butt emergency

I think you may be OK, it's hard to say cuz it sounds like your temp was fallling pretty fast when you went to bed (a 55 degree drop in 2.5 hours is a lot). There is no way of knowing how long your egg was at 150, & 140 internal is a faily low temp to leave a lump o' pork for extended periods of time; this scenerio has never happened to me so I will leave the advice on w/n to pitch it to someone else, however, think about a guru for the 20 hours low & slows, takes all the guess work out & you can sleep better, otherwise, don't leave your egg when it's dropping that quickly, stabilize your temp so you have the same temp for that 2.5 hour period before you call it a night, you will then have much less chance of a huge drop like that - good luck Kid - Zippy

Internal meat temp. Evidently that temp range is where the bugs can survive. Once the meat gets over 140° they all get burnt off, and it's out of danger.

By the way, how'd those chili rellenos (sp?) turn out last evening?

If i'm reading this correctly, you shouldn't have been at 140 internal when you went to bed at 12:30 after being on for only 2 hours. So , that means your temp had to rise up to 140, then go back down to 140 in 5 1/2 hours. I would cook em.

best
allen

Your original schedule gave you 20 hours till splashdown which is the perfect amount of time to do your cook - with the set back, you may have lost a little time because now that you are stabilized, it will move towards the plateau fairly fast, but of course it will then spend a considerable period of time there, so you may want to add 10 or so degrees to make up for the difference, if you then come in early, you can always wrap, wrap, & cooler it for a few hours & it'll be great -

fantabulous - did you see the post, it should still be on the first page, they are a definite do-over, although next time I am puttin some meat in them

I think I would just go back to bed. A hell of a start to your day.. :silly:

just to clarify...

internal temp is irrelevant in this case. bacteria are assumed to be present on the OUTSIDE due to contamination during slaughter. there are no bacteria internal to the meat unless it has been de-boned, or the surface has been seriously breached (injecting wouldn't be a big issue).

the dome temp did not drop below 150, and so there was never a condition here where the surface of the meat was between 40-140 (after his fire slowed down). bacteria multiply and produce toxin at 40-140. his dome was 150 or better, and bacteria could not then repopulate the meat and begin multiplying.

another thing to remember is that taking something to 140 or above doesn't un-do anything. if the surface of the meat had been between 40-140 for four hours, and bacteria had produced toxins, taking the meat back over 140 may kill the bacteria, but it leaves the toxin, which is not destroyed.

Try using "Charming"