To Foil or Not To Foil…That Is The Question

So there are two sides to every argument…or so they say.

And never before has this been more evident then the ongoing battle between the forces of good and evil–or as I like to call them, the “Foilers” vs. the “Non-Foilers.”

The epic struggle between the “Foilers” and the “Non-Foilers” has waged for years in this deep dark underworld of the Barbecue Freaks ( I’m going for a “Lord of The Rings” thing here if you hadn’t noticed).

Two groups of Barbecue Pit Masters diametrically opposed to the other.

On one hand you have the “Non-foilers.” This group, usually from the “Old School” group of barbecue freaks will argue that adding foil to your barbecue will speed the process up by “steaming” your meat and is not considered real barbecue.

The “Foilers” are easily identified. You’ll want to pay close attention for a person who starts a discussion about barbecue with ” Back in my day” or “In the good ole’ days.” They like to brag about how they used to dig a hole, throw some rocks around the hole, and throw a metal grate on top along with their meat…and we had barbecue…and we liked it!

On the other side you have the “Foilers.” I find this group to be more of the “New School” Barbecue Pit Master. These folks contend anything you can do to improve the taste, texture and tenderness of your meat isn’t cheating and it’s the end product what really matters.

You can tell this group by the amount of electronic gadgets hooked up to their cooker. You’ll see them intently watching their computer screen as they control the temperature of with one or two strokes of their key board.

So with that said, I plan on conducting an experiment this weekend.

So here’s here’s the deal boys and girls.

I’m going to barbecue two Boston butts this weekend. I’ll cook one with with foil and the other without–then I’ll have a taste test.

Now mind you, this will all be a very scientific and above board test — yeah right!

I’ll even take video and post it on BBQFreaks.com for you to see the results for yourself.

And look, feel free to conduct your own experiment and send in YOUR results!

Heck, I’d love it if you took your own video and sent them in.

So lets get cooking this weekend and let me know how your experiment turns out.

Oh and one more thing, it might be nice to provide your notes on your cook. You’ll want to share your cooker temps, your meat temps and the the time of day the notes were taken.

So until then, this is Bill Parlaman saying…

Now go smoke something!

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