Raw Meat Safe Temperatures

Brother trim, I'm not one to give recommendations on safety as I do not follow set guidelines. However I can tell you that the meat from SRF will arrive frozen or partially frozen and well preserved. They do a outstanding job on their packing. I have always had stellar results with them. The meat will be packed in a heavy wall styrofoam container and well packed. For the record, current set guidelines for beef is 40F or below. However you have to take (time/at conditions) into consideration. All that said, if it looks and smells good then cook it. If it doesn't return it. From dealing with them in the past and knowing the care that they take in packing, I feel that it will arrive perfectly fine my friend.

@thetrim-I recently had a two brisket SRF shipment arrive with their new ground shipping arrangement.  No delays but you likely have tracked it from origin to destination.  When it (they) got here the dry ice was beyond life support but the briskets were solid as a rock.  Took a few days to fully thaw one (since inhaled) and the other will surface around the Xmas holidays.  FWIW-

When the two briskets from SRF arrived here there was zero dry ice left but the briskets was still frozen rock solid.

What was the actual product temp? @thetrim‌

@shtgunal3‌ Ooops did I refrigeration techy geek out :-B ...my bad.

@shtgunal3‌ okay cool I'm gonna get back to playing with my Star Wars action figures while I figure out my next move on this D&D game. And right after I'm gonna play my War board game. :-B

@theyolksonyou‌ Those are mine from '78 )

@NPHuskerFL‌ I have two boys who watch the cartoons. We've watched all six episodes multiple times together and they have lots of Lego sets. If we had my original action figures...it'd be on like donkey kong!

nolaegghead said:

Didn't read all the chatter but if you're a stickler for technical guidelines, a SURFACE temp below 40F all round the meat.  Me?  I'd ignore temp and use my nose.

The types of bacteria that cause illness don't affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food. The smell test doesn't work.

jtcBoynton said:

nolaegghead said:

Didn't read all the chatter but if you're a stickler for technical guidelines, a SURFACE temp below 40F all round the meat.  Me?  I'd ignore temp and use my nose.

The types of bacteria that cause illness don't affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food. The smell test doesn't work.

Correct, I'm smelling it for taste.

I made a few assumptions here, most people order brisket from SRF and they plan on overcooking that brisket by smoking to a temperature above 160F.

As identified by the CDC, the vast majority of food poising comes from these eight pathogens:

Salmonella
Clostridium perfringens
Campylobacter
Staphylococcus aureus
E. coli O157:H7
Listeria monocytogenes
Norovirus
Toxoplasma gondii

They are all killed and there are no significant virulent toxins remaining after food is cooked above 160F, especially for a long period of time.   Where you do have toxins that survive cooking, you're unlikely to find them in this situation.  The most common pathogen with a heat resistant toxin is Clostridium botulinum.  However, seeing this in frozen meat from SRF is highly unlikely as this is a bacterium that only grows in anaerobic conditions.   Also, the toxin is rendered inert cooking above 185F.   Assuming most people cook their brisket above that temperature I don't see it as a problem.

So I smell for taste.  People have been eating meat for at least 6000 years (wink) and we have learned to cook it and evolved to survive the most common pathogens when eaten raw with no more than a bout of diarrhea.  Many markets around the world have butchered animals hanging in the sun.  People use the smell test, cook the piss out of it, and they don't get sick.

But you are right, the smell test does not work.

That sucks buttocks.  When I end up with something ripe, I feed it to the neighbors dogs.  They're scavengers I think, the dogs I mean, not the neighbors.  Evolved to be immune to most of the bacteria in rotten meat.  At least I hope so for my neighbor's sake (lest they have explosive diarrhea).

thetrim said:

It actually came in late this evening.  The $60 cowboy ribeye was a nice 59 degrees in the smack dead center if its thick 2"

I would eat it

Yup @NPHuskerFL‌ I got that case too. I was pretty psyched that christmas!