Foiling


 
G

Greg C.

TVWBB Member
Hi everyone,
I'm new here and did a search but didn't find any answers to my specific question, so I'm asking.
When I started BBQing it was years ago,no internet to find information on. I never foiled, just cooked a brisket, took it off the smoker when I thought it was done and let it cool in the open air. Most were not even close to tender but had a great smoke flavor. Now that I foil, my brisket is much more tender but the foiling process seems to "kill" some of the smoke flavor.
Has anyone else experienced this?

Greg
 
Smoke the brisket until it reaches about 160 degrees, then foil. The smoke will only penetrate the meat for the first couple hours, so if you foil at 160, you're getting the best of both worlds. You will have the smoke flavor, but the tenderness of foiling.
 
I have been smoking my briskets pretty much as you describe. There just seems to be a difference in taste that I miss, other than tenderness, from the way I use to do my briskets when foil never touched them.
 
After foiling when your final temp is reached try opening or removing the foil. This may give you some fresh surface smoke. Dont know if this will work but it's worth a shot.
 
here's what i do. i cook/smoke the meat until done. now that can be to a certain temp or until a probe goes in easily. then foil and wrap in a towel and put in a cooler. this will let the meat cook a bit more and also let the juices even out. after an hour or so you can then eat. you will need to experiment until you find what process gets you what you want. i used to foil while cooking and i hated it. i'm also of the school that smoke really does not penetrate the meat. it just collects on the outside. thus you can smoke as long and as strong as you want depending on the strength you want. many theories out there on smoke and i'm just going with what i've observed and what works for me. try them all and go from there.
 
I cooked a brisket Sunday and cooked it like I considered textbook perfect. It was 5lb brisket that had the point and a portion of the flat. I bought Angus Prime and it was an expensive cut.
I injected the meat, let it rest and rubbed it. The injection was an au jus with a beef broth base. I purposely left it light on the salt to prevent drying out the meat. The rub had no salt at all.
I smoked it on my WSM using a Guru DX for temp control. 15 lbs Kingsford briquettes, four palm sized hickory chunks, Minion lighting with 20 coals lit to start.
Smoked from 9:30 am til maybe 4pm at 230 degree pit temp with perfect temp control. Guru and Maverick ET-73 both agreed when meat hit 165 internal.
Pulled to foil at 165, returned to cooker and probed again. Cooked til 201 degrees internal on Guru food probe, 202 internal on Maverick.
Unfoiled then placed in aluminum foil pan half full of au jus and covered to rest in Cambro for an hour to absorb moisture and flavor.
Cut thin slices across grain with electric knife. Smoke ring was deep and beautiful. It looked perfect.
However>>>>>>
Honestly..the brisket was marginal at best. Still had to use a knife to cut the meat. I was expecting fork tender. I honestly don't know what else to do. I cook butts and ribs but rarely venture into beef on the smoker.
Does anyone see a flaw in my cook? I am ready to say that was the last brisket I will cook!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">
Honestly..the brisket was marginal at best. Still had to use a knife to cut the meat. I was expecting fork tender. I honestly don't know what else to do. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Next time, instead of pulling the brisket at a specific temperature, wait until it's fork tender (a lot of folks say wait until a temp probe slides in like butter) to remove it from the cooker. Cooking in the foil speeds up the rendering process, but it also makes the internal temp less of a reliable method to gauge when it's (tender) done.
 
I understand your point Steve. Do you foil your briskets or cook them the duration unfoiled?
The case with pork seems that internal temps are fairly reliable since butts are well laden with internal fat. Seems beef is different in this regard.
Next cook I do with a brisket will be "by feel" as opposed to temps only.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Morrey Thomas:
I understand your point Steve. Do you foil your briskets or cook them the duration unfoiled?
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cook them unfoiled until 2 hours in/around 160 or so internal temp. At that point I foil them, and begin checking them for tenderness two hours later, pulling when the probe goes in to all parts of the brisket with very little resistance.

Good luck!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">i'm also of the school that smoke really does not penetrate the meat. it just collects on the outside. thus you can smoke as long and as strong as you want depending on the strength you want. many theories out there on smoke and i'm just going with what i've observed and what works for me. try them all and go from there. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'd say your observations are spot on, and to say their are many theories, you're right, but there is only one truth. Smoke particles adhere to the surface of the meat and will do so for the duration of the cook.

Yesterday, I ran across something in a book on smoking that suggested smoke particles can dissolve in liquids at the meat's surface and can be absorbed by the meat. But I'm going to say that this effect would be nominal during normal barbecuing, if even a minor factor during cold smoking.

To get back to the original point, I agree with Greg, that foiling tends to wash out some of the smoke flavor. I assumed it was the moisture in the foil moving around as steam and washing the surface of the meat.

As a result, I dry foil (no added liquid) which seems to better preserve the hard won surface flavor. And in the case of butt and brisket, I carefully preserve the liquid that accumulates in the foil so I can incorporate it back into the final product.

If you don't think smoke can be washed off during the foiling, then try this simple test:

taste the liquid in the foil for smoke.
 
The best tasting brisket I ever cooked went straight from the packaging to the smoker. It was mopped with a mixture of worchestershire sauce and squeeze butter about every hour until it was done. It was taken off the smoker and allowed to cool without wrapping. It certainly wasn't the most tender I ever had but had the taste I like.
I think next time I smoke a brisket I'm going to cook until tender without foiling, cut it in half, wrap one half and let the other cool without wrapping and see what I get.
 
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