Brisket and Foil

You are talking of the "texas Crutch". Id say a majority of people are wrapping brisket these days. Franklin and central tx are usually using butcher paper, some of us are still using foil.

Old school brisket smoking is done low and slow, unwrapped till the meat decides its done. Anywhere from 11 to 19 hours. The foil wrap is used once the bark has formed properly and the brisket has entered the "stall" around 160-170 degrees, where the fat starts to render and cool down the meat completely stalling the cooking of the brisket.

When wrapped in foil the brisket STEAMS inside of the foil to PUSH it through the stall and get the internal temp rising again. Franklin and his butcher paper is used for more of a protection from drying out since he also fights the stall, but he does it by wrapping and cranking the temps to close to 300 to push it through that stall. If it wouldnt be wrapped it would burn and dry otu the edges.

There is no wrong way. I foil so i can have some idea of when my 16lb piece of meat is going to be ready. I have it down to about 10 hours at the moment. I can get it off in 8 or 9, or push it all the way to 12 if necessary. There is very little control of time with no wrapping (in my humble opinion).

Ramble over
rb

He’s not talking about fully wrapping in foil, just some of the leading edges. Yes, it is done to keep some parts from getting overly cooked on the side the heat comes from.

ericei64 said:

Hey brethern!

I was watching some YouTube videos on some of the big time Pitmasters down in Texas. I noticed that they had the edge portions of some of the brisket covered in foil, with the rest of the brisket still unwrapped. I figured this was done in order to keep some of the edge briskets from being burnt/overcooked. Am I correct to assume this?

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Yeah.. for instance when I'm cooking on the WSM.. and cooking large cuts of meat anything that passes the outside ring of the water pan can and will get a little crispy.. My guess would be if its a big offset smoker then probably just keep the end pieces from getting too dark as the whole brisket gets cooked