Foil Vs. No Foil

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Bill M

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I am a new WSM 22.5 owner who has not broken her in yet. I have read many articles, cook books etc and have two basic questions I'm hoping someone could help me answer.
One, of all the things I have read, either with brisket or pork, some people transfer into foil halfway through and some people say dont do that. Which way is best and what exactly is the foil wrap for? I am assuming it is so the meat doesnt get "over" smoked, if so how do you avoid this without the foil.
Two, for pulled pork should I be using pork butt or shoulder.
Thanks in advance
Bill
 
pork butt is from the shoulder. whole shoulder is just larger so it would just depend on how many ur feeding. As for foil, its called the texas crutch. Some say it just makes meat tender butt you will lose the bark. It tends to steam the meat. welcome aboard bill
 
Thanks for the help. So I would assume it's best not to wrap brisket however may be a good idea to wrap pork butt?
 
Hi bill and Welcome! Foil is used on some stick burners to keep the meat from being oversmoked. Not a problem in the WSM since we cook with charcoal and add the amount of wood chunks/chips to season the meat. Foil on the wsm or in the oven will speed up the cook. Some add Applejuice or honey or a small amount of liquid in their foil packs. To "steam" the meat and shorten the cook,It does add some flavour. Works like a charm.

Me i dont foil butts/ribs(cant get a proper Brisket in Sweden but if i could i wouldent foilt that one eather)
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But try both and se what you think.

If you are refering the "butt" as the behind of the pig then no. The shoulder is used for all Pulled Pork. I use the neck part often for my PP. But thats becouse i have a hard time finding a good peice of shoulder.

Good luck Bill.
 
Bill there are lots of way's to skin a cat!
Both methods work well & both can produce a great product!
I use both, for me the greatest advantage of foiling is that it will shorten the cooking time considerably.
 
Just to join the fray, I'm not a fan of foiling because I like bark. Foiling will take away that nice bark you had going before you wrapped it up in foil.

As far as pork butt and pork shoulder, if you can get butt, get it. It's a better cut and doesn't have as much bone in it. Here is something good to read. Pork butt is also called boston butt. Read me.

Just my two cents of course Bill
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What more can I add,they pretty much have ya covered. I guess I could toss in that when doing an overly trimmed brisket flat you would more than likely want to use foil around the 165 degree mark and some a little beef stock to help keep it from drying it out,other than that yeh,personal preferrence.More excuse to fire up the smoker..
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I've foiled many times while forcing my gasser to be a smoker but have never foiled on my WSM.

I guess it's a subtle difference but mostly since I got the WSM I've learned to slow down and have been too lazy to foil. The gasser just makes me want to cook quick

You should experiment until you find the method that works best for you and your guests.

Steve
 
Bill M

Welcome. As an example I was cooking a butt last Friday for a Saturday night dinner. Put it on at 8:30 AM and it still wasn't done at 9:30 PM so I threw it in some foil and opened up the smoker and it rose to temp in a half hour or so. Just didn't feel like pulling pork at midnight. Let it cool in a dutch oven and put in the refrig and it was perfect the next evening. Had it rose to temp earlier I would have skipped the foiling, but the end product was the same.

Les Stubby
 
Bill foiling is all about time no other reason, you can cook a full packer 12-14 lb brisket for 10 hrs or more at temps of 220-230 and be juicy and tender, or you can cook the same brisket in 4-5 hrs using the HH method but would have to foil to get to tender without burning the outside of the brisket. If i really feel like drinking a cold beer 24pk+ i do not foil, if only a 12-18 pack must foil or take a risk of running out of beer, a no no while queing.
 
My two rules for cooking meat:

1) No Boil

2) No Foil


Foil is for covering meat when it is resting and not for cooking it. No Texas crutch for me.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John Ford:
Bill there are lots of way's to skin a cat!
... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
... Must ... resist ... temptation ...

(As a cat lover I'm just going to leave this one lie here.
icon_biggrin.gif
)

I heard a discussion about science of cooking food on a recent podcast and one issue they talked about was the plateau that some meats hit and what causes it. Their research indicated that evaporative loss was the cause. They also mentioned that some BBQ cooks foil meat to prevent this w/out really understanding why this works.

I suppose I'm curious if experience bears this out. I haven't foiled anything yet, falling into the "don't foil camp" I suppose. I'm sure that folks who do foil achieve good results as well. One day I'll give it a try.

At the moment I have about 6 lb. of beef back ribs on my kettle and they will not be foiled.
 
Hi, Bill, and welcome. One effect of foiling is to make the meat softer. Since my wife likes ribs that are FOTB, falling off the bone, I find that foliing for an hour and then cooking agin unfoiked gets the tenderness she likes.
 
Thank you all for the input, this forum is fantastic for advice. I have just purchased my first 8lb pork butt and will smoke tonight. I am going to use no foil, mesquite wood chunks and a dry rub i got off of this site.
Approx how long would you predict the 8lb butt to take on my WSM at 225 to 250 degrees?
 
As I mentioned in my first post a couple of days ago, I just purchased a WSM, but have been using a Char-Griller w/SFB for many years. The only meat I ever foiled was 3-2-1 pork ribs and they came out great. Everything else - no foil. However, I am looking forward to doing the WSM rib cook on the VB recipe page.

I do not mean to be a geek, but I love my smokin!! My wife thinks I am a little nutty but the pleasure from a long smoke is most satisfying.

Take care.
 
Welcome Bill,
Please let us know how it turns out and post som pics in the Photo Gallery. I'm new, too and have only done really small butts, so looking forward to seeing your results.
 
The foiling allows the meat to "braise" not steam. This process in an oven or outdoor cooking allows large tougher cuts to break down more efficiently in the smaller cooking chamber of the foil or other container.

I foil briskets, sometimes ribs, and pork butt only when I need to speed up the cook.
 
Bill,

Welcome to the board!

I don't foil. I tried it once, and didn't like it as much. But you'll see a lot of top cooks doing it either way. Smoking is an art, not a science, so as John said, there' lots of ways to skin that cat.

I've found that my bbq has gotten better the less I mess with the meat while it's cooking, so I don't turn, flip, foil, baste, spritz, mop, or do any of that. I might sear on the grill at the end, but while the smoker's doing its magic, I don't mess. That's just my philosophy.
 
Thanks all again for the help. I started my first pork butt 8lb at 3 a.m. this morning. It is now 11:30 and have been maintaining 225 to 250 degrees. Will post pics if it comes out alright. Wish me luck.
Bill M
 
Sounds like you're on track. Good luck with the rest of the cook.

You didn't mention the internal temperature of the butt so that prompted me to ask if you have a meat thermometer you can use to check the internal temp ? You'll find that having a good thermometer helps you understand what's "going on inside" a lot better, although things can seem confusing at first because the internal temp rises fairly quickly, "plateaus" for a while as the meat is going from tough to yummy, then starts to rise quickly again.

If you know temperature and time you can figure out whether you should be bringing out the dreaded foil in order to have the butt ready in time for dinner
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