What is the Texas Crutch?

The Texas Crutch is an important technique to understand if you cook low and slow.

This method can reduce cooking times and preserve moisture when you hit “the stall” during a long smoking session.

So what is the Texas Crutch by Definition?

The Texas Crutch is the method of wrapping the meat in foil or butcher paper for a short time while grilling in order to help it cook faster and more evenly.

Typically a bit of liquid is added to the foil or paper. Typical liquids used are beer, wine, apple cider vinegar, and juices.

This method can also help the meat retain its moisture during long smoking sessions.

Why use the Texas Crutch?

To put it simply, this method helps stop the evaporating process on the meat’s surface. This does things:

1. Reduces cooking time.

2. Helps maintain and hold moisture in the meat.

Here is a quick breakdown so you can get a better understanding. Big pieces of meat contain tough connective tissues. These tissues need long hours of cook time to break down and render.

At a certain point during the long cook, the meat will enter a stage that is called the stall. At this point of your cook, the meat’s internal temperature will plateau for several hours.

The stall is caused by the moisture of the meat turning into vapors, while the heat tries to reach the core of the meat. The heat and moisture block each other’s way. This leads to the meat stalling and not increasing in internal temperature.

If all the moisture evaporates and the heat gets to the core it can lead to the meat drying out.
This is where the Texas crutch comes in handy. This method helps trap the moisture inside the foil or paper while also increasing the heat.

When should you use the Texas Crutch?

There are two factors you should consider when using this method:

1. The meat should have a developed bark before using the Texas Crutch. The reason for this is that this method will trap a lot of moisture in the meat. If the meat doesn’t have a developed bark it will just wash away all your seasonings. Then you are left with a tender flavorless piece of meat.
2. If you want to speed up your cook. If you want to sacrifice a little flavor you can do this as soon as you want to help speed up the cook. As mentioned before you can get the best of both worlds if you wait until you have a developed bark on your meat. So the recommendation is to wait a little bit and the rewards will be greater.

How to Tell if the Meat’s Bark is Developed?

So how do you determine if it’s safe to wrap your meat and not lose its seasonings? It’s pretty simple.

You can tell in two ways. First, with experience, you can visually see that a nice crust has formed on the meat. The second way is by touch. Touch the bark or crust and if no seasoning is stuck to your fingers you should be good to go.

Pros and Cons of Using the Texas Crutch

Like any cooking technique, there are advantages and drawbacks to using a particular method. Most pitmasters use and recommend it. But, you have to do it right for maximum benefit and understand what can go wrong if you don’t.

Pros

1. Shorten your cooking time – Can shorten the cook by hours.
2. Max out on tenderness and juiciness of the meat – Helps lock in the moisture in meat preventing it from drying out
3. Control of smokiness and color of your meat – When you wrap meat it prevents the smoke from further absorbing into the meat. So if you don’t want a lot of smoke flavor you can use this to help. Also cutting the cooking time slows the color change so you can achieve the desired color easier.

Cons

1. Mushy Meat – too much moisture can wash away the crust.
2. Potential flavor loss – If you have mushy meat then the crust is washed away. The crust contains most of the seasonings on the meat.
3. Extra Step – no set it and forget it.

Tips for the Texas Crutch

1. Don’t constantly lift the lid on the BBQ. Every time you lift the lid the temperature drops inside the grill. This will lead to longer cooking times.
2. Using a water pan can help the meat maintain moisture until you wrap it.
3. Make sure you wait until you’re happy with the look of the meat’s bark before applying the foil. Once wrapped the meat can no longer form a crust.
4. Let your meat rest after cooking. Letting your meat rest allows some of the moisture to be reabsorbed and distributed through the meat.

Final Thoughts

If you want to shorten your cooking time without sacrificing the final product give the Texas Crutch a try.

Most pitmasters recommend this method and even use it during competitions. Use this during your next BBQ session and see if it makes a difference for you.