Why the Towel?

[Sven Svensson]

I've been smoking meat for years and I've been doing what I've been told to do, mostly. That includes, for example, taking your foiled butt or shoulder out of the smoker, wrapping it in an old towel, and putting it in your cooler to rest for a number of hours. My question is, why is the cooler not sufficient alone? Why the need for the towel if one's cooler is efficient? Does it slow the cooling process as a preference or necessity for some reason, as in, there's a not-so-obvious scientific reason for it? Does an efficient cooler give you the same results? Am I doing this simply because back when coolers were made of wood (as my daughters would say) that's what they did and it's been passed down with no challenge? I know these might be simplistic questions and the answer obvious to most but I'm asking anyway. For a friend...

 

[TNJAKE]

I've never thought about it either but my thought would be the towels keep more direct warmth around the meat so all the heat doesn't just go straight to the top of the cooler? A secondary insulator

 

[tallbm]

I believe it is to fill the gap of air between the meat and the cooler. I would wrap with enough towels to fill that gap. If you wrap with 1 towel and still have a gap I don't think it is as efficient. The heat would just escape to fill the cooler and the cooler would then hold the heat.

At least with a towel you keep more of the heat around the meat even if it is just 1 towel and a gap.

Personally I tightly double wrap in foil and then wrap in 3 bath towels and lay on the table or counter and that does the trick just fine for me every time :)

 

[thirdeye]

I agree that a towel is adding more insulation. I tend to put wadded up newspaper in the bottom just in case a foiled butt should leak, and a towel on top. At a charity event one year a guy next to me was cooking ribs and he either had a heating pad or electric blanket in the top of his cooler.

 

[TNJAKE]

On a related side note. Remove the towels and leave the cooler lid open for a while after you take your meat out.......opened up my cooler on my last cook to put a butt in. Never took out the old towels from previous cook.......smelled like an old fart in there

 

[TNJAKE]

I bleach my cooler on a regular basis. Maybe an excuse to get a Yeti

Yep I Clorox wipe my coolers after use as well. Sometimes you get busy and forget things though. But really it was just a "it's only funny because it's true" thing

 

[indaswamp]

The towel traps hot air close to the foil and keeps the butt hotter for longer. Sans towel, the hot air will rise and you will create a circular current in the ice chest which will cool the butt off faster.

 

[indaswamp]

I actually have an old kids sleeping bag that I use for insulation in an ice chest for meats. Will hold temp above 140 for 6+hours....

 

[indaswamp]

Picked that up at goodwill.....

 

[912smoker]

On a related side note. Remove the towels and leave the cooler lid open for a while after you take your meat out.......opened up my cooler on my last cook to put a butt in. Never took out the old towels from previous cook.......smelled like an old fart in there

Yes sir been there....and probably will again .
We drink a lot of bottled water and I save the cardboard bottoms from Dasani and use as cooler liners.

Keith

 

[DougE]

Yep, the towels add insulation.

On a related side note. Remove the towels and leave the cooler lid open for a while after you take your meat out.......opened up my cooler on my last cook to put a butt in. Never took out the old towels from previous cook.......smelled like an old fart in there

I'd venture to say that most of us have opened up the Q cooler and found a moldy, stinky mess of towels down in there a time or three.

 

[noboundaries]

No naked butts allowed in the pork mini sauna.

 

[tx smoker]

I've never thought about it either but my thought would be the towels keep more direct warmth around the meat so all the heat doesn't just go straight to the top of the cooler?

This is spot-on. It also slows the cooling process to allow for better distribution of the juices in the meat.

Never took out the old towels from previous cook.......smelled like an old fart in there

Who told you what I smell like?? At least my daughters call me an old fart, but what the Hell do they know

Robert

 

[jcam222]

On a related side note. Remove the towels and leave the cooler lid open for a while after you take your meat out.......opened up my cooler on my last cook to put a butt in. Never took out the old towels from previous cook.......smelled like an old fart in there

Lol I’ve done this a couple times! It can get quite rank if a little (or lot of) juice spilled on them

 

[schlotz]

Personally, I always put my foil wrapped butts in an aluminum pan before placing in the cooler with towels. No need to ask me why...

 

[Sven Svensson]

So it really is just for extra insulation and not really anything else. Thanks all, I’ll let my friend know.

 

[Bearcarver]

Yep I Clorox wipe my coolers after use as well. Sometimes you get busy and forget things though. But really it was just a "it's only funny because it's true" thing

Not here.
IMHO--There are very few things that smell worse than Clorox!
Makes Me Sick!

Bear

 

[Jonok]

Moving blankets from harbor freight cost about $3.00/each and one will take up the extra room in. 128qt cooler with two full sized steam table pans.
If something leaks, you’re only out 3 bucks and your wife will not yell at you for wrecking her towels.

 

[wgzn]

towels are like mustard binder and fat cap direction. old myths that for some reason, people hold dear, and get really cranky when you propose they're just "mythunderstandings"

i bbq part-time professionally. and i can tell you from experience that towels are not by definition, a necessity. all towels do is slow down the cooling process. which CAN be a good thing. but if you already have a good insulated cooler / cambro, and you're not needing to hold for exceptionally long (6+ hours) durations, i'm not sure how valuable they are AT ALL.

i used to use towels (simply because thats what everyone said to do). but i started to wonder what they actually achieved. so i did some very un-scientific testing. and found that unless i needed to hold a cooked brisket for more than about 4-6 hours. using towels had no beneficial effect on finished product.

when im cooking for family meals i just rest my briskets (still paper-wrapped) on the kitchen counter or cool oven, to an internal temp of 140ºF (that's usually about 90-120 minutes for the average "full packer" brisket) then slice and serve

i'm going to shoot a video test of this in the next couple of weeks, tracking the resting temps and sliced results of 3 methods to see what (if any) real benefit towels are for typical home cooking.

 

[chef k-dude]

I must have missed the party on the cooler thing. People are resting their butts in coolers even though they arent trying to hold temp for a later serving? I thought that was the only reason...creating a Faux Cambro holding box to transport to an event or hold for a later event at the location where the smoke happened.

I have never just rested anything in a Faux or real Cambro that doesn't NEED to hold hot for a later serving and never had a butt that didn't finish and pull well as soon as it was cool enough to handle with thermal rubber BBQ gloves.

I think WGXN above has it right.