how long can you foil smoked meat before serving?

[jerseydrew]

how long can a butt or brisket stay at eating temp in foil and towels in a cooler?

 

[bullybbq]

I have done 5 hours. It stays hotter than you can touch with ungloved fingers.

 

[jerseydrew]

sounds good, that should give me a few hours of built in time if i need it. 

 

[jarjarchef]

As long as it stays above 140IT you are good to go as long as you need too.

However after a couple hours you may experience quality deterioration. I would go no more than 5hrs if possible. If you know you are going to be a long time like 4-5hrs+, I would build that into my carry over cooking plan. I would pull the pork out of the smoker at around 180-186IT instead of the 190-195IT.

Carry over cooking is the balancing of the outside temp with the interior temp. Your IT temp will continue to rise after removing from the heat. By wrapping with foil and towels into an insulated cooler, I have seen the IT rise as much as 15 degrees.

 

[dirtworldmike]

I have left them in the cooler all night  8-10 hrs. Turned out great really moist and tender and were still pretty darn hot.. no problems I'm still living..

 

[hbc01]

I'm what you guys call a "newbee".  I'm planning my very first q soon (after some dry runs of course), but I don't know if I have come across the trick of using towels in a cooler.  I'm sure I will come across this many times and feel like an idiot for asking you why.  It seems logical that it would absorb moisture and if you are keeping the meat in foil which is not sealed for extended periods of time, would'nt it absorb the moisture out of the meat.  Kind of like a wicking material of socks that sucks the water from you pant leg down to your toes on those cold hunting mornings.