That's a Wrap

Pink butcher paper (the color is on the inside side). We use it in our soul food kitchen for the final stage cooking bbq briskets and slow-cooked spare ribs and things like that. The concept is simple: You bring a piece of meat (this one is a 5.5 kg brisket) up to an internal heat (around 179 F) and then wrap it tightly in this pink line butcher paper. It is at this point that the soft fat begins to render and melt over the meat. It’s a beautiful thing.

The bitch of course is that at this point in the cook, which lasts several hours, you are basically cooking blind. You can’t see what’s happening. You have trust your technology (Oven and meat thermometers) and perhaps feel (the piece of meat towards the end begins to go a bit limp). I don’t know about you, but it has taken me a long time to trust the technology. And even when I do, I’m still a bit paranoid. You place a meat thermometer in the wrong portion of the brisket and you will get a false read. Even worse is spare ribs, since there’s no part meaty enough to insert a meat thermometer. You’re simply flying blind.

I could get all zen-like philosophical here and say it’s all about letting go a bit, about trusting to the process, and trusting your sense of smell and touch. And if you can do this, you are a better person than I am. I fret every time I open up one of these wrapped beasts, after I’ve pulled them from the oven and they’ve had a chance to cool a bit. I never know what I’m going to find. Or what degree of doneness will be on the inside of the wrap. And, even though it almost always works out fine, I always look a bit askance at this pink butcher paper that takes my trust for granted.