The Great Debate: Foil vs. Paper

Some pitmasters swear by butcher paper, others will tell you that aluminum foil is the way to go. Today I’m going to break down the pros and cons of both options and then tell you what we prefer and why.

BY: BREANNA STARK

When you are smoking meat, it’s common practice to wrap the meat about halfway through your smoke. Wrapping your meat will lock in moisture and keep your meat tender during the final hours of cooking, and can also work to protect your beautiful bark on the outside of your meat. Some people like to wrap in aluminum foil and others swear by butcher paper - but what is the difference?

BUTCHER PAPER

Pros:

• Protects your bark

• Fat soaks into the paper and braises your meat

• Stronger, more pronounced smoke flavor

Cons:

• Allows heat to pass through so if you have a temperature swing the meat won’t be protected

• Potentially longer cooking time

• You have to unwrap to check temperature

ALUMINUM FOIL

Pros:

• Faster cook time

• Allows the meat to braise in it’s own juices

• Helps maintain a consistent temperature

• Easy to check temperature by piercing the foil

Cons:

• Keeps smoke away from your meat, resulting in less smoke flavor

• Creates steam and can compromise your bark

OUR FINAL ANSWER IS…

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. We actually use both aluminum foil and butcher paper when we’re smoking meat. I’m going to break down when we choose each option and why:

Pork Ribs: Aluminum Foil

We use foil when we wrap our ribs because it allows the ribs to cook in their own juices, as well as the delicious butter and sauce that we add about halfway through the smoke. With pork ribs, you’re not generally concerned about a bark so the steam created by the use of aluminum foil doesn’t cause any issues.

Brisket: Both

If we’re smoking a brisket at home with no time constraints, we will almost exclusively use butcher paper. It maintains a beautiful bark and allows the amazing smoke flavor to penetrate into the meat for the duration of the smoke. That being said, if we are cooking for a large crowd or a competition, we do rely on aluminum foil (also known as The Texas Crutch) because we cannot risk hitting a stall and not finishing our cook before it’s time to serve. If we decide to use foil, we will wrap slightly later to allow a solid bark to form before wrapping it so that we can preserve the bark in the final product.

Pork Shoulder: Aluminum Foil

After the first 6 hours of our smoke on a pork butt, we transfer the butt to a metal tray and wrap it in aluminum foil. We like to use foil because it keeps an even temperature and because we’re not tightly wrapping it and instead using a metal tray, we don’t have any issues with compromising the beautiful bark. We additionally add some apple juice and butter when we wrap it, so the steam is full of flavor that infuses the pork with goodness.

Beef Ribs: Butcher Paper

The key to a great beef rib is the beautiful bark that is created during the smoking process. While we’ve used aluminum foil in the past, we’ve transitioned to exclusively using butcher paper when smoking beef ribs. The butcher paper allows all of the delicious smoky flavor to penetrate the meat and really kicks the flavor of the ribs up a notch, plus it allows the glorious bark to remain intact. We like to wrap our beef ribs about halfway through the smoke in two layers of butcher paper.

Do you have more questions about butcher paper or aluminum foil? Feel free to drop me an email!