My butt just fell down!

dsmith

Okay, 'tis 6AM here and I am attempting my first overnight smoke. I put my butt on around 11pm and went to bed at 1AM after making sure my temp was steady. I had it steady at about 225F for about 30 minutes before hittin' my pillow. When I awoke, my dome temp was around 100F. I simply opened my vents and now have my temp back up.

Any thoughts on how to make sure your dome temp remains stable overnight?

Now, do I still need to cook in the low 200's or do I need to bump up my temp to make sure it gets done later this afternoon?

Thanks,

EDIT: the meat temp was 106F when at 6AM. A couple have posted replies saying I might need to throw the meat out...I'm not sure if this info sways opinion one way or the other.

TheDirtyBurger

What is the internal temp of the meat?

dsmith

Haha...well, that's the kicker. I just ordered my temp probes from thermoworks yesterday. I guess I could open my dome and check...hold on a sec...


....back....

looks like about 106F with my temperature fork which is usualy pretty good.

icemncmth

How long did you sleep because I would throw the meat out..

Not worth getting everyone sick.

As for long cooks over night I seem to be out of the norm on this. I usually buy large chunks of meat around 9 lbs. If I am going to cook a pork butt I start them around 5pm the night before. Figuring it will take around 18+ hours this gives me a pretty large window to make sure the meat is done. That way when I go to bed the egg has been running for hours and the chance of it going out is min. Once the meat is done I wrap in foil and put in a cooler with lots of towels and it will stay hot for a very long time.

Now there is a trick that I do if I want pulled pork quickly. I will take that 9lb hunk and cut it down to fist size chunks. I will put that on the egg and make sure there is space between the meat. I can have great pulled pork in a very short time.

One benefit of doing this is more bark!!!!!

The last time I had a fire go out and I was having people over for lunch I did this trick and I had pulled pork ready in less than 3 hours.

TheDirtyBurger

You figure he didn't check the temp for 5 hours. I doubt it died in an hour which leaves us 4 hours of safety, which most of us on here consider the max time to let a butt sit foiled in a cooler. BUT the pork was in the danger zone for the type, at least we assume.

It is your call. If it was me I would not serve it to people but I would eat it myself.

dsmith

icemncmth wrote:

How long did you sleep because I would throw the meat out..

Not worth getting everyone sick.

As for long cooks over night I seem to be out of the norm on this. I usually buy large chunks of meat around 9 lbs. If I am going to cook a pork butt I start them around 5pm the night before. Figuring it will take around 18+ hours this gives me a pretty large window to make sure the meat is done. That way when I go to bed the egg has been running for hours and the chance of it going out is min. Once the meat is done I wrap in foil and put in a cooler with lots of towels and it will stay hot for a very long time.

Now there is a trick that I do if I want pulled pork quickly. I will take that 9lb hunk and cut it down to fist size chunks. I will put that on the egg and make sure there is space between the meat. I can have great pulled pork in a very short time.

One benefit of doing this is more bark!!!!!

The last time I had a fire go out and I was having people over for lunch I did this trick and I had pulled pork ready in less than 3 hours.

Hmmm...My fire did not go all the way out for as soon as I opened my vents smoke started billowing everywhere and I was back up to temp in no time flat. My meat temp was about 106F. Also, it is about 20F outside right now. The meat was only unattended for about 5 hours and the temp seemed stable when I went to bed, so I don't think the dome temp was below 200 for more than a few hours I would think.

TheDirtyBurger

I guess to answer your original question I would offer these tips

Calibrate your Thermometer
Totally clean your egg out
Stack your lump properly (big pieces on bottom, smaller on top
Make sure your temp is stable for about an hour before you put the butts on
Check the egg at least every 4 hours.

Also check out this link for more/better tips
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=1018510&catid=1

dsmith

Ok, thx. I just edited my main post...the meat temp was 106F at 6AM and the fire stoked right back up after I opened the vents. Does this sway opinion on whether or not I need to bag this meat?

TheDirtyBurger

are you serving it to other people?

dsmith

Wife and 3 kids (8,7 and 2)

Pjoe

Ultimately your call but I had the same thing happen a few weeks ago with basically the same times and temps. I brought the temp back up, cooked to 200 internal and no one has died yet. I don't think that is long enough for any nasties to grow unless your meat was about to go bad before you put it on. And a question for those that know a lot more than me about this stuff - if a few bugs started to sprout would the 200* internal not kill them?

Bill

Jupiter Jim

dsmith,
I think the meat is ok, the bad stuff would be on the exterior of the butt and not in the center. The temp was good at 1am and you found it at 6 am thats five hours. I dont think it was in the danger zone all 5 hours as it took some time for the tem to drop. If you bring it up to 250 dome temp I think you will be OK. I always do butts at 250 dome and I dont understand wy some try to keep them at 200 to 225. I'm in no way an expert but 250 works for me and only one time has my fire started to go out, when I checked it at 3am it was 190 dome temp gave it a wiggle with the wiggle stick and back to 250 it was. Hope I have helped and may all your cooks be good.
Jupiter Jim

Jupiter Jim

The bugs would only be on the exterior and all meat is safe at 200. so I say yes the bugs are dead at 200.
Jupiter Jim

Carolina Q

Is this a bone IN or a boneless butt? If bone-in, you are concerned about the external temp of the meat being between 40-140° for more than 4 hours. If a boneless butt, it's the internal meat temp that is of concern, because the butcher's knife exposed the butt's innards to bacteria. At least that's the way I understand it.

For future cooks, stabilize the dome at 250°. At 225 dome, the grid temp is only 200 or so and it takes forever to cook to 195 meat temp. Also, 225 is much harder for the egg to maintain without a temp controller (Guru, Stoker). But then, you have already discovered that!

Jupiter Jim

Michael, Thanks I did not think about the butchers knife and it sure could have had some buggs on it.
Jupiter Jim

ResQue

Next time make sure you stabilize the egg for more than thirty minutes and I would cook at 250* dome temp.

Also, maybe I will be one of a few, but I would still eat the pork when it was done. I can't really see it being in the "danger zone" for more than four hours.

Wise One

30 minutes is just not long enough to monitor it at 225. There is a BIG difference at holding it at 225 or less and holding it at 250. I want to hold it steady for about 2 hours before I'm sure I'm set at 220 or so. Of course BBQ Guru can do it without you having to moinitor at all.

Wise One

I might eat it but I wouldn't serve it to others. Chances are there is no danger but those chances diminish with the length of time the meat is left in the 40-140 zone. While I might subject myself to some food poisoning, I definitely would not want to subject others whose digestive system might not be as cast-iron as mine.

stike

"all meat is safe at 200" isn't quite right... cooking "bad" meat to 200 solves nothing.

bacteria AND their toxins are what you care about. kill the bacteria/ fine. but what about their toxins? if you had meat that was dangerous, then the toxins would remain after killing the bacteria.

we kill the bacteria so they won't infect us, but we also want to make sure we kill them early enough that their toxin hasn't built up on the meat.

that said, we need to keep our heads. risk of illness is pretty low. this isn't like the much more dangerous dreaded 'green leafy vegetable', which is far more likely to make us sick than beef or pork. especially pork. ..and that's the truth, people. get it thru yer heads, dammit :laugh:

his meat was in an environment of 225 for at least a few hours. bacteria on the surface are killed off. being a bone-in chunk of meat, the bacteria we are worried about (fecal bacteria, which may/might/could get there during slaughter) would be on the exterior.

therefore a rhetorical question: where would the bacteria have come from to make his meat unsafe, if his meat were made safe in the first few hours?

i would eat it, but we all know that i have far fewer hangups about this stuff than most :laugh:

SmokeyPitt

Here is a web site that describes the "danger zone".

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/how_temperatures_affect_food/index.asp

It's your call. My personal opinion is there is a good chance your meat was in the danger zone for more than a couple of hours so if it were me I would throw it out. You could always run out to the store and get another butt and cut it up for a fast cook.

Lots of good tips so far for maintaining the fire overnight. A few more suggestions:
-use a wiggle rod to clear the ash before going to bed.
-a guru is great, but if you don't want to spend the money a remote smoker thermometer like a maverick is great. You can set high and low alarms on the smoker temp so it would tell you if your fire is dying.
-set an "regular" alarm to check on it at least once in the nigh

stike

internal temp is not the issue on a bone-in chunk of meat.

i know i'll get vilified for saying it, but i'm gonna keep saying it til the tide turns. :laugh:

Carolina Q

I didn't see any mention of whether it was bone-in or boneless.

stike

answers the same.... just he'll have to apply it differently depending, won't he? :laugh:

"self sufficiency" is the watchword, people

jurisdoc

I would invest in a Maverick ET-73 (or the new ET-732). I am in the process of cooking a brisket, and I've kept the food level temp at 215 to 235 (and mostly right at 225) for over 12 hours now. I set my warnings at 215 and 235 and it woke me up twice, once when it got low and once when it got high. Otherwise, I slept like a baby knowing my hunk o' meat was cooking properly.

Wise One

Totally agree. I'm just not sure what the external temp was. Sound sto me that it was probably in the 140 range for at least a few hours.

Florida Grillin Girl

I agree with the 250 dome temperature, the egg just seems to stay there much easier than at 225.

Next time you might want to do what I do - I cook my low and slows from very early in the AM to late at night and just check the dome temp throughout the day as I do my other house junk, run to the store, etc. No guru for me and I've been doing it this way for years.

boston_stoker

I agree with Dirty.

Meat's danger zone for bacteria is between 40 F and 140 F. Food safety rules say that any meat that has been in the danger zone for more than 4 hours should not be consumed. When meat is between 100 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit bacteria counts double every 20 to 30 minutes, so this zone is extra sensitive. Also whole cuts of meat like a bone in butt are safer that cut up pieces ( boneless butt ) because the majority of the bacteria tends to only be on surface. Ground meat is the worst safety wise because the bacteria rich surface of the meat is mixed throughout the meat, which means the bacteria are well mixed throughout the meat.

TheDirtyBurger

I had a feeling this would get a response out of you! All we need is Celtic Wolf to come out of hibernation and we are good to go. The meat safety discussion should just be an ongoing sticky at the top of every bbq related forum. Imagine the fun :woohoo:
Great post though bross, thanks for the input.

Bobby-Q

Would you take your family to a restaurant that had a failing health score of 60 or less? If you would, enjoy that pork. If not then I'd throw it out and shoot for cooking again another day.

Jupiter Jim

Thanks stike,
Thats what I was trying to say, you just do a much better job.
Jupiter Jim

stike

flattery will get you nuthin, my friend