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Thermapen cleaning

So I just got my new thermapen which is incredibly awesome. My question is if people grill with Clorox wipes right next to the egg? Is that what most people use or what? I don't want to contaminate done chicken with un-done chicken. Thanks.

Comments

  • Mickey
    Mickey Posts: 19,669
    Not sure, never cleaned it unless you count wiping off on shorts.
    Salado TX & 30A  FL: Egg Family: 3 Large and a very well used Mini, added a Mini Max when they came out (I'm good for now). Plus a couple Pit Boss Pellet Smokers.   

  • rholt
    rholt Posts: 392
    What about your undercooked chicken juices?
  • bboulier
    bboulier Posts: 558
    After checking meat or poultry that is still in the hazard zone, I wash it inside with soap and water.

    Pork's USDA temperature minimum is 145 degrees. I was brought up on well done pork, so I cook to 170 on pork roasts.  But, you could probably omit washing the probe once you get above 145.
    Weber Kettle, Weber Genesis Silver B, Medium Egg, KJ Classic (Black)
  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
    Wouldn't just sticking it back into the meat at a safer higher temp be ok?  i.e. any microbes on it that would be killed at the done temp are killed when you find the meat is done?  I've never really considered it...but stuck it into steaks the other night that were only 105F the first time, but eventually read around 130F.
  • rholt
    rholt Posts: 392
    I too have wondered about reinserting in cooked places later on. It could also go both ways I guess where it would put salmonella juice in an otherwise good piece of meat?
  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
    I'm with Mickey, I just wipe it off, sometimes my shorts, sometimes a paper towel. After a cook I always give it a quick wipe with soap and rinse it off. 
    The other thing is to not complete close it, the clip for the probe tip can be contaminated. 
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • MaskedMarvel
    MaskedMarvel Posts: 3,136
    edited January 2013
    I homebrew, so I always have a spray bottle of StarSan around.  It sanitizes anything in about seven seconds and is foodsafe/no rinse/doesn't bleach your clothes.  It also can be reused and keeps forever, so a jug goes a long way.

    About $15 for a bottle that makes many many gallons at your LHBS..



    Try the discount code "EGG" when you buy it - you never know...
    Large BGE and Medium BGE
    36" Blackstone - Greensboro!


  • Just lick it off


    _______________________________________________

    XLBGE 
  • Just rinse in between temp checks, and yes a clorox wipe after final temp check per instructions on thermapen.

    GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!!

  • yzzi
    yzzi Posts: 1,843
    I keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol around to clean probes and boning knives.
    Dunedin, FL
  • Chubbs
    Chubbs Posts: 6,929

    I have never thought about it, I just run it under the water and wipe it off. Save the anxiety for something else.

    Columbia, SC --- LBGE 2011 -- MINI BGE 2013
  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414
    I leave it open and wash off(soap and water) any solids, then wipe it with a lysol wipe. I let this sit for a minute or two and then wash it again. I let it sit until I start clean-up because I use the lysol wipe anyway to wipe down my counter tops.
  • mwraulst
    mwraulst Posts: 131
    i clean with the alcohol wipes for hand sanitizing. I don't think bleach is the best alternative. also brew beer and essentially that fancy sanitizer is oxyclean. Look at the active ingredients on the back of both products. buy some powered oxyclean (regular version) mix a little with water and you can safely clean anything food grade.
  • SmokeyPitt
    SmokeyPitt Posts: 10,490
    My egg is outside just steps away from my kitchen sink, so I always take it in and wash it if I probe meat that has not yet reached a safe temperature.  


    Which came first the chicken or the egg?  I egged the chicken and then I ate his leg. 

  • Griffin
    Griffin Posts: 8,200

    I just stick it in my bourbon and stir it around a couple of times.

    (obviously I'm kidding. Or maybe that's not so obvious)

    Rowlett, Texas

    Griffin's Grub or you can find me on Facebook

    The Supreme Potentate, Sovereign Commander and Sultan of Wings

     

  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414
    Griffin said:

    I just stick it in my bourbon and stir it around a couple of times.

    (obviously I'm kidding. Or maybe that's not so obvious)

    You should probably go with a high-proof bourbon, like George T Stagg or Booker.

    Although, I don't think I would denigrate those with chicken drippings 
    ;)
  • Griffin
    Griffin Posts: 8,200
    Wild Turkey 101 is plenty strong enough to kill off some wimpy salmonella. :))

    Rowlett, Texas

    Griffin's Grub or you can find me on Facebook

    The Supreme Potentate, Sovereign Commander and Sultan of Wings

     

  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
    Griffin said:

    I just stick it in my bourbon and stir it around a couple of times.

    (obviously I'm kidding. Or maybe that's not so obvious)

    Sounds like a John Wayne "duster" movie where the sawbones disinfects the Bowie knife he is about to use for chest surgery with a bottle of rot gut....
    Other than leaving some debris in the bourbon, this is a good plan and a great excuse to aways have a full glass on hand. 
    I can hear it now - "Have to top up my drink dear, I'm just going out to check the temperature of the chicken".
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    i just go with the assumption that most of the bad bugs are on the surface of the meat and have already been cooked by the time i slip the thermapen into the safer interior meat. wipe it clean afterwards on my pants and scrape anything stuck on it off at the next cook. maybe its a bad assumption but ive survived this long so far
    :))
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • They only thing I would worry about wiping the thermapen with a clorox wipe right before you use it again is you may get bleach on your food. Probably not a lot though
  • BENTE
    BENTE Posts: 8,337

    i had this same question several years ago and ended up with no answer. then one day i said to my self "self why dont you look at target" so i went to target and in the phermacy they have alcohol swabs for use by diabetics (sp). they are single use end small. they come 100 or 200 to a box. i now have the two hundred count. it think i spen a whole 3 bucks on 200.

    HTH

    happy eggin

    TB

    Anderson S.C.

    "Life is too short to be diplomatic. A man's friends shouldn't mind what he does or says- and those who are not his friends, well, the hell with them. They don't count."

    Tyrus Raymond Cobb

  • Chubbs said:

    ... Save the anxiety for something else.


    I like that, so true.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • mwraulst said:
    i clean with the alcohol wipes for hand sanitizing. I don't think bleach is the best alternative. also brew beer and essentially that fancy sanitizer is oxyclean. Look at the active ingredients on the back of both products. buy some powered oxyclean (regular version) mix a little with water and you can safely clean anything food grade.
    Sanitizer and cleaner are not the same thing.  The active ingredients in Starsan are Dodecylbenzenesulfonic Acid - 300ppm and Phosphoric Acid - 780ppm.  The active ingredients in Oxyclean are  sodium percarbonate (Na2CO3•H2O2), an adduct of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).  Very different stuff.  

    On topic.  I usually just rinse mine off between uses if I think about it and wash it up with soap and water at the end of a cook.  I really don't worry about it too much.
  • rholt
    rholt Posts: 392
    Cool beans. Thanks all. I have a package of those little single use alcohol wipes and I will give them a go. Fingers crossed for a better chicken showing later this week.
  • mwraulst
    mwraulst Posts: 131

    Sanitizer and cleaner are not the same thing.  The active ingredients in Starsan are Dodecylbenzenesulfonic Acid - 300ppm and Phosphoric Acid - 780ppm.  The active ingredients in Oxyclean are  sodium percarbonate (Na2CO3•H2O2), an adduct of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).  Very different stuff.  

    I began brewing santizing with b brite sanitizer nearly 10 years ago, the active ingredient is exactly sodium percabonate. The stuff you speak of is indeed different, it's acid based and mainly used by brewers that have brew rigs with welds that can't be disassembled or commercial outfits. I've never had a batch ruin due to my sanitzer, which i switched to oxyclean 9 years ago after discovering they had the same active ingredient. I also clean all of my tap lines, fermenters, air locks, and pumps with it. 

    not all sanitizers are acidic & not all cleaners are hydrogen peroxide. I'd rather have residue of hydrogen perioxide lining my keg and fermenter than acid anyday.

     

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,102
    Yur supposed to clean the tip?!
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
  • Eggcelsior
    Eggcelsior Posts: 14,414
    mwraulst said:

    Sanitizer and cleaner are not the same thing.  The active ingredients in Starsan are Dodecylbenzenesulfonic Acid - 300ppm and Phosphoric Acid - 780ppm.  The active ingredients in Oxyclean are  sodium percarbonate (Na2CO3•H2O2), an adduct of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).  Very different stuff.  

    I began brewing santizing with b brite sanitizer nearly 10 years ago, the active ingredient is exactly sodium percabonate. The stuff you speak of is indeed different, it's acid based and mainly used by brewers that have brew rigs with welds that can't be disassembled or commercial outfits. I've never had a batch ruin due to my sanitzer, which i switched to oxyclean 9 years ago after discovering they had the same active ingredient. I also clean all of my tap lines, fermenters, air locks, and pumps with it. 

    not all sanitizers are acidic & not all cleaners are hydrogen peroxide. I'd rather have residue of hydrogen perioxide lining my keg and fermenter than acid anyday.

     

    The energy boosting effects of H2O2 are probably safer than vodka and Red Bull anyway.
  • rholt said:
    Cool beans. Thanks all. I have a package of those little single use alcohol wipes and I will give them a go. Fingers crossed for a better chicken showing later this week.

    i take the ones out of the iontophoresis boxes!  sounds like you do the same.

    GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!!