Need some major help

It has been that way, I rewrote what I posted in hopes of making it clearer.

On an intact muscle, one that hasn't had a probe inserted, or injected or ground meat, needs to reach 140º in the outer ½" within 4  hrs or before inserting a probe.

Ground meat needs to be taken to 140º internally within 4 hrs.  Anytime you puncture an intact muscle you go by the ground meat rule.

Originally Posted by bbally  

This would depend on how you handle the large cut and what you consider a large cut.

The "intact muscle" rule for commercial USDA products allows an intact muscle to be cooked to rare using low temp. Provided it has not been punctured.

Unpunctured, intact muscle need only have the outside 0.5 inch pass through 140 degrees within 4 hours. Something easily done at temps of 200 F or more.

Now if you inject it, you have changed the "intact nature" of the meat and should treat it as ground meat or forced meat. This means the inside temp of the meat must pass through 140 within four hours. Usually requiring a temp of at least 275 F or better.

Going under 200 F without intact muscle generally requires that another method of cooking have been used.... Nitrate or Nitrite curing being most common. But lemon and lime juice under a method called ceviche also will do the job, though generally limited to fish.

Most common error that results in hospitalization of people consuming improperly handled intact muscle?

"inserting a temp probe into the intact muscle prior to the outside being above 140F or the probe not being wiped with sterilizer prior to insertion."

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Beer-B-Q said:

No, what that means is you need to get the meat to above 140º in under 4 hours for whole intact muscle, you must get it to 140º in 3 hours for ground meat.

If a temp probe is used at the beginning of the smoke the 3 hour rule applies.

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 Paul, is that a change to the guideline for 2011, or did I overlook something in the past?

Eric

Curtlow said:

Does that mean that I shouldn't put the meat in the smoker unless it's at least 40* internal temp?  Cause I think the pork butt I just smoked was bellow that when I started it.

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that's fine..........as long as you pass through the danger zone in 4 hrs you will be fine......no need to temp yer butt untill 2.5-3 hrs into the smoke. you might want to study up on safe food handling practices.

.......... i'm def ditching the water from now on.

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i wouldn't do that just yet, the reason for the water is to act as a heat sink/baffle and to help regulate temps. if you get rid of the water pan your temps will spike and be harder to regulate. it sounds to me like you just need more practice and to read about other smokes with gasser units. once ou get to know your smoker (of any kind) you will be more comfortable and you will get better results. another thing............who cares about bark and smoke rings and other crap! if the food is good......then you are on the right track! try some wings, abt's, nuts, meatloafs, and other things and just have fun.

i still use my first smoker (gasser) all the time and once i knew what i wanted to do with it i made some mods.....

i used bricks for a heat sink, a made a charcoal pan so i use both gas/lump, and i use foil pans for water since it holds more water and i'm a lazy sob and i don't have to clean it.................



and i put a stack on it to draw more air.....



here is a thread on gasser mods...........

http://smokingmeatforums.com/forums/...ad.php?t=51327

there is a number of ways to skin a cat..........see what works for you.

forluvofsmoke said:

Beer-B-Q said:

No, what that means is you need to get the meat to above 140º in under 4 hours for whole intact muscle, you must get it to 140º in 3 hours for ground meat.

If a temp probe is used at the beginning of the smoke the 3 hour rule applies.

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 Paul, is that a change to the guideline for 2011, or did I overlook something in the past?

Eric

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i have not heard of a change but you never know. i thought it was still 4 hrs..................this is why i still use 4 hrs 40-140. the guidelines will always move a little but if you stick with 4hr 40-140 you won't wrong.
 

forluvofsmoke said:

 Paul, is that a change to the guideline for 2011, or did I overlook something in the past?

Eric

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Big fingers sometimes hit wrong keys like 3 instead of 4 LOL  I rewrote the post so it was cleared and posted a quote from bbally...

Sorry.

I didnt ditch my water pan, i just dont put water in it. My water pan and chip pan are all in one. But for me the temp swing in my smoker was so great that i couldnt get anything cooked. I would start the smoker and fill the water pan, i would have to let the smoker warm up for almost 45 mins until the water was practically boiling and almost gone until i got to my target temp, around 250-275*. At that time i would put meat in and add water to the water pan, a few minutes later the temp would drop 100* because of the water cooling everything down. I would then have to wait again until the water got so hot and evaporated enough to let the smoker get up to temp. This was when i first got my char-broil propane smoker. So after some frustrating smokes, i noticed that when the water ran out in the pan that the temp would hold pretty good. So for the past year or so i have not used water in the water pan. The smoker heats up great, holds the temp that i set it at, and i have yet to dry out a peice of meat. I get nice bark on my pulled pork, semi crispy skin on my chicken, perfect bacon, and nice dried beef.

Im not saying that is what he needs to do, but what it sounds like he is struggling with is similar to what i did.

 

see, chances are someone here has experienced the same issue you are going through and has come up with a solution.......nice going xjcamero!

No problem.

Try it out with a small inexpensive cut and try it out without water. Every smoker is different.  I was also skeptical about not using the water and drying out, but it worked out perfectly!