Butt Wrap or No Wrap?

[Roaniecowpony]

I'm at the point where I would wrap my butts.

What have you done?

 

[C. Keeper]

Spandex!

 

[Greg Jones]

When I wrap, I use foil for pork and paper for beef, but the last butt I smoked I let it ride naked. I really didn’t see any difference from when I wrap. I don’t know if that’s because a pellet grill keeps it more moist than a BGE or if I was just lucky.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Who knew? I got very moist butts on my Bubba/Broil King Kegs without wrapping. The pellet grill seems to have high airflow rate. I was wondering if they would dry out.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

OK, "here's the deal....uh, ahh, you know what I mean" to steal a line from someone.

I decided on a comparison. One wrapped, with a little peach juice and water added, one nekked.

The nekked one is the teal trace and the wrapped is the purple trace.

 

[C. Keeper]

I'm curious how they turn out, keep us posted.

 

[jfrosty27]

I really don’t wrap anything except brisket these days. I don’t see any difference in the finished product. At times the cook takes a little longer though. But I am retired and have nothing but time. More time to chill and drink beer tending the Q. As for pork butts specifically, I usually do them in my Orion Cooker. I’ll get a two pack of big boneless butts from Costco and throw them in there. Perfect every time in about 4.5-5 hrs without touching them.

 

[BethV]

I wrap pork in peach paper once I get the desired bark. I go pretty long into the cook because I like a solid bark.

I'm definitely curious to see how your experiment worked!

 

[Ostrichsak]

I've done far and away more Boston Butts than I've done any other meat type... maybe combined. I did some testing early on and I noted that my pulled pork was slightly more juicy/tender when I foiled ~165deg than if I just left it as-is the entirety of the smoke.

No scientific evidence to support so it may be placebo but I really wanted it to be the same or better w/o foil to save that step since it often occurs around 3:00am in the winters of Colorado for me. Sadly, it was not. As a result I now foil all of my pork shoulders at around 165deg. I also prefer the bark to be a little bit more on the gooey/caramelized side than the dryer/rougher side that no-wrap produces.

I also suspect that variances in environmental metrics may also play a role in the outcome. In dry cold Colorado it may be a different result than in say a warmer and more humid part of the country. I also feel that wrapping could help to reduce the affects of said variances given the "micro climate" that is created within the wrap... if that makes sense.

tl;dr Do whatever you want and I doubt you'll be throwing any meat away based on what you decide to do.

 

[mooncusser2k]

I tend to put butts in a foil pan when they stall, add a cup of apple juice & ACV and cover with foil. That's partly to finish cooking sooner. I'll go unwrapped if I have extra patience.

Similar technique with chuck roasts, too. Those I think really benefit from added liquid.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

As others have experienced, the wrapped butt is accelerating away from the nekked one. It's faster than I would have guessed. Right at +20F now (191F).

 

[Roaniecowpony]

The wrapped butt hit 207, but it's still a bit firm in the very middle. Needs time. Maybe another half hour. There's now a 34F spread between the butts. It started with +5F for the one I wrapped, but 30F in less than 3 hours is pretty dramatic.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

OK, my qualitative comparison indicates the wrapped butt was slightly more moist, the bark was soft. On the unwrapped butt, it took about 3 hours longer, but had great classic bark.

However, the moisture is not of much concern to me, because I pour a mixture of broth and my rub over the tray of pulled pork, then I put it on the komado at about 450F with a chunk of cherry for smoke. This adds smoke and puts a crust on it. I rotate/mix it once after it crusts up, then let it crust up again. It gets good and smokey.

After they cooled down, my wife and I vacuum packed a bunch of 8 oz packs and froze them. We're restocked for quick dinners again. Pulled pork tacos is a favorite of ours.

 

[sweetride95]

I like wrapping butts because of the shorter cook times I generally get. I'd rather be done 3hrs ahead of time. A longer rest period never hurts the finished quality.
Plus, I usually do 2 butts at a time. When they get sweaty and rendering down, I like to keep some of that grease from going through the grill.

 

[Bytor]

I switched from foil to paper and like it better. I can still add a small amount of liquid as well, just not as much as with the foil obviously. As long as the bark gets set good, it turns out fine.

 

[Cokeman]

Why is the paper better?

 

[mooncusser2k]

Why is the paper better?

Foil traps in moisture, to the point it can soften bark. Paper breathes more, helping to have less of an impact on bark.

 

[Buckeye1]

Cowpony

How do you keep your grates so clean? I can't seem to get the staining off them

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Cowpony

How do you keep your grates so clean? I can't seem to get the staining off them

Dawn dish soap and these super coarse scrub pads from home depot. It scratches the original finish on the grates, but it ends up all good in the long run.

Alternatively, I've used these pads and the spray foam cleaner from Simple Green.

 

[Buckeye1]

Thanks!