker, cooking actually continues. Wrapping and placing in the cooler just extend this process and allows collagens and other connective tissues to continue to break down without the risk of drying that continued cooking would present.

Its common practive to let meat "rest" after cooking to redistribute juices. With Briskets and butts, removing them at a slightly lower temp than your target temperature will allow it to continue cooking without heat and the temperature will continue to rise slowly before dropping. Sometimes this rise can be as much as 10 degrees. I remove briskets and cooler them at around 183-185. Leave a temp probe in them and they will climb to 190-195 before leveling off. By foiling them, wrapping them in a towel and then cooler them, they will stay at that temperature and slowly drop. This extends the cooking process without risk of drying out or overcooking and allows the meat to simmer further in its own juice.

I'm going to concur with Phil and KC in one post, but will add my .02

Forget about the towel. Just add to the cooler.

for me, the brisket was already wrapped at 170 ish, brought to 190, and in the cooler.

The reason I say no towel, and the .02 I am adding, be CAREFUL when opening up after 3 hours in the cooler. If you keep the probe in, you'll see you hit 198 after in the cooler. but the juices keep redistributing. so you end up with ALOT of juicy brisket. I ruined 10 towels on coolered briskets before ditching the cooler.

So the cooler technique (applicable to ribs, roasts, and pulled pork especially too) is something you need to try (again and again)

I ruined 10 towels on coolered briskets before ditching the cooler.


After towelling, coolering, and eating delicious brisket nirvana, I wash my towels then use them again. Real easy, open washing machine lid, drop in dirty towels, add soap, turn on washer.

Oh definately, i wrecked a bunch of towels. But wash and reuse them too.


The purpose of the towel, is not only extra insulation, but to to take up the dead air space in the cooler.. Even if ya dont wrap it in the towel, stuff one around it to take up the cooler space, if not towels, use balled up newspaper.. You dont want the heat from the brisket used up to warm the dead air in the cooler. Originally, i used to wrap the foiled briskets in layers of newspapers and then cooler them.


Think you should get yerself some old towels and lable them BBQ Only. :)

I will have to agree with Neil on this one! We have certain towels that we use just for this purpose.

Definitly foil and cooler, this makes a big difference in tenderness!!!!

I have 2 pieces of heavy cardboard cut to fit just inside my Q-cooler. When I cooler stuff I put the first piece over the item then a small towel or two rolled up at either end to create a dead air space, then the second cardboard. The get steamed up and distorted so you have to replace them every once in a while, but they seem to do a nice job of custom sizing the cooler.

Residual cooking at it's finest.

As a Chef I cooked many top rounds and those HUGE honkin' steamship's. The only way to get these cuts of meats at the desired temperature was to implore residual cooking. basically the same thing as discussed above.

Whoops
I was drunk at 10:30 last night.

I don't ditch the cooler, I ditched the towels. And I meant to say be careful cuz the juice is HOT and there is alot of it.

I`ve been using a 12" X 24" heating pad to keep my foiled meats warm `till eating time. Open the cooler door and all is warm inside.

Great tip X.

Hadnt' thought of that.

And, welcome back.

I only came up with the idea because I was doing a party this summer for 25 and wanted to get the Q`ing done the night before. Packed everything up in foil and placed the foil bags on the heating pad in the cooler. Next afernoon I opened the cooler to the warm smell of Q. Did not have to re-heat, just serve.

The heating pad is only used with meat from a cow, sow, or chicken right? Gets the meat tender by releiving painful cramping.

Ditto on the great tip. What about the space created from the cord or will the lid still fully shut?