Butcher paper at Costco

[golfingfool]

Hi All,

Saw this butcher paper at Costco and it looks good. It's not pink like the one most people use to wrap their briskets. Do you think this is just as good for wrapping food?

[ckreef]

Some butchers paper is wax coated. You don't want  wax coated. Wax coating is bad. Other than that it's probably good to use. 

 

[Keith OctoForks]

10 minutes ago, ckreef said:

Some butchers paper is wax coated. You don't want  wax coated. Wax coating is bad. Other than that it's probably good to use. 

 

Yes exactly

[Syzygies]

By convention the white paper is wax coated, and the pink is not. Imagine how confusing it could be without such a convention?

[tony b]

1300 ft - WOW! The rolls of pink that I get on Amazon are only 150 ft and they last me a very long time. This would be more than a lifetime supply - assuming it's not waxed!!

https://smile.amazon.com/Butcher-Durable-Approved-ORIGINAL-smoking/dp/B00NC5S6OM

[CeramicChef]

I don't wrap.  Never have; never will.  I just don't see the need for it when cooking on my KK.  If I were still cooking on a gasser or a drafty stick burner, I probably would wrap.  

[Syzygies]

1 hour ago, CeramicChef said:

I don't wrap.  Never have; never will.  I just don't see the need for it when cooking on my KK.  If I were still cooking on a gasser or a drafty stick burner, I probably would wrap.  

We're discussing low consequence science, and I have no doubt that you cook spectacularly well (and I would love to test this assumption if I ever get the chance!). However, anyone can cook better; that's what keeps us excited by the process. You would question the scientific approach in your statement if you substituted "surgery", "late 18th century", and "sterilization", and if you were the patient.

For me, it is high consequence when I find myself thinking similar thoughts, because I fear aging. While I have a family history of brain hardware failure, I fear the software failure that can come first. Have I lost interest in revisiting questions I thought I had settled? As a mathematician, that would be career-ending.

I came into BBQ in a period when "3:2:1" ribs were all the rage, the conventional norm and the unquestioned advice given to all newcomers. I basically did nothing but experiment in my first several years with a ceramic cooker, and I thought that foiled barbecue was absolutely wretched. One might as well use a crock pot.

Much later, when Aaron Franklin's book came out, I was struck by his careful use of pink butcher paper. I made new experiments, and came to appreciate it.

There's a parallel here with sous vide. Many people just don't see the need for it. The best cooks I know can outdo sous vide for traditional applications like steak, if they bring their A game with absolutely undivided attention, and nothing goes wrong. Any idiot can achieve better results than before with sous vide. So why would anybody want to be "any idiot" when we all aspire to be masters of technique? Life happens. I also need to fit in two errands, one of which becomes an unexpectedly long distraction. My guests are two hours late. That sort of thing. It is good to know robust techniques, over techniques that are superior in ideal circumstances. An MLB baseball season is 162 games; everything that can go wrong, will, and robust techniques win pennants.

Aaron Franklin needs to hold finished barbecue for varying time intervals. We can't always count on guests that are ready to eat, to the minute, when I say the barbecue is done. I love how pink butcher paper holds barbecue.

I recently included one rack of ribs as a teaser appetizer for a gumbo party, where I was already using my KK for other ingredients. The gumbo required all of my attention, and the meal timing was uncertain. While I prefer fairly plain ribs (no sauce with jars from the pantry to mask inferior pork) cooked never wrapped, here I wrapped in pink butcher paper for the last hour or two. These were the best ribs I've ever cooked.

 

[mguerra]

Alright Ken (NO @!) You say you never have wrapped. So, do it once. Try it once... One brisket. 

[CeramicChef]

2 minutes ago, mguerra said:

Alright Ken (NO @!) You say you never have wrapped. So, do it once. Try it once... One brisket. 

Ok.  Doc, between you and Syzygies, I'll give this a shot this Summer.  I'll have a group over who have previously had my brisket cooks and try a wrapped brisket on them.  We'll see what turns out.  

[mguerra]

Cook it til it hits 165º  internal temp. Wrap. Check every 30 minutes thereafter til ice pick goes in easy and tender. Done. The longer you hold it wrapped in towels in a cooler, the better. Inform us.

[CeramicChef]

Doc (NO@!) wilco.  Over and out.  

[golfingfool]

I've also used parchment paper over the last couple of years with decent success. Do you all feel this is a worthy substitute? Anyone ever try it?


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[Syzygies]

20 hours ago, golfingfool said:

I've also used parchment paper over the last couple of years with decent success. Do you all feel this is a worthy substitute? Anyone ever try it?

@golfingfool I cook with parchment paper for other purposes. On the KK, it's the safest way to transfer a pair of unbaked bread loaves from the kitchen to the fire (using a pizza peel).

I was taught to steam fish en papillote by making an airtight package with parchment paper; the paper traps steam as the fish bakes. So would aluminum foil. So would white parchment paper, though I don't know that the white parchment paper is even food-safe when heated; the coating on white parchment paper was never designed to take heat, though it might.

Pink parchment paper is lousy for en papillote, because it passes some but not all of the steam. This is exactly why people prefer it for barbecue. If you're happy with parchment paper, you'll probably be even happier with pink butcher paper.

Here is my Amazon source for pink butcher paper, $37 for 150'.

Pink/Peach Butcher Paper Roll 24" X 150' in Durable Carry Tube, FDA Approved, MADE 100% in the USA, The ORIGINAL meat smoking paper for Texas style BBQ

[mguerra]

Precisely the paper I use as well.

[tony b]

I use the 18" version of the same stuff, slightly cheaper and it has always been large enough on the hunks of meat that I've cooked in it. I rarely do whole packer cuts of brisket, unless it's a big party. Waaaayyy too much meat, even to vacuum seal and freeze part of it.