Tin foil or not?

Wow, five days without an answer.  Here you go.  

I'm assuming you are talking about wrapping meat in foil, or crutching as it is called.  The advantage is that when you wrap the meat with a little liquid, you essential steam the meat, a process similar to braising, transferring heat energy more rapidly to the meat.  Braising liquid transfers heat 25 times faster than air alone to meat, and liquids wrapped in the foil expand 1600-1700 times when flashed to steam.  All that heat energy gets transferred to the cooler meat, consequently the meat cooks faster and the wrapping helps keep the meat moist because all the liquids in the meat are contained in the wrap and not evaporated.   

I've never had meat stick to the foil but I always add a liquid, or a very wet veggie (tomatoes, salsa, etc) to my wraps. Don't know what the sticking issue is you had but you could always spray the foil that's going to touch the meat with a veggie oil if it was a concern.  I go through cans of that stuff because I always spray my drip pans, or the foil lining, to speed the cleanup once I'm done.       

If you don't foil, you get a better bark.  I used to foil ribs and butts, but I'm now a no foil kinda guy.  Welcome to the forum!

   

Mike

If you foil you get darker, harder bark.  Whether that is good or bad is up to you.

C, I foil a lot to speed up the process, butter or apple juice are my favorites .

Where do you guys get cheap foil?  I find myself using a ton wrapping up my whole MES and the meats etc.  Also, do they sell foil longer than 12".  I find the standard rolls are 2-3 inches too short to use a single roll on my MES 40 water pan, drop tray etc.