British BBQ Society Forums

I guess it depends on how you want the product to turn out, if i am cooking something for 14 hours and know foil with a dash of something (coke, stock etc) will improve the end product its a no brainer for me even if it does mean dragging myself out of bed for 10 mins, and trust me, i love my sleep!

I was under the impression you got a better bark without foiling. Can someone outline the differences in texture/taste with foling and non foiling? My understanding is that all the big BBQ restaurants (such as Franklin) in the US don't foil (too much work perhaps?)

You will get a better bark, that goes without saying. Check out BBQ With Franklin on Youtube

foiling doesnt have any effect on the bark at all, if you havent got a good bark after 7 hours there will be something fundamentally wrong with your cook. You foil once you have set the bark ie scratch the brisket, once it is hard then you can foil it.

US briskets are completely different to those in the UK so no direct comparison can be made. Texture, taste, fat content etc etc Due to the lack of fat content in the UK the briskets tend to dry out very quickly and unless you are very fortunate you will end up with something sub standard. Just by foiling, adding a little something you can increase the chances 10 fold.

I get some of the best british briskets around with thick flats and a decent amount of fat but they do not cook in the same way as the USDA, Wagyu or Aussie grain fed which i have been playing with.

Hmmm, not sure I agree with that one! I've had vastly different outcomes on pork when foiled vs unfoiled (foiled at around the 6-7 hour mark)

Any steaming/braising in foil like that will soften the bark

As the thread title suggests we are talking about brisket which is completely different to the all forgiving pork.

Don't often cook brisket and it's not particularly a favourite. But when I do I do use foil. It's certainly easier to dry out a brisket in comparison to a pork shoulder. My experience is that foiling can soften the bark but as Toby says wait until it is fully formed in the first place and this minimises the effect. Haven't tried it myself but on some of the American forums there are people who swear by wrapping in butchers paper rather than foil.

Oh yeah, but the theory of the bark is the same - take one piece of meat with a well formed bark and put it in foil for a couple of hours and you're gonna get a buildup of steam and liquid which will inevitably soften it

you will only get steam if there is space for the liquid to evaporate. squeeze the foil on. no air gap, no steam. I leave the fat cap on, have the brisket fat side down so not worried about that side getting wet as i would scrape the fat off anyway.

When I foiled this brisket I didn't put any extra liquid of any kind in there with it but as you could see from the pic there was plenty of juice in the foil, which made an awesome dip for the sandwich, but I will experiment with liquids when wrapping, they must have an effect on the flavour profile and added bonus you get more juice mmmmmmm

Getting your R's out of bed at daft hours through the night comes with the territory, when I started I would be up every hour to check the temp of the smoker when doing shoulder but you get to learn your smoker, now I just set it off and go back after X hours. It all depends on how tired I am but I foil a shoulder anywhere between 4-8 hours (normally between 6-8 hours) though, and usually bang it in the oven at 120 at that point so I can get more shoulders or other meat on. The meat is wrapped in foil, it's getting no smoke benefit anymore just heat so get more meat done