When Should I Wrap My Brisket - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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Beef brisket is one of the most iconic meats in barbecue, and when you smoke one at home, you want to make sure that you do everything properly. So one of the biggest questions you can face when smoking brisket is when to wrap it. The simplest answer I can give you is to wrap your brisket during the stall after you are happy with how the brisket’s bark is set.

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Here at Angry BBQ, we’ve smoked plenty of briskets, including Texas-style and our poor man’s brisket recipe (smoked chuck roast), so we’ve spent a lot of time looking at bark and temperature stalls to figure out when we should wrap. Throughout this article, we’ll cover what to look for in your bark, what the stall is, how to wrap your brisket properly, and what you should wrap your brisket in. Let’s slice into this!

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Why Do We Wrap Brisket?

Before we dig into the hows of wrapping brisket, we should look into the whys of brisket wraps. We all know that a typical brisket smoking session is one of the longest cooking processes in all of barbecue. That can be up to 14 hours. Wrapping brisket can help speed up that process, largely by helping get the brisket through its stall.

Wrapping brisket also keeps it moist. It locks moisture in and can shield the brisket from too much heat. No one wants dried-out brisket.

Also, that brisket wrap can prevent you from over-smoking your brisket. Yes, it is possible to over-smoke meat. Too much smoke can turn your barbecue bitter or it just simply overpowers any other flavors.

Then, when you’re done cooking your brisket, it’s pre-wrapped for holding it to allow juices to redistribute throughout the meat and keep it ready for serving.

What Is The Stall?

The first time you smoke a large piece of meat and suddenly realize that the internal temperature has stopped going up, it can induce some level of panic. You might go and make sure your fire hasn’t died out or your pellet grill hopper is empty. Then while in the panic you decide to crank the smoker temps to get the brisket cooking faster. Wrong move.

The stall occurs when the brisket’s internal moisture is migrating to the surface and evaporating which cools the brisket at the same rate your smoker or grill is cooking it. The internal temperature remains even, or stalls, until enough moisture evaporates and cannot match the heat of your grill or smoker.

So now that we know what the stall is, when should we wrap our briskets?

What Internal Temp To Wrap Brisket?

The stall can occur anywhere between 150° and 180°F (65.6° to 76.7°C.) When you’ve seen your brisket plateau in that temperature range, you’re going to want to visually check on your brisket. While the temperature is the main reason you’ll want to wrap, you want to make sure your brisket’s bark looks good to you visually. Namely, you want the surface of the brisket to be dark, mostly a dark brown with some deep, dark red.

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What Should I Wrap My Brisket In?

This question might be as hotly contested a question when it comes to brisket as any. There are two main options when it comes to wrapping brisket: aluminum foil and butcher paper. They both have their pros and their cons, so let’s break them down so you can make an informed decision.

Wrapping Brisket In Foil

There are few more useful items in the kitchen or in a backyard cooking area than aluminum foil. It helps preserve leftovers, it can help make cleanup easier by covering the grease tray of a pellet grill, and it can even be used to clean grill grates in a pinch.

It’s also an extremely common brisket wrapping material, thanks in large part to how many people have it on hand and how easy it is to get. Wrapping brisket in aluminum foil is so common it’s known as “the Texas Crutch.” When you wrap the brisket with a tight seal, the foil prevents moisture evaporation, thereby helping the brisket quickly pass through the temperature range of the stall. It also reflects heat which can help prevent you from burning or drying your brisket out. I personally use aluminum foil when I’ve wrapped my briskets because it’s so readily available.

Aluminum foil isn’t a perfect material, though. While it helps power your brisket through its stall due to trapping moisture close to the surface, all that moisture stays put and can turn your bark soggy. If you’re going to use foil, use heavy duty 18″ wide foil below.

Wrapping Brisket In Butcher Paper

Butcher paper is an alternative to aluminum foil that helps your brisket get through the stall quickly, but it doesn’t trap moisture the same way so your bark shouldn’t be as mushy as it can end up with wrapping in foil.

You also need to make sure you’re purchasing the correct type of butcher paper that is safe to use in a smoker. You might encounter a number of types of butcher paper like white, bleached paper, but you want to find untreated pink butcher paper, sometimes referred to as peach butcher paper. It’s untreated so you don’t have to worry about any strange chemicals, but it’s able to handle the temperatures of your smoker so you don’t have to worry about your brisket going up in smoke, just tasting smoky. Use butcher paper like the one below as it is uncoated and a nice width.

Now, just like aluminum foil, pink butcher paper isn’t perfect. It doesn’t conform as tightly to the brisket, so wrapping with pink butcher paper means your brisket smoking session will take a little while longer than with foil. You’ll want to make sure the edges of the paper overlap to create as tight a seal as possible. You don’t want the end of the paper flapping around in your smoker! It is also not as widely available as foil, but it is becoming more prevalent.

Like aluminum foil, however, pink butcher paper is versatile. In some cases, it can be used in situations where you wouldn’t use foil. For instance, have you eaten at a barbecue restaurant where the trays are lined with foil? That wouldn’t be pleasant. However, you might find a barbecue tray lined with pink butcher paper. You can also wrap leftovers with pink butcher paper to send home with folks just like foil.

The legendary Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue uses pink butcher paper to wrap his briskets. Hard to argue with the brisket master, right?

How To Properly Wrap A Brisket

Wrapping brisket in foil or butcher paper uses the same method. You will want 18″ wide foil or butcher paper to do this properly. Here is our step by step guide:

Eye up your brisket width and try to cut off 4.5 times its width. You’ll want to cut off a second piece identical in length to the first.
Overlap the two pieces by about 50%. See picture below. Once overlapped, spritz the foil or paper with a bit of 50% water 50% apple cider vinegar. Or you could try liquid beef tallow (supposedly that’s what Aaron Franklin does). This adds some moisture to the paper right away and aids in the cook.
Place the brisket (fat side up) about one brisket width away from the butcher paper end. Just like the photo. Fold the length edges over the brisket (like below), then take the paper closest to you and wrap it over top of the brisket and tuck it in slightly underneath the brisket.
Now roll the brisket over while slightly folding the long edges inward. Try to keep it all very tight.
Roll the brisket until it is back in fat side up orientation. Try to keep the paper tucked underneath the brisket and as tight as possible. We do not want to have large voids between the paper and the brisket. This can create steam pockets which will hurt our bark.

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How Long Should I Be Cooking Brisket After Wrapping?

One point that we here at Angry BBQ have tried to hammer home is that time really isn’t your target when it comes to smoking or grilling. The most important criteria for cooking brisket properly are internal temperatures of the meat and texture. I won’t tell you that three hours after you wrap the brisket, it’ll be ready. There are too many variables for blanket statements like that. When you are smoking large cuts of meat, like a brisket, you should be monitoring the internal temperature at all times. The best way to do that is with a leave-in probe thermometer.

If you’re smoking on a newer pellet grill, your grill might have included temperature probes. You can absolutely use those to help keep an eye on what’s going inside your wrapped brisket. If your grill or smoker doesn’t have that feature, you’ll need to look elsewhere. We are big fans of the ThermoWorks Signals thermometer because it can monitor up to four temperatures simultaneously and you can keep an eye on the readouts on your phone.

Wrapping It Up (Yes Lame Pun Intended)

Hey, barbecue puns. So when it comes to figuring out when to wrap brisket, there are two main criteria to look for, the temperature and the quality of the bark. Based on temps, you’ll be looking for the stall somewhere between 150° and 170°F (65.6° to 76.7°C.) Regarding the bark, you want a good, dark color (dark brown and dark red in places, see below.)

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As for what to wrap it in, aluminum foil and pink butcher paper are the two most widely-used materials. Don’t hesitate to experiment with both to see what gives you the best results for your personal preference. Our preference is uncoated butcher paper.

How do you prefer your bark to look before you wrap? Do you even wrap? Let us know in the comments! If you’re looking for a new twist on your brisket rub, try our Kansas City-style brisket rub recipe!

FAQs:

Question: Can you wrap a brisket too early?

Answer: You absolutely can, at least in relation to the bark. We’ll tie this in with another common question “what happens if you wrap brisket too early?” If you wrap your brisket before the bark really develops, it never will. You’ll be left with a soft, lightly-colored exterior to your brisket. It may not even taste all that smoky depending on how early you wrap. It will be tender and juicy like brisket should, but you won’t have the full brisket experience. Wait for the stall and for the bark to look like what you want.

Question: Can I wrap a brisket from the beginning?

Answer: I kept this separate because while it’s similar to the first question, it stands alone. Technically, the answer is yes. You could absolutely cook brisket wrapped from the start. However, the real question would be “Why?” (And “Who hurt you?”) If you wrap your brisket in foil or butcher paper before it ever gets in the smoker, it will never develop bark nor will it have any smoke flavor. Will it be done faster? Absolutely. Will it taste like the barbecue delicacy it is? Absolutely not.

Question: Is 150 too early to wrap brisket?

Answer: It depends on your personal preferences. The stall can occur as early as 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65.6°C) so it makes sense temperature-wise that you might wrap then. Wrapping earlier can help you achieve a faster cooking time. However, you want to make sure your brisket’s bark is set the way you like. Once you wrap your brisket, your bark isn’t going to get any better. If you’ve asked yourself “Should I wrap my brisket if there’s no bark?” because your thermometer is telling you it’s 165°F (73.9°C,) don’t.

Question: Can you wrap a brisket at 180 degrees?

Answer: We’ll lump this is with the question “Can I wrap my brisket at 185?” because the answer is essentially the same. You absolutely can, and there are Texas barbecue pitmasters who do. Louie Mueller, a legendary Texas barbecue joint, wraps their briskets around 95-percent done per their words. Just remember, the longer you wait to wrap, the more attention you have to pay to drying out the meat.

Question: Do you have to wrap a brisket?

Answer: No! However, you have to be more careful if you do not and it will take longer. You need to pay attention to the surface of the brisket (using your spritzer) for the entire time it’s in the smoker so nothing dries out or burns. It is also possible to have too much smoke flavor so it overpowers the taste of the brisket itself and even develop bitter flavors. If you cook an unwrapped brisket properly, this will be the smokiest brisket you’ll have had with some amazingly crunchy bark. You just need to be careful and patient with yourself.

Question: Should I wrap brisket before or after the stall?

Answer: We believe that if you’re wrapping, it’s best to wait for the stall to start and your bark to develop how you like it before you wrap. You don’t want to wrap too early as detailed above. You also can wrap at the end of the cook to hold the brisket so juices can redistribute and it will still be hot for serving. If you’re going to wrap for the cooking process, you should wait for the stall to start, though.

Question: Can you wrap brisket in parchment paper?

Answer: Oddly enough, the answer is yes, but not ideal. Parchment paper is food-safe and it can handle heat well past what you’re smoking your brisket at. It’s not common at all, but you could use parchment paper. However, it does not trap heat as well as aluminum foil nor breathe as well as butcher paper. If you wish to experiment with parchment paper, go with untreated and unbleached parchment paper, but we do not recommend it.

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