Started my smoke last night around midnight, a 6.5 Boston butt. Woke up randomly at 2 just looked at my thermometer app and everything was fine. Woke up again around 530-600 and saw that my smoker must have shut off. Ran out to check it and it had thrown an error for too much ash in the pot. Cleaned out the fire pot and the pellet bin and got it working again. Overall pork temp dropped from 135ish to 117ish in about an hour and a half. Smoker itself was off for a good 2 hours. Should I toss the meat? Unfortunately it was below 140 the whole time which makes me a little nervous
by thejokersshadow
9 Comments
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Your pork definitely stayed in the 40-140 temp longer than expected and longer than ideal. However assuming you are taking it up to 203 or so for pulling any bacteria should be long dead.
If you want to be extra safe – toss. But IMHO it’s fine.
Ooof. This is why I hate overnight cooks. Bad night of sleep along with the possibility of things going wrong. Always better to cook it the night before and time it so it’s done around bedtime. You can wrap it good and stick it in a well insulated cooler over night, and then stick it in the oven on the lowest setting in the morning to keep it warm until lunchtime.
If it were me I wouldn’t toss it.. You’ll be cooking that thing way past the point where all bacteria will die anyway.
I’d toss this.
It’s not the bacteria that make you sick, but their waste products which do not break down in normal cooking temperatures.
When in doubt…throw it out!
I’ve had this happen to me with briskets. It came out fine.
General guidance iirc is that food should not be in the danger zone for more than four hours. You have less here so it should be fine
I always error on caution, especially when I’m feeding a lot of people… I’ve tossed 6 racks of ribs because the fridge was left open a crack. That sucked.
You’ll be alright at 2 hours. Get a wireless grill thermometer for about $50, they usually have one thermometer for the meat and one for the grill temp.
Make sure it has a low temp alarm, it will alarm when ur grill hits a low temp, like 130°F… really has saved my meat a couple times 😉
I have to toss it. I have immune system dysfunction. That’s drag. BTW I did this myself Friday night. I put a butt on my GMG for an overnighter. I’m not a crutch guy. I came too close to 203 before I pulled and it’s a tad dry. Hell, it’s dry. But I don’t have the 140 issue.