How does butcher paper work

SmokedBBQSource is supported by its readers. We may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you i f you buy through a link on this page. Learn more. Pink butcher paper has transitioned from something your favorite local butcher wraps your pork chops in, to the must-have BBQ accessory of the last couple of years. Before we get into why pitmasters have started raving about pink butcher paper, we should get a better idea of exactly what it is. When it comes to using it to BBQ, pink butcher paper comes in handy as an alternative to the aluminum foil traditionally used to wrap meat.

Pitmasters generally wrap meat like brisket in order to prevent it from losing moisture towards the end of the cooking period. This helps to keep the meat tender and juicy. Wrapped meat also cooks faster, which is handy if you need to produce a smoked brisket on a tighter schedule.

Wrapping your rack of ribs or brisket can slow down the development of a bark on the outside of the meat. Be wary of wrapping your meat too early, as this can prevent it from developing a crust at all. The primary reason that pink butcher paper has become more widely used amongst the BBQ crowd is, when it comes to wrapping meat, it has certain advantages over aluminum foil:.

In the trailer for Aaron Franklins Masterclass you can see him using butcher paper in nearly every scene. Because it can be unrolled across a large area, it makes a wonderful diversion for groups of children to play and interact together, such as at a daycare or during a party.

Others have used butcher paper as a backdrop for photos , as table coverings, or to wrap presents in a muted and sophisticated way. Truly, there seems to be no end to the creative and fun ways butcher paper can be used inside and outside the home. As mentioned above, butcher paper and custom flexographic printing make an incredibly powerful marketing combination that many different businesses can benefit from exploring. Restaurants, delis, and various business locations can easily see the benefit of printing their logo, contact information, menus, or other marketing messages on sheets or rolls of butcher paper, then using them as they normally would, as:.

Likewise, any business that ships products to customers could benefit from custom-printed butcher paper being used to wrap packages for shipping or to protect items inside packages. These are great options for a number of reasons. For one thing, custom printing on inexpensive butcher paper is an economical way to enhance small marketing budgets.

In addition, because custom printed butcher paper is so affordable in relation to other types of printed marketing materials, it can be ordered more often and with more timely messaging.

The flexo printing process does not compromise that certification or render printed butcher paper inappropriate for any sort of food service use. Really, when you look at it closely, custom printed butcher paper could be the most underrated, overlooked marketing investment any food service or packaging and shipping business can make!

Contact Oren International today! We work with distributors, companies, and individuals around the globe to meet nearly any customized paper need. Tags: Butcher Paper. Delis and Restaurants As already noted, butcher paper has proven itself an excellent resource for food service uses beyond just wrapping fresh cuts of meat or seafood for transport.

BBQ The world of professional BBQ — not to mention competitions and the humble backyard enthusiast alike — deserves its own mention among food services that have latched onto butcher paper in recent years. Some butcher papers have a coating of wax or polyethylene to prevent leakage, which would melt into your food on a smoker. While these products may appear similar, freezer paper and steak paper are unsuitable for use in a smoker. The most common reason to wrap your meat in pink butcher paper is to get around the meat stall.

This is the period during a low-and-slow smoking session when your meat refuses to rise in temperature. Cuts like brisket, pork butt, pork shoulder, and ribs of all kinds often stall for several hours before they begin to rise again. Smoking a whole brisket can take over 14 hours unless you use something like pink butcher paper to speed through the stall.

Wrapping your meat in pink butcher paper is one version of a technique called the Texas Crutch. This allows some of the meat juices to evaporate and form that thick, crusty bark your guests will go wild for. Your butcher paper wrapped meat may not be as juicy as one wrapped with a different product. Most pitmasters wrap their meat after a few hours of smoking. Some BBQ masters prefer to wait until their meat stalls to wrap it up. Once your meat hits the desired temp, pull it from the smoker and wrap tightly in two layers of paper.

Fold over the edges to seal tightly. Put the meat back in the smoker, and watch the temperature. Once it is within a few degrees of your finish temp, pull the wrapped meat and allow it to rest for an hour before unwrapping and slicing. Pink butcher paper makes an attractive display for your sliced or shredded smoked meat, and you can use it to wrap your smoked or grilled foods during the resting period to hold in heat. The flavors inside the package mingle with the steam, gently cooking and flavoring your food.

The paper has a tendency to burn, even using indirect heat. Buy from Amazon. For the best results, I recommend sticking with a high-quality pink paper made specifically for BBQing. These papers might be too thin to hold in moisture and tear too easily as well. Mighty Dreams Pink Butcher Paper is an excellent option if you are looking to crutch a brisket or pulled pork.

I keep a large roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil under my grill at all times and frequently reach for it. It also seals in the moisture and prevents the juices from evaporating away inside your smoker or grill. Foil is durable, versatile and very inexpensive. You can easily find high-quality heavy-duty foil at your local supermarket or online. There are many types of metallic foils used for crafts and jewelry making, but you should only use a food-grade aluminum foil in your grill or smoker.

Foil is very pliable and wraps tightly around objects without needing tape or twine to seal it closed. This makes it ideal for all sorts of cooking applications. There have been rumors that aluminum leaches out of the foil during the cooking process and absorbs into your food. The truth is a bit murkier and a lot less dramatic than the rumors.

Very little aluminum leaches out of foil at room temperature or under refrigerator conditions. So you should not worry about using foil to store your leftovers or to wrap up a steak for the freezer. Cooking with aluminum is a bit different, though. According to a study , aluminum can leach out of the foil under higher temperatures, like on a smoker or grill.

The rate of aluminum-leaching increases when you add acidic ingredients to the foil, such as vinegar, tomato or lemon juice. The real question is whether this leached aluminum is dangerous to our health? Professional chefs and pitmasters alike use foil on a daily basis in kitchens around the world.

Our bodies are able to remove a certain amount of aluminum, and it is naturally found in many foods. It seems unlikely that cooking in aluminum foil is a major health hazard. You might also wrap your food in butcher or parchment paper first, and then use foil for the outside layer. If you discard the juices that collect inside the package, the amount of aluminum in your food should be minimal.

Foil is the perfect wrapper to use for both low-heat smoking and high-heat grilling applications. You can basically use it to cook anything on your grill or smoker. You can wrap the meat or vegetables in foil to cruise past a meat stall or just speed up the cooking process. Foil is the ideal wrapping for sealing in the moisture on a low-and-slow smoked brisket. Foil is also ideal for reheating a batch of ribs or pulled pork on your grill.

Using foil to reheat food on a grill can help prevent the sauces or juices from burning. It also helps keep your meat from getting too dry as it reheats, especially if you add some apple juice to the leftovers. You can use foil in many ways while cooking on your grill or smoker. Foil is also a useful tool for other BBQ purposes, as you will see.

If you plan to use foil to crutch a stalled brisket or pork butt, then the timing of the wrap is the same as with the pink butcher paper. Smoke your meat for a few hours, and then wrap it in foil to push past the stall.

One difference between using butcher paper vs foil for crutching is that you can get a tighter wrap with foil. There is always going to be evaporation when you use butcher paper, but you can get a true airtight seal with foil if you do it right. You can read all about foil wrapping in my article on the Texas Crutch. The foil is going to limit the formation of the bark on the exterior of your meat because less moisture can evaporate from the surface.

Then you can finish it unwrapped on your grill or smoker, so the bark dries out a bit and intensifies in flavor. In addition to crutching and reheating food, you can also cook food inside a sealed foil packet on your grill. This is a great way to steam some veggies or cook a delicate filet of fish. Just tear off a square of foil big enough to hold your food, and add a drizzle of oil. Season well, fold up the packet and place it in your grill. I often use foil to make a disposable drip pan for my gas grill.

This is a great way to prevent the grill from accumulating a lot of grease while indirectly cooking bone-in chicken.