TIL a pitmaster in Austin changed my mind about wrapping brisket

I always thought wrapping brisket in butcher paper was just a trick to speed things up and made the bark soggy. Then I watched a video from a guy at Franklin Barbecue who compared two identical packers, one wrapped at 165 and one not. After 16 hours, the wrapped one was way more tender and still had a solid bark, while the unwrapped one was a bit dry. The key was he used a specific brand of paper and let it rest for a full 4 hours after. Anyone else have a wrap method that actually works without ruining the bark?

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt_thomas19d ago

Hold up, you said a FOUR hour rest? That's the part that got me. I can barely wait an hour before I start picking at it. Four whole hours just sitting there, smelling up the kitchen, and you're not supposed to touch it? That's some next level patience I don't have. I guess that's the real secret they don't tell you.

jenny39119d ago

Yeah that four hour rest thing got me too. I used to think it was just for restaurants that needed to hold food. But I tried it once when I had people coming over late, and man... the difference is real. The brisket just holds onto all its juices and gets so tender you don't even need a knife. Now I plan my whole cook around that rest time.

abby_wilson5112d ago

No kidding, I was the same way about long rests. Always figured it was just a fancy chef trick until I got desperate one time and let a pork shoulder sit for three hours. Total game changer. Wyatt_thomas, I get the struggle, but honestly wrapping it in towels and shoving it in a cooler makes the wait way easier because you can't smell it as much. That extended rest lets everything relax and reabsorb in a way that just doesn't happen in an hour. Now I'm a total believer, even if it means eating at 9 PM.