Fire went out during night cook of brisket

It's salvageable unless you left the lid open for the birds to get at it, light that fire and get going.

you are fine. Done it many times over the years. fire it up and go.

Egginole, that is a shot to the pills! Any idea what may have gone wrong?

TexanOfTheNorth said:

Little Steven said:

The external temp matters more than the internal. You have a minimum of four hours less than 140* surface temp

Minimum? Did you mean maximum?

no- minimum. You can go many hours past that in most situations. 4 hours is the safest of the safe meant for commercial kitchens that have a lot of contamination and serve the public. Your egg is sterile and really has no chance of contaminating your food for many, many hours.

@Little_Steven, thanks for the clarification!

Agreed, fire it back up and enjoy it tonight.

Egginole,

For future reference, check the gov's Food Safety site. The info is intended for food service, so as to rule out any chance of sickness. Quite strict.

Also, check out an online pathogen modelling site. While most of the projections assume there is contamination, on can check for the predicted growth of various nasties at different temps, pH, salinity, etc.

Little Steven made some very good points about how the salt and smoke keep the food from being contaminated. That surely adds some to the safety interval, although I haven't found any definite info on that.

Also do searches on "Nathan Myhrvold food safety." He made a lot of statements around the time the mega-book "Modernist Cuisine," came out. The book spends about 60 pages discussing food safety. One of the crucial points is that keeping the food safe is both a matter of temperature and time. While the food guidelines always say anything under 140F is a hazard, that is a simplification. If you hold something contaminated w. salmonella, for instance, at 126 for 5 hours, it will be pasteurized. Many cooking environments are not so stable, so 140F is safer because the time to clean is just a few minutes. At 185, everything dies almost instantaneously.

I'd suggest reading up on the matter. I suppose you will become more confident estimating safety issues w. more info.

And as one last thing, sometime ago this issue had come up for the n-th time, and the thread ended around where the question of how food could become contaminated in a cooled Egg. What I subsequently found was that there is a very small chance that animal fecal dust will carry pathogens in the winter, when the cold, damp air, and low light levels do not sterilize the stuff as happens in the summer. Depending on where you were, there may have been a very small chance the brisket became contaminated. Still not likely there would have been a hazardous level of growth.

Awesome Cen-Tex, thanks. Sounds similar to my set up, but I've been trying to stuff everything as high in the dome as I can. It's rarely easy and sometimes impossible (haha)!

Thanks again, I feel like I've learned a ton from you guys on this site, and CT you're my brisket guru.

Cheers -
B_B

Little Steven said:

He's my hero too!

as it should be.

You guys need to "Get a room!"

If only we were closer ;;)

Black_Badger said:

Hey Cen-Tex, where do you put your grid? I've been trying to cook everything elevated ever since getting the CGS rig, but I'm curious if that throws off my dome/grid temp estimates.

Cheers -
B_B

In my XL, I often cook on two tiers (upper tier about 4 1/2"-5" higher) and I usually find the upper grid temps 10-15 degrees hotter than the lower grid (at the felt level).  When I cook briskets on both grids I'll put the largest (usually 2-3 lbs heavier) on the top and it isn't uncommon for the larger one to finish first due to the higher heat.

How's the restarted brisket progressing @Egginole?

Egginole said:

Woke up to cold egg, brisket 90 degree internal temp... is this salvageable? Or did I just create my first story about "The first brisket I cooked on the egg, really didn't cook." What a kick to the groin.

What a bummer... I've worried about my fire going out on an over night cook but, it has never happened... Yet. Go to nekkidwhiz.com and look for an article regarding cooking butts. The guy that wrote that article went into depth about how to fill your fire box with lump to get the best ventilation and lots of cooking time on long, long cooks. If done right you can get up to 24 hours of cooking time without adding lump. When I cooked my last butts I followed his instructions and cooked for 16 hours and still had 25% of my lump left for future use. Just a suggestion. Happy Egging!

wilsonhp said:

"Your egg is sterile and really has no chance of contaminating your food for many, many hours."

If there is air flow going thru the egg, it is NOT a sterile environment. Outdoors there is mold, bacteria, etc., in the air.

Adhere to safe food handling times and temperatures.

good point. I still say it's ok to relight and finish the cook, but good point.