Why doesn't foil wrapped meat cook like it was stewed?

[Stephen Tashiro]

When meat is wrapped in foil and cooked in a pit barbecue, why doesn't it turn out like meat that has been stewed? Is the foil not wrapped tightly enough to keep liquid all around the meat while cooking?

[Bill Dufour]

Without being submerged some can go over boiling water temperature and cook faster. Boiling under water can not go over 212 F, 100C until there is no liquid touching that section. Pressure cooker raises boiling temperature, elevation lowers the boiling temp. Adding salt does not decrease boiling temperature measurably but it lowers freezing so that a turkey at one degree F is not legally frozen, it is considered fresh.
Bill D

[Greg Funk]

We used to go to a family reunion where they would dig a big pit with a backhoe and make a large fire during the day. At night when the fire had died down they would add a bunch of roasts covered in soaked cloth or paper and cover the pit with dirt. The next day they'd dig out the roasts and they were very tender.

If you use foil and the meat is placed directly on hot coals, the foil will transmit the high heat and quickly vaporize the moisture held in the meat. With foil you'd need some distance between the coals and the meat to control the temperature.

[Jim Koepke]

When my home was in San Pablo, CA one of our latino neighbors worked construction. He brought home a large piece of pipe used for manholes and a cover. He dug that into his backyard for his fire pit. They would burn a lot of mesquite or other wood down to coals and then had a wire cage they would line with large catus leaves with the meat inside. That was tender and juicy. It would pretty much fall apart on the plate.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

We used to go to a family reunion where they would dig a big pit with a backhoe and make a large fire during the day. At night when the fire had died down they would add a bunch of roasts covered in soaked cloth or paper and cover the pit with dirt. The next day they'd dig out the roasts and they were very tender.
…

We started the morning before, dug a long, deep pit and suspended a big pile of lumber above the ground over the pit and set that afire. When it burned enough to fall into the pit a truck load of corn husks were shoveled in the pit over the hot embers and the wrapped frozen hams were thrown down over the corn husks. Steel pipe placed on the ground over the pit supported enough pieces of metal roofing to cover the hole and a few inches of dirt from the pit was put on top of the metal. The dirt kept the heat in and the hams cooked all night. Fished out the next day with hooks on poles the meat was as juicy and tender as any I’ve tasted. Probably served 100 people every year.

Don’t do that size of event any more but for years a friend raised 3 hogs. Late each winter we each got one for the freezers and his smokehouse, and one for a pit barbecue July 4th. Same general method but a much smaller scale. He always named the hogs Porkchop, Hammie, and Barbie or somesuch. His wife refused to even go out and look at them - she didn’t want to look anything in the eye she was going to eat. I got to be fairly efficient at skinning a hog, something not everyone gets the opportunity to learn these days. A good skinning knife helps.

JKJ

[Michael Schuch]

Foil is usually used to keep moisture in the meat. When I smoke a brisket I usually start by putting a good smoke ring and crust on the meat. Then I will wrap it to cook slowly for a few hours. Then put the wrapped brisket still wrapped in foil in a small cooler to finish it off for another few hours.

The best BBQ restaurant I have ever been to has a very moist hot rack they put the meat on in the morning and pulled from it to serve throughout the day. They would smoke the meat for the next day starting the prior afternoon. Texas, of course.

All of the sudden I am REALLY hungry for some brisket!

[Rob Luter]

Depending on the cut and the temperature and amount of cooking time, it can come out like it's been stewed. The wrap method for Brisket that Michael mentions above is pretty common. After several hours on the smoke, the brisket can't absorb any more. It gets wrapped in foil (aka the Texas Crutch) or butcher paper and returned to the grille to finish. Retention of the moisture also keeps it from shedding heat. The result is accelerated cooking. The goal is to dissolve all the fat and connective tissue without driving the moisture out of the meat. Finishing by resting in a cooler is common too. All that said, the temps in use are usually pretty low (225° to 275°) and the meat is pulled at an internal temp of 205° or so. I've had brisket that was allowed to go too long and it fell apart like pot roast. I've had wrapped meat that was cooked too hot and it was dry and chewy. It's a balancing act.

[Michael Drew]

I use foil to wrap my ribs, after they've smoked at a pretty low temp for 3-4 hours. I will generally wrap them with the meat side down, on a small bit of sauce and/or butter. Wrap them tight, then cook for another hour or thereabouts. They come out very juicy. Seems to me that if you wanted to mimic a stewed type cook, you can by wrapping with foil, as long as the temp is low - 225'ish.

I also wrap my briskets, but I use pink paper verse foil. I've had my best luck following Aron Franklin's techniques for pretty much anything I BBQ.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

foil permits high heat to fry/sear the meat, in spite of moisture that may be in the package. No matter how you fold and tuck the foil, there is enough for steam to leak out. I personally dislike most things cooked in foil. I prefer meat, fish, shrimp, chicken, etc made in the smoker grill in high heat hot hardwood smoke. Corn on the cob is placed in the grill with the husk on it., sliced pineapple just sprayed with oil and laid on the grill, Sweet potatoes cooked naked in the hardwood coals. Your talking dinner 1 or 2 nights a week like that at our house, even in winter. We don't go through a roll of foil in an entire year.