Why Is Pink Butchers’ Paper Used for BBQs?
If you’re new to the world of barbecue, you might not have heard enough about pink butchers’ paper, but as a premier provider of barbecue accessories and products, we know all about it. Whether you’re making brisket for the family or slow-cooking some meat for two, pink butchers paper is an essential piece of equipment to make delicious meat, that’s flavourful and juicy, regardless of what rub or seasoning you use.
What is Pink Butcher’s Paper?
Also known as ‘peach paper’, pink butchers’ paper is a thinner variant of steak butcher’s paper. It definitely isn’t infused in the tastes and smells of a peach, but is only known as peach paper because of its light pink, peachy colour. Pink butchers paper isn’t the butchers’ paper you use to wrap Christmas presents or gifts either, it’s a specific type of butchers paper that’s been approved to be used with food. It’s made from a specific tree, called the Southern Pine Pulp, where it gets its peach colour as it isn’t bleached or processed in any way other than being much thinner than steak paper and other butchers’ papers.
Butchers’ paper can come in other colours, so if you’re looking to have a great BBQ and you’re not sure which to pick - we recommend that you always pick pink because other papers, such as steak paper, are a completely different product as well as colour, which will drastically affect the meat you’re cooking while barbecuing.
How Do I Use It?
Pink butcher’s paper is a popular alternative to aluminium foil when cooking meat on a barbecue or smoking meat. It’s usually used as one of the last steps in the cooking process as you take off the meat from the barbecue, envelope it in the pink butcher’s paper to allow the inside of the meat to continue cooking with the residual heat while maintaining the crispy, crunchy outer texture of the meat. This is why this technique is very popular with many barbecue enthusiasts, including ourselves, as it helps to maintain a textured outer while having a perfectly cooked and moist inner of the barbeque brisket or meat. This technique is also great for maintaining what barbecue enthusiasts call ‘bark’, which refers to the seasoning you’ve used on the meat and the smoke flavour from your smoker.
If you’re looking to try out pink butchers’ paper when cooking your next brisket, you can find out how to wrap your brisket in pink butchers’ paper perfectly in our blog post about it! We’re proud to have pink butchers’ paper available in our store to get you started as well.
Pink Butcher’s Paper Vs Aluminium Foil
What makes pink butchers’ paper such a great alternative to aluminium foil, is that aluminium foil doesn’t let any air escape and that can cause the residual heat and steam to soften the outer layer and can sometimes make the outside of the meat soggy from too much moisture being trapped in the wrapped brisket. This is sometimes called ‘oversteaming’ as too much steam from the meat is trapped and leaves your meat’s lovely barbecue crust mushy, lacking in texture and can lose bark. Pink butchers’ paper has just the right amount of breathing room that lets some of the oxygen and steam dissipate from your brisket to avoid any sogginess while maintaining the necessary moisture for juicy, tender meat.
Where did this technique come from?
Using pink butchers paper is also known as the Texas Crutch because the barbecue chef that started it all, Aaron Franklin, is based in Texas and has such a popular restaurant for his brisket that his technique for cooking them became famous. He was one of the first to use pink butchers’ paper instead of normal white butchers’ paper. His technique and his briskets have earned him multiple awards and he’s constantly rewarded by the long queues to his restaurant as barbecue lovers flock to the state for a taste of Texas Crutch.
We love you’ll learn to love pink butchers’ paper as much as we do! Purchase a roll at The Barbecue Company today and see how you go making a fantastic brisket this summer.