Smoking butt in the Danger Zone (eventual burnt ends)

GoooDawgs

Morning everyone,

I'm preparing a large pork butt for burnt ends, and while I was ramping up the flameboss last night I forgot to do the final bump from 200 to 225 (timing the cook out to be slightly longer so I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night.

As you can see on my graph, the FB200 held rock solid at 200 degrees, but I'm a little concerned that the butt took nearly 7 hours to hit 140 degrees IT.  

I'll be taking this to 170, then cubing and putting them back on for a few hours, so the IT will probably end around 200.

If it was just me I wouldn't be concerned, but cooking for groups I wanted to get your thoughts on the length of time the butt was below 140. (end of the orange line is 140 IT)

GoooDawgs

@gdenby as I seem to remember he's one of the food safety experts...

SmokeyPitt

My understanding is the danger zone refers to the ambient temperature, not the IT.  So, as long as the egg temp is above 140 you are out of the danger zone.  Nothing at all to worry about IMO.

Theophan

SmokeyPitt said:

My understanding is the danger zone refers to the ambient temperature, not the IT.  So, as long as the egg temp is above 140 you are out of the danger zone.  Nothing at all to worry about IMO.

Sorry: the danger in the danger zone is that bacteria are growing, so the crucial issue is whether bacteria are growing in the food, not how hot the Egg is.  It's how long the food itself is in a temperature zone that bacteria are rapidly multiplying in that matters.

The good news is that so long as you didn't inject the butt, or do blade tenderizing or anything else that would bring bacteria from the outside of the meat into the interior, the bacteria on the outside of the butt should have taken very much less time to get hotter than 140 than the interior, which is  what you were measuring.  And the interior should have been relatively unlikely to have bacteria growing in it.

If the supplier blade tenderized it (they don't always say so, but I'd guess pork butt isn't a cut they'd probably do that to), or if you Jaccarded it, or if you injected it, any of those things would bring bacteria into the interior, which I'm afraid would make me more nervous.

I gotta say, though, I really can't believe that there's a benefit to smoking at 200° compared to 250° -- the end result should be every bit as good -- and there's less reason to worry about this issue.  250° is the lowest I go.

GoooDawgs

I did inject this one...  and I agree with the 250 is just as good, but just timing made me want to do 225, but forgot to do the final bump up.

Is this a throw away and I need to turbo the next one?

lousubcap

@GoooDawgs - no food safety expert here but I would say that you are fine with finishing out the cook.  Had you not been running with all that hi-tech gear you wouldn't have any idea of the temperature and time in the "danger zone".  The issue you have is the knowledge-
With today's inspections and food safety I would go for it but if you are in doubt then save for your self.  

RedSkip

You also have hours for the meat to be above 160F which is the temperature required to instantly kill bacteria.  IMO you're fine.

GoooDawgs

Thanks guys, I think I'm going to let it ride.  Just overly cautious when making food for others, but I'm sure these temps probably happened without me knowing it before I had the flameboss.