Help: Fire went out

dspillman

Hello all.

I'm cooking a 7 lb brisket and two 7 lb boston butts for father's day. I went to bed at 11:30pm with a dome temp of 225 and the meat at 165. I thought things were stable.
I Woke up at 3:15 am to check and the fire was out and meat at 120/125. I'm restarting the fire.

Is it okay to keep cooking or do I risk some illness due to low temp food for some time (couple of hours)?

thanks!

FatMike

been there and done that...I just fired it right back up...You will be fine. Time it is done you have zapped the bad stuff

FatMike

I have a 9 pound butt on right now. I have a DigiQ controller. I recommend one if you are doing low and slows. At least it lets me sleep at night knowing that everything is going to be just right when I wake from my slumbering mess.

dspillman

I now see this topic is well documented on the forum. Looks like most feel this is a risky zone. It may be $50 worth of meat down the drain....

boston_stoker

The salt in the rub helps fight bacteria on the surface. There have been similar post to your, and often times many eggperts say you should be ok.

For future reference, without a Stoker or DigiQ 225 dome can be hard to maintain. You should aim for 250. Also, @225 dome, the grate is likely at 200. This means you will be challenged to hit your finishing temp of 195 - 205 without a very significant amount of time passing.

tach18k

225 at the dome is too low, minimum is 250 for an all nighter without some fancy fan being used.

Eggscriber

This has happened to me as well, but only at 225. I too gave in and bought the Guru. It had eliminated the anxiety of the overnight cook.

'Q Bruddah

There must be something going on out there in the wild and woolly night. I am doing 4 butts and got up at 4:30 to a "cool" egg. I took my cook apart only to find out that it wasn't out out but just very starved for air. So, I packed it all back in, wiggled he fire grate, opened all the vents and brought it back to life at 250° before damping it down again. Except for the initial wondering if it was out, everything else was just matter of fact. I have benefitted greatly from the forum and a little personal experience. Life is good.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

zbot sure about that. your fire didn't go out instantly, right?

four hours between 40-140 is what is commonly referred to as the guideline. i can't imagine your meat was in that zone for four hours.

internal temp is NOT the issue. there is not fecal bacteria in the meat. maybe on it. they were killed anyway, but technically if that surface is in the danger zone for four hours, you'd be outside the safe zone.

i'd still it eat, but then again, that's me. and everyone here agrees i'm an idiot

dspillman

Since some of these threads end without a conclusion I'll add mine here...

We all ate it (with alcohol, just to be safe) and expect to live through it. Since the meat was at 160+ before I went to bed and the dome was