Overnight Cooking/Safe Meat

Unknown

There are several things a cook can do to get good results with the overnight cooking and never lose a fire or have unsafe meat. [p]The first thing you need to know is what your grid temp is as compared to the dome temp if you are cooking by dome temp. Just because Joe Bob has 30 degrees difference, this sure doesn't mean that you will have the same with all the different cooking setups out there and the load that you are running. Two level cooking will also triple the difference in most cases. The only way to know what YOUR cooker with YOUR setup and load is to chart it on each level to know for sure. This is very easy to do with a couple of probes thru a half potato and you can find out for sure. This is just so very important in cooking safe meat on every cook. An example with my two layer setup is that in the first four hours into the cook, I have 100 degrees difference between the dome and the lower level grid so I know to keep my cook safe, I need to run at least a dome temp of around 340 degrees to keep my lower level in the safe zone at the start of the cook. This difference does get closer but at no time can I run my cooker under about 280 dome degrees to be sure I get safe meat. My 280 dome is only about 225 measured on the lower grid later into a cook. A cooking temp of 225 is lower than the recommended safe temp by the USDA/FSIS as they call for 250-275 for safe meat. [p]The Rule of Four calls for the meat to not be in the unsafe zone for no longer than four hours. The unsafe zone is from 40 degrees to 140 degrees. What many don't understand is that this is the TOTAL time that this meat can be in this zone and remember, this is before and after cooking the meat. The timer starts at the store and this is where you can lose some time if you don't get the meat home and into the fridge. Piddle around the store for 45 minutes before checkout with the meat in your cart and getting home is just 45 minutes off your four hours. Then I read on the forum about letting the meat come to room temp. This again comes off the four hours. The time that you spend trimming and getting the meat ready also comes off the four hours. While there is a lot of safety built into this rule, you really need to understand why it is important to follow safe cooking procedures. [p]I do use good cooking procedures and figure that I need to get the meat into the safe zone in the first three hours into the cook because at the best, I have lost an hour with my prep and handling. This is difficult to do with the big butts but I come close on every cook because I know what dome temp it takes to cook safe meat. [p]Now for the overnight cooking. I would suggest that any cook get his meat into the safe zone before he goes to bed. Even with a big load, and a grid temp of 250 degrees, this will take between 3 and 4 hours. During this early part of the cook, observe the cooker temp very close as the cooker really won't stay at a set temp but will slowly be rising or falling. Maybe only a couple of degrees every 30 minutes but this will happen on every cook assuming that you are adjusting the vents. After the meat is in the safe zone, and you know which direction the cooker temp is going, only go to bed when the temp is slowing rising. The cooker at this time will not go too high for safe meat as it is using up the charcoal and will start falling slowly in a few hours and you can get some sleep without any problems. Do not go to bed with the temp slowing falling as you will wake up with a cool cooker. For a new cook, I would recommend that you set a timer and check the cooker after 4 hours of sleep but after a few cooks, you should be able to get about 6 hours of sleep with any overnighter. [p]Dave

Bobby-Q

Old Dave,
You've got somereally good info in this Dave...thanks for posting it.

AZRP

Old Dave,
Good info, that's the beauty of using a Guru for long cooks. I don't let the meat come to room temp and clip the pit temp probe close to the meat. The Guru doesn't care what the dome temp is and like you said, there can be as much as 100 degree difference between grid and dome temps. -RP

BabyBoomBBQ

Old Dave,[p]Great informative post, thank you. When I started using a BGE last year, I noticed the difference between dome and grid temperature during multi hour cooks. Since the "manual" that came with it didn't mention this, I figured I was doing something wrong. I had not discovered this forum, so I stuck to what I considered safe practice: go by the temperature near the meat. Yep, ignore the manual and, for the most part, the dome temperature. [p]After a few months, I started lurking here and learned about a BBQGuru. I admit I didn't try an overnight cook until I got one. There is just no way I could have gotten a good night's sleep relying on my vent adjustments.