Pork Butt "Emergency!

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jburch3

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I'm smoking a pork butt on my big green egg as we speak. Put it on at 3:30 am set at around 250 or so. Checked back frequently until about 4:30 to make sure temp was holding. Went back to sleep and eventually checked it at 9am. Temp had gone down during the rest of the night to about 140 or 150. I just opened up the Egg, mopped the butt really well, and got the heat back up to 300.

Is this thing safe?
 
I am no expert in this area. That said, if it were me I would feel fine about it once it got back up to temp. Just make sure the internal temp. is correct for any bacteria, if any, to be killed.
 
Checked the meat temp, after bringing the heat back up, around 9:45, and I got a reading of 140.

I'm thinking that its fine. It dropped during the night/early morning from 4:30 am to 9am. At 9am, the temp was around 135 or so, which means that was its lowest point for a period of no more than 4.5 hours (probably just an hour or so, considering that it had to have dropped slowly).
 
...I would toss it. Sorry..prob. not what you wanna hear.like someone said in a similar thread $20 butt aint worth 3 days on the pooper.
 
My best guess is that it will be fine. As long as you get the smoker back up to temp, any bacteria and such will cook off as the meat temp rise and it should be good to eat. If it was in the range of 140-150 as you report, that is well outside the range for many bacteria to grow. A lot of bacteria thrive in the 60-105F range.
 
garzanium said:
$20 butt aint worth 3 days on the pooper......
Click to expand...


Or a $5000 casket......

I'd toss. This is the reason why I stay up for long cooks. You should always check temp at least every two hours. You went almost 4 hours with no temp check. Big no no unless you are running a temp controller. And even those shouldn't be considered 100% reliable.

Not trying to bash or anything. Just the cold hard truth..
 
garzanium said:
...I would toss it. Sorry..prob. not what you wanna hear.like someone said in a similar thread $20 butt aint worth 3 days on the pooper.
Click to expand...

Garzanium--It is if I cooked it! Just kidding! Thanks for your feedback. You're right, not what I wanted to hear, but I understand why I should be cautious. That said, I've still got at least another 7 or 8 hours left in the cook. If I keep it at 275-300, will I not kill off any bacteria that may have been there?
 
This is what I was afraid of. A split decision. I talked to my bro in law, who is a chef at a high end steakhouse, and he says I'll be fine considering the small window of the time for the meat to have sat at the less than ideal temp. He also said that trichinosis isn't really a major concern in the US anymore when it comes to pork.

I'm very paranoid. And I've got another butt in my fridge that I could throw on. But I'm still wanting this one to be salvageable.
 
jburch3 said:
Garzanium--It is if I cooked it! Just kidding! Thanks for your feedback. You're right, not what I wanted to hear, but I understand why I should be cautious. That said, I've still got at least another 7 or 8 hours left in the cook. If I keep it at 275-300, will I not kill off any bacteria that may have been there?
Click to expand...

I forget where I read it and I'd try to find the article if I wasn't on my phone but I read that the USDA advises against eating any kind of meat that was partially cooked under minimum internal temp, was interrupted to the point that it stopped cooking or even cooled, and then brought to a "cooked" point above minimum IT. They also mentioned that any slow cooked meat products should be brought to a temp of 145 IT within 2 hours of placing on the pit. This attributes to why the USDA recommends a minimum cooker temp of 250*.

Does it mean that you will get sick if you finish it and eat it? Not likely but why risk it.

I'll try to find the article but for now its information to consider..
 
If you're cooking it to around 200* internal, I don't see how many bacteria could survive that :confused: On a side note, that's why I don't cook at night while I'm asleep-ruining the meat would be the least of my worries, I'd be afraid a big dog or something would knock my smoker over trying to get the meat and burn my house down.
 
You'll be fine!! One suggestion though: Order a Maverick ET-732 and you'll never have to worry about it again! Cheers!!!
 
my guess is the meat spent less than 4 hours in the danger zone. I'd eat it, but I'm a gambler.

The bigger question is why on earth did your super expensive egg crash and burn (or not burn)? I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how a ceramic cooker could fail like that.
 
I probably had the daisy wheel set wrong to begin with. It was probably my fault. This has never happened before.
 
I am one of those people that believes, when it doubt - throw it out.

I say trash it. Not worth the pain if it went bad. Chances are it didn't though.
 
I'm going to took the other one I have in the fridge once this one is done. I want to have one that I know for sure is 100% safe to serve to others. As for the one I'm cooking now, I'm not going to throw it out. I'm going to eat some myself and see what happens (I'm a gambler as well). If I don't get sick, then I've got another roast I can eat during the week. If I do get sick, then.....well.....I haven't thought about that.
 
I think you should eat it so the rest of us can start a pool, or take bets on weather or not you end up sick. :wink:

of coarse, if your that much of a worry wart, you could make yourself sick just because you think it might be bad. Psychosomatic like.

Ether way, Try to enjoy
 
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