By Dylan Clay
Once it’s time to rest your brisket or pork butt, get some water to near boiling.
Then pour this water into your cooler and close the lid for 10 minutes.
The point of doing this is to pre-heat the cooler and to minimize the wicking of the heat from the meat.
Once you’re ready to rest your meat, dump the water.
If you want to monitor internal temperature, now would be the time to probe the meat.
The point of the towels are to function as insulation.
Take 1 towel and place it inside the cooler to line the bottom.
Place your wrapped meat on top of this towel.
Take another towel and then cover the wrapped meat.
Close the lid.
Due to food safety, the goal here is to keep the internal temperature of the meat above 140F at all times.
Typically this setup will result in you being able to hot hold your BBQ above 140F for 6+ hours.
Meaning the internal temperature will go from ~200F to ~140F in 6 hours.
Some coolers are better than others though. I’ve always used Coleman and ~6 hours is about average.
My Brother uses a Yeti and has said he can do 10+ no problem.