Foil problem - pulled pork with apple cider vinegar


 
I did sort of BBQ carnitas pulled pork one time that I got from the Howtobbqright youtube channel and I did part of the cook with a braise. I had an aluminum pan with aluminum foil and also a thermoworks probe in the meat. It ate my foil and made at least the braising liquid taste terrible. The braise probably had some acid. It has definitely scared me off that method. Maybe the foil and the pan were different enough or it was the probe. The braise part of the cook I did in an electric oven so maybe something is going on there too with the oven grates.
 
Maybe the liquid is the key cause of this? For others that haven't had this problem - what internal temperature did you wrap at?

Now I'm wondering if my wrapping at 157-160 degrees was 'too soon' to wrap as far as these pinholes go. A lot of liquid renders out after I wrap, filling up the foil quite a bit. That would be consistent with what happened to @Dustin Dorsey too. I got some butcher paper today, but have a few more experiments I want to try now before I give up on straight foil entirely. I'll try wrapping later for one cook and isolating the aluminum from my oven for the next cook, all while not using a probe while it's wrapped still. It will take some time since I don't have any help eating all this pork, but I'll keep you guys updated!
 
Not to start an argument here, but have you thought about not mopping or braising? I don’t, and I wrap at 165 and ride it up to 203, then into the cooler. Better results on foil over pink butcher, but sample size on the butcher paper is small. Never had a dry meat problem, and even less so since I started injecting.

Just a thought..
 
The last pork butt I put butcher paper under the foil pan in the oven after I wrapped it to isolate it from the oven, still no mob, braise, or spritz. There were still a few small holes in the foil. I'm really starting to suspect that it's undissolved kosher salt from the dry brine causing this. I'll keep changing things one variable at a time until I get results. I'm certain wrapping with butcher paper would solve this, but I want to see if I can get it to work with using just foil as so many others have success with it. I do fairly heavily dry brine my pork butts and they don't turn out salty, but I'll try holding back some - especially on the bottom - next time to see if that helps. and add a little salt in the pulled pork if it needs it.
 

 

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