When smoking brisket, do you wrap it in foil or not? Also, when purchasing, do you buy it trimmed or the untrimmed and why?

I only wrap after it is done cooking and resting in a cooler. At first i used foil, but now use butcher paper.

I buy whole packer briskets from Costco and trim them myself. Most trimmed briskets at the grocery store have been trimmed too much.

What kind of woman buys a trimmed brisket?

I'll occasionally tent a brisket, but that's it. Only time I wrap it is when it goes into the ice chest for the rest. It gets foil or butcher paper, then it gets wrapped with a couple of big towels and put in the cooler for at least a half hour, 1 hour preferred.

Unless there is just some smoking deal on a trimmed brisket, prefer untrimmed so i can trim it myself.

Plus trimming it yourself let's you make cracklin's by rendering out all of the trimmed off fat.

I never used to wrap brisket and after reading Franklin's book, it made sense to do it in butcher paper after the stall. Since the stall is where the moisture in the meat is evaporating (cooling process hence the temp not climbing), once the temp starts to climb again the wrapping saves what moisture if left as the collagen breaks down. The last 2 briskets I did this way and they turned out fantastic!

Great thing about BBQ'ing/smoking is there is no one way. Several different methods turn out great Q! Experiment and have fun with it!

Franklin did one show where they cooked 3 ways to test. Unwrapped was very smoky, foil wrapped was less smoky and more beefy, paper wrapped was a balance of the two extremes.

I cooked 4 briskets for a party Friday night and wrapped them in butcher paper and threw them in the cooler to rest for 4 hrs. I know the 4 hrs was a long time, I was surprised select briskets cooked at 45 mins/lb at 265* but we had chickens and sausage to cook as well, so it was alright.

The bad thing about resting in butcher paper is I feel like I lose some juice. They do keep their crust, but it seems like a tradeoff to me.

Where do y'all buy the butcher paper?

amazon. Search for pink or peach butcher paper. Comes in 2 widths, 12 and 18". I got the 18".

I was cooking a brisket for some friends last weekend and on a whim, tried it with no wrap all the way through, something I haven't done in quite a while. It was moist and tender but way over smoked.

quote:

---

I was cooking a brisket for some friends last weekend and on a whim, tried it with no wrap all the way through, something I haven't done in quite a while. It was moist and tender but way over smoked.

---

I thought brisket only really absorbed smoke during the first four hours or so? I ask because most seem to be wrapping well after and, if that's the case, would it really impact the "smokiness" of the brisket?

The smoke will continue to adhere to the bark throughout the cook, there is no avoiding that unless you wrap it in something.

Guess I'll have to try and wrap one and see how it goes. I've never really considered wrapping while cooking.

quote:

---

Where do y'all buy the butcher paper?

---

hobby lobby carries it.

Fire was up to temp when the meat went on and I didn't add any coals after it started (WSM). Could have been a fluke but I'll definitely go back to wrapping when I normally do.

Well, the way your post is worded made it sound like you cook an un-trimmed brisket and then trim after cooking. My apologies for misinterpreting. As for braising something by simply wrapping in foil, you're wrong. Steam? Yes. Braise? No. Two different cooking methods.

But nice baseball analogy....swing and a miss for ya.