Foil or foil pans when doing the final process?

[seapro220]

Hello all.
Just curious as to why people will foil/butcher paper their meats whenever they hit the stall point instead of using a foil pan, sealed up of course. I know the reasoning is to protect the meat (from drying out), getting any more 'smoke/darkness' to the meat but if you 'sauce' the meat with anything else before wrapping - why not just put the meat in a foil pan - add any other juices, and then just cover it. Seems like a better method of doing this and you get to keep all the juices at the same time. It is just a 'tradition' that people use or follow, or is there a 'real or taste' performance to it?

Going to be doing some more ribs this weekend and some butts soon. I'll experiment both but just asking...

 

[JLeonard]

Will lrg muscles such as butts I will foil pan them. Ribs, I may or may not foil wrap. Depends on my laziness factor that day. It does lend a different texture to the ribs. With butts it does affect the bark/crust some. At least for me.

Jim

 

[smokerjim]

Not 100% sure but I think people wrap in paper or foil so they can wrap tightly holding the juice in the meat. I'm sure someone with more knowledge will jump in.

 

[seapro220]

Will lrg muscles such as butts I will foil pan them. Ribs, I may or may not foil wrap. Depends on my laziness factor that day. It does lend a different texture to the ribs. With butts it does affect the bark/crust some. At least for me.

Jim

How about water in the grill? I've never done that - or really 'spritz' either as the larger meats (butts and ribs) are tasty w/o it. Seems like a 'phase' that people are going to - or ranting about.

 

[JLeonard]

I'm not a spritzer. I do run a water pan in my cooker.

Jim

 

[Newglide]

I only spritz if I get a part of meat getting more heat than other parts, just trying to keep it cooler. I also will spin and move around if that's happening.

I do wrap in a foil pan so I can add sauces or juice or whatever liquid I want as well as capture the juice from the meat..

I wrap my ribs, meat side down.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

I pan wrap, wrap in foil, and wrap in paper. Heck I've even wrapped in paper then wrapped in foil. Just whatever I think I need to do that cook.
Ooo! One time I wrapped in foil then put it all in a giant foil pan and sealed. It was to carry a bunch of ribs somewhere else and all my coolers were full. Worked great as I used the big foil pans later as makeshift grills/warmer. LoL

 

[nursewizzle]

I've just always seemed to had better luck with foiling instead of panning. I don't know if it is because it keeps the juices more around the meat instead of just the bottom sitting in juices or something?

 

[DougE]

I have done foil alone for the wrap, meat in a foil pan with foil over top, and meat wrapped in foil and placed in a pan (to keep any leaking juices contained). I haven't really seen much difference either which way.

 

[thirdeye]

Not 100% sure but I think people wrap in paper or foil so they can wrap tightly holding the juice in the meat. I'm sure someone with more knowledge will jump in.

Cooking in a foil pan is different than wrapping in a foil pan.
I too think 'tightly' is important so the juices are in contact, and also because you try and stay away from the braising effect with meat that is smaller than a foil pan.

Open top wrapping (aka boating) is probably the best of both worlds.

Then you have the modified wrap, where you use foil on the bottom and roll some pink paper up in the foil for the topper. this works with brisket or ribs or whatever (obviously, the ribs were bone up, until this photo.