smoke at low temp?

[rod g15]

So I forgot to let the appetizers, bacon wrapped meatballs, chicken, and little smokies get to room temp before I put them in the smoker so now it's struggling to get back to 225 degrees. I put the wood chips in anyway. Will putting the smoke to them when the smoker temp is in the low 100's hurt anything?

 

[seenred]

The smoke shouldn't hurt anything, but...are the meatballs and/or the chicken raw?  If either is, that smoker temp needs to come up soon, you don't want to breed bacteria in that raw meat.  You didn't say what kind of smoker you're using, can you raise the temperature to compensate for all that cold meat to help you get it back to your intended cooking temp? 

BTW, for raw chicken, I would suggest you consider cooking it hotter than 225*.  I usually cook poultry at about 275* and it does just fine.  At 225*, it might take it too long to get out of the "danger zone" temp (40*-140* in less than 4 hours).

Good luck!  Be sure to let us know how it turns out...

Red

 

[rod g15]

Ya, the meatballs and chicken were raw. I checked the internal temp at 4 hrs. Had 200*, got hotter than I thought. Turned out pretty good, but I learned something. I have a LEM, aka sausage maker, 700 watt electric smoker. She was asking for full power the whole 4 hrs. Guess I figured with it plump full of cold meat it just took forever to get hot. About 50* out today and a little wind.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[s2k9k]

I always go straight from fridge to smoker. Sitting on the counter at 70* is just breeding bacteria. I would rather have the surface exposed to over 200* than sitting around at 70*. Some people think letting it come to room temp decreases the smoking time but if you add the sitting time then it really takes longer.

 

[rod g15]

Ya, that makes sense. I use a digital smoker controller on my electric smoker and I noticed the end of the temp probe was discolored like maybe it has some creosote build-up on it. So maybe I was getting a false reading. Will clean it and try again. 

Thanks