Low and Slow Questions

The Cen-Tex Smoker

you don't need to rest something that's been cooked to 200.  only reason i let it rest is to give it time to cool a bit to the touch.

at mountaindewbass... if your fire went out at three, the meat still wouldn't be useless.  but that's another discussion.

light the thing, get it stable. toss the food on at 11 or 12.  if you are really paranoid, get up at 4.  even if it went out the instant you'd turned your back, the meat would still be fine.  check on it at 4.  back to bed.  up at 7 or 8.  check again.

never more than four hours unattended. 

I don't always let mine rest but when i do, they are always better. The longer the rest, the better for me. I have pulled many off the pit and served them though and I didn't get any complaints!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

"One of the things no one has any information about is how a piece of solid meat that has surely been in 250F temperature for several hours could become contaminated while sitting in an Egg."

i have asked this a million times, and all the experts shy away. have been asking it for a while now.

there is a massive difference (huge) between that PP sitting in your egg four hours after the fire died, and the same exact same hunk of PP sitting in a buffet line for four hours.

No doubt. I've done several when I was learning where the fire went completely out. Not only was the meat fine, it was delicious. Food CAN BEGIN to get food-bourne organisms after 4 hours under 140 degrees. By bringing it back to above 140 and finishing your cook to 200, you have zero risk of food bourne illness. This would not qualify for restaurant food safety guidelines (I owned a restaurant for a few years- do not do this if you value your happiness)  but it is 100% safe. No unsafe organism can live above 140 and meat will last days in an egg without actually spoiling. A few hours below 140 isn't going to hurt anything. Light 'er up again, finish it off,  and tell everyone to come a few hours later for dinner (or buy more beer)

TxAg93

And it's DONE! Pictures to follow. Just waiting on the wife to get home to eat. Pulled at 190. Now wrapped, covered and resting.

TxAg93

Republic of Palau in Micronesia, Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Philippines.

tazcrash

OK, now we need to know how it came out

TxAg93

TxAg93

TxAg93

The finished product

The Cen-Tex Smoker

The finished product

Looks awesome. 2 temp probes?

TxAg93

Yeah one was for the maverick but I just wanted to take a different reading at a different angle and depth. Paranoid I guess but I just wanted to make sure.

Gato

@TxAg93
That looks great, especially as I remember you saying this is your first. Very nice..

tazcrash

Agreed. My wife thinks I'm nuts because I keep showing her food porn.

TxAg93

Thanks for the kind words. It tasted awesome. Fork tender and still moist.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Thanks for the kind words. It tasted awesome. Fork tender and still moist.

Sweet! Great work. keep it up.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Yeah one was for the maverick but I just wanted to take a different reading at a different angle and depth. Paranoid I guess but I just wanted to make sure.

Cool deal. Better to be safe but you'll get more comfortable as you do more cooks. The best way to do it is gather all the info that you are comfortable with and start to figure it all out how it works for you. You are on the right track! Looks awesome and I'm sure it tasted great.

njl

Definitely, for a low and slow, clean out and repack your lump.  For a recent one I did, I thought I had a pretty good amount in there left over from last time I'd done steaks and just sort of topped it off.  After a 6 hour cook, the meat came off and I opened things up to let it heat up and clean the grill, and was shocked to find I was more or less out of fuel and the fire was dying.  Next time, I cleaned and reloaded it, and after the same sort of 6hr cook, I still had probably 2/3 or more of my fuel left unburned.

TxAg93

By popular demand, I'm doing another brisket for Easter lunch. Thanks again for all the useful information.