Letters to Dutch · A reader confesses · Write in and yours may be next →
Butcher paper keeps the bark and costs about an hour. Foil is the fast way through the stall, and the steam it traps is what softened your crust.
Letters to Dutch · two butts on a homemade drum
Butcher paper vs foil: which should you wrap in?
Butcher paper keeps the bark and takes about an hour longer. Foil is the fastest way through the stall and softens the crust, because it traps steam against the meat. Whichever you use, open the wrap for the last 20 to 30 minutes on the heat so the surface dries back down.
Dear Dutch,
I never thought I would be writing to you about this. I am thirty-four, I run a machine shop, and I cook for about twenty people on the Fourth of July every year on a drum I built myself.
This year I did two butts overnight and I did everything right until about two in the morning. The bark was set. Dark, drawn tight, did not dent when I pressed my thumb into it. Best looking thing that has ever come off that drum.
I was tired and I wanted them finished, so I wrapped both of them in foil and cranked the drum up to force them through the stall.
I am aware of what I did.
They got to 203 fast, maybe two hours. When I opened the foil at six the bark had gone completely soft. Wet. All that crust I spent seven hours building slid right off with the fat the moment I put a hand on it. It tasted fine. It tasted like pot roast.
I have been building that crust for five years and I lost the whole thing in two hours because I could not wait at two in the morning.
— Cody, Kewanee
Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and towns have been changed.
Foil does not breathe. Anything you shut up in it sits in its own steam, and steam takes bark off the same way it takes wallpaper off a wall. That is not a mistake in technique, it is what foil is for — speed, and that is what it costs you.
Use butcher paper next time. It lets just enough steam out to keep that crust on, and it still carries you through the stall without rushing.
And whatever you wrap in, open it up for the last twenty to thirty minutes on the heat and let the surface dry back down before you pull it. You will get most of it back, and you will not have to rush anything to do it.
Dutch
Butcher paper vs foil: which should you wrap in?
Foil is faster. Paper keeps the bark. That is the whole trade, and everything else follows from it.
Foil is airtight, so everything the meat gives up has nowhere to go. It lies there in its own juices and braises. That pushes you through the stall quickest and it softens the crust you spent hours building.
Pink butcher paper is porous. It holds enough moisture to beat the stall but lets the steam slip out, so the surface stays dry and firm and keeps its texture. It makes you wait roughly an hour longer than foil, and it is worth every minute.
Going bare gives the best bark and the longest night, and it risks drying the flat on a brisket. Whichever you choose, open the wrap for the last 20 to 30 minutes on the heat and let the surface firm back up before you rest.
| Wrap | Trade |
|---|---|
| Foil | Fastest, softest bark |
| Butcher paper | About 1 hr slower, bark intact |
| No wrap | Best bark, longest cook |
| Open the last 20–30 min | Recovers most of a softened crust |
Sugar in a rub burns out over a long cook; salt and pepper build bark that lasts all night without it.
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