When you simply don’t have the time to wait for that brisket or pork shoulder to cook for hours on end, let me show you a competition way to speed things up!
Smoking Meat For Real Life
There is something truly magical about meat that has been smoked low and slow for hours on end. But sometimes the real world steps in, and you simply don’t have 24 hours to smoke a brisket or pulled pork.
I already shared how to beat the stall by using my butterflied method for the best pork butt. Let me drop some knowledge on you on what the stall is and how you can speed it up when grilling and smoking.
Chef Lori’s Opinion: Foil or Butcher Paper?
FOIL: Foil is the OG of Texas Crutch and will speed up your cook significantly. But it has its drawbacks, as you lose that bark as you’re almost ‘steaming’ the meat.
BUTCHER PAPER: You can retain the bark by allowing some of the moisture to escape, but it doesn’t push through the stall fast enough.
What is a Stall in Smoking?
It’s our nemesis, to say the least, in the BBQ world. This typically happens between the 150- 165°F mark. It’s COMPLETELY normal. In a nutshell, it’s when you put a large piece of meat on the smoker, and when the meat reaches a specific temperature, it just stops rising. As the temperature of your smoker starts to increase, the moisture in your meat starts to evaporate—eventually, the cooling balances the heat, and the meat just plateaus or stalls.
This butterflied pork butt was cooked using a crutch method of wrapping in butcher paper. However, with certain pitmaster tricks and tips, you still retained the most amazing bark, BUT it was done in about 8 hours vs the usual 23!
How to Speed Up Grilling and Smoking Stalls
- TEXAS CRUTCH: When your meat stalls at around 150-165, remove it and double-wrap tightly in aluminum foil. You’re essentially not allowing any moisture to escape. Place it back on the smoker (with the meat thermometer inserted) and allow it to finish cooking until it reaches 195- 200°F. I’m not a fan of this either; you’re losing all that fantastic bark you worked so hard to get.
- BUTCHER PAPER: Just like the Texas Crutch, you’re going to use BBQ Pink Butcher Paper this time. This is porous, which means smoke can still permeate through, and it will help with the stall. However, it could stall again, but it shouldn’t last long. Again, this is better than the Texas Crutch, but it can make the bark a tad softer than I like.
Honestly, in the end, it all comes down to your time constraints and personal preference. I will also go for the no-crutch method UNLESS I’m seriously on a time constraint.
It’s this pitmaster’s stance that you only use the foil when you’re braising meat, as I show you in both my smoked chuck roast and smoked country-style ribs.
That being said, what I’ve mastered with the butterflied method and the double temp increase gives you the best of both worlds – you get your meats done way faster while still retaining your bark. I’m not a fan of using aluminum foil at all for a crutch.
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