Showerthought: watching a guy in Memphis handle a brisket stall changed my whole cook

I was at the Memphis in May contest last spring and saw a pitmaster just wrap his brisket in butcher paper the second it hit 165, no waiting. He said 'the clock doesn't make it tender, the heat does.' I started doing that and my cook times got way more predictable. How do you all handle the stall, wrap or no wrap?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_mary9d ago

That Texas comp story is missing a key point. Wrapping at 165 works because you're in the stall, not before it. The magic isn't the exact number, it's about powering through the evaporation that causes the stall. If you wrap at 145, you're just steaming your meat early and might get a mushy bark. The pitmaster was using the temp as a signal, not a strict rule. His point about heat making it tender is right, but the timing matters for texture too.

the_cameron9d ago

Saw the same thing at a comp in Texas. Wrapping early just works.

daniel3919d agoMost Upvoted

@the_cameron, what's the actual benefit of wrapping early?