pork safety

Huck · February 2001

Ok, last night I put a shoulder on. I went to bed last night after putting porky to bed at 11:00PM. I woke up at 6:30AM to a 120 degree dome temp and 120 degree meat temp. I cracked the top and bottom open a little and it came right back up to temp. I guess I misguessed my settings. My question is this, it's almost ready but I'm wondering about the safety of eating this meat that sat at that temp for who knows how long. By the way, I had country style pork ribs last night. Lordy, I'm gonna bust the scale!

BBbrew · February 2001

Huck,[p]I would almost hazard to guess that if you heated the pork to 180 degrees before eating, you might be O.K. However, "hazard" is the opperative word here, and since you really dont really know what the temperature was during the middle of the night, you should probably toss it out. [p]Sorry.

ChefRD · February 2001

BBbrew, I would venture to guess its fine, I cooked for years on a Brinkman water smoker, and it always went out on an overnight cook. I'd just start it back up and we never had a problem at all. If the temp of the meat stayed at 120 or above I wouldn't be worried, HOWEVER, this is just my opinion and is based on my experiences. Whenever my overnight cooks on the egg go out (rare now), I just relight and go on. So, if you don't feel comfortable with eating it, don't do it.
But i would
later,
ChefRD[p]

Nature Boy · February 2001

ChefRD,
I'm with you. Maybe wouldn't grind it up for baby food, or serve it to a terminally ill patient, but I would eat it without hesitation. That's just me though!
cheers dude
NB

ChefRD · February 2001

Nature Boy,

ChefRD · February 2001

Nature Boy, thats the way I feel also
later Dude,
ChefRD
(sorry about the previous aborted post)[p]

Big Murth · February 2001

Huck,
A little bit late coming in, but for what it's worth, I did my first butt on Super Bowl Sunday, and as I've reported to the Forum already, I had my own personal disaster...woke up to a cool smoker as well, but did everything but blowtorch it all to temp (I did try to re-fire my Egg with my daughter's blowdryer, and scattered ashes all over my Butt!)---anyway, we got everything up from the low temps to where it needed to be, and the Polder guided us home to a final temp of 195 after some 20 hours. I probably could've avoiding a certain level of drying out, but it came out great for the first effort, and we used a trad. N.Carolina vinegar-based sauce and the "Piedmont" style of finishing sauce as well.
All I can say, is that the rest of the Egg Forum Gang were terrific, as I sent in numerous panic-stricken posts for help, and received more than I expected in assistance from the gang. That ain't dog food, bro. Dig in!!
Big Murth (Steve)

Huck · February 2001

ChefRD,
the pork is awesome! Another one bites the dust. The only ill effect I'm having is a bloated belly. YIKES!

bdavidson · February 2001

Huck,
You know, its that bloated feeling that always preceeds the diarrhea! :-)
bd[p](I'd eat it too!)

JimE · February 2001

Huck,
Based on what you described a health inspector would require
you to toss the meat, the rule of thumb is if the meat remains between 40º and 140º for more than 4 hour is not safe to served to the public.

Huck · February 2001

Jim,
I'm fine, the wife's fine, the dog's fine, we're all fine except for the bulging waistline and faces stuck in the grin position!

BBQfan1 · February 2001

Huck, I'll be doing an overnight cook again tonight (an 8 lb shoulder & 4-5 lb butt) for a family gathering tomorrow. What I do is get it on about same time you did, 6-6:30, and by bedtime you should have a pretty steady, consistent temp. I then set the alarm at 2-3 hour intervals and trot downstairs to check on the temp, hot spots/rotate if necessary. 9 times out of 10, everything is okay, or only slight tweeking necessary. A bit of a pain hauling your keester out of bed, but it's much better than wondering if you've given your friends and family botulism! I mean, the Egg takes a lot of work out barbecuing, but 5 minutes every 3 hours is a small price to pay for peace of mind and great pulled pork!
BBQfan1 (the beer-bellied guy in his underwear out on the back deck at 4 am)

BBbrew · February 2001

Huck,[p]I definitely would say that I am not paranoid about food poisoning, but I could go on and on about what the government expurts say when it comes to food preparation and safety.[p]Anyway, I am glad that everything turned out O.K. The vast majority of times that's how it works out.[p]The only thing that I can say to anyone cooking food overnight, unattended, and at potentially low temperatures, is to be careful about food poisoning. Or at least be aware that your food may have spent time in the danger zone. I am not saying that you or your family is going to get sick. You may have simply broken a food safety rule and have taken a very small but real risk.

JJ · February 2001

BBbrew,
The scariest words known to mankind are:[p]"I'm from the United States Government and I am here to Help".

Cornfed · February 2001

BBQfan1,[p]I'm paranoid and tend to agree with you on spending the short amount of time on checking to make sure. You know what they say about an ounce of prevention...[p]That being said, I don't do overnight cooks at my apartment complex due to apartment rules and neighbors and such, so I don't wish to offend anyone that does them regularly as I'm sure they know more than me. All I'm saying is that for my first personal overnight I'd probably check. Keep in mind that Smokin' Todd does overnights every now and again without checking and I eat that food very happily...I'm just paranoid myself so I'd probably check.[p]The other dimension is that I had a very bad experience at Burger King a few months ago...the last time I'll ever eat at Burger King...which involved me being awake the entire night making trips to a certain room in my apartment every 10 minutes or so and missing a day at work. Since I didn't die, overall you can say I was lucky in that my case was mild. That being said, that experience taught me I never want to have food poisening again and if I have to spend 2 minutes per cook for the rest of my life to prevent it, I'm willing to do so.[p]Cornfed

Huck · February 2001

JJ,
I heard that! When are the Georgians gonna vote Max Cleland OUT of office?!? One more thing, the meat wasn't sitting in the on the counter while it was at these temps, it was in the ceramic. I doubt that there's a single germ alive in that thing with the smoke, temp and all. I'd love to know if there's a difference in food safety between the two environments.

Huck · February 2001

BBQfan1,
That cracks me up! I've got a big nightshirt (bigdog with the cool dogs all over it in clouds) that I wear during the winter, same thing. I could hear the sheriff's call "there's a big fat guy running around outside in a dress!" What code would that be?!? The darn problem comes in the summer when I sleep with nothin' but the clock radio on! I guess I got confident in the setup and thought I'd be ok. One thing that I KNOW is screwing me up is that there's a temperature spike when the wood chunks/chips dry out and burn.

Huck · February 2001

Cornfed,
I think that you could easily do overnights. After a few hours, you can't even tell that the egg is going. Your neighbors wouldn't even be able to tell if you're smokin' or not. They WILL wonder where that wonderful smell is coming from!!! You're missin' out if you're not doing big briskets, pork shoulders, and butts!

JJ · February 2001

Huck,
As a resident of the great State of Alabama I have no idea when Georgia residents will vote Max Clenlandn out of office. As for over night cooks, I have had the fire go out on several occassions and reignited and continued the cook with no adverse affects. What ever the Federal Government says is total bull crap. They hire people that can not get a job in the private sector. Like Federal Judges, Attorneys that could not make it in private practice.

ChefRD · February 2001

Cornfed, I agree with you on cooking any type ground meat. (or hamburger). When you buy ground beef you don't know if the cutter cut up hundreds of pounds of beef from 15 different cows, and what particular pieces he cut up to make 'ground' beef. Thats why people get sick more often from ground beef than other cuts, at least in my opinion. If only one piece of meat, from only one cow part, was bad it could infect all the other meat it was mixed with, right?
So I don't think a comparison to a pork butt, shoulder etc. is valid because you have only one solid piece of meat, not mixed and stirred with other pieces from different animals.
So if there is EColi type stuff on the surface it can cook off quickly even if the inside of the meat is below 160. Since it is only one chunk of meat I feel, (again my opinion), there is little to no risk in continuing a cook of this type. I've never gotten sick yet from home grilling, but I 'have' from commercial establishments and I agree it was a miserable time. :-([p]Just my $.02
ChefRD[p]

Cornfed · February 2001

Huck,[p]I've been kicking myself the past couple of years trying to get the nerve for the overnight cook at my apt complex. The food smells so damn good and tastes so much better. The problem is some of the people I live close to don't see things the same way...[p]I bet I could get away with it when I know some of them are away, though. Until then...or until I get a house...I'm pretty content with long rib cooks and such during daylight hours. Every time I taste some overnight pulled pork, though, I start agreeing with your opinion that I must find a way to "pull" off the overnight pulled pork cook...[p]Have a tremendous weekend! Mine has started off with a nice peaceful Friday after a terribly busy week. Had some more wings with that simple and delicious wing sauce I posted the other day. I'm looking at some simple salmon tomorrow and Sunday's menu is still up for grabs.[p]Cornfed

Cornfed · February 2001

ChefRD,[p]That's an interesting point and one that I never considered. Again, I don't have personal cooking experience with overnight cooks so I'm underqualified other than that I've eated lots of food from overnight cooks performed by others. The way I see it now, buy quality cuts of meat from trusted sources and cook until the "safe" temps and you're good.[p]FYI - I plan on trying your wing grilling method with that simple buffalo wing sauce I posted about the other day. Some nice crispy Q'd wings with some simple authentic homemade wing sauce. I find it hard to imagine a more pleasant thought...[p]Cornfed

pork safety

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