HELP! Smoking Meat and Ran out of propane!

Man...that is bad luck.  I hate to tell you this but your best bet is to throw it away.  I know that is hard to swallow but it'll be easier than getting everyone sick.  

Meats should be kept either below 40 or above 140 - time in the danger zone of 40 - 140 can only be 4 hours - unfortunately you don't know how long it's been there but I would bet longer than 4 hours.

Really sorry about this...best of luck on future smokes.

If you get a chance, swing by our Roll Call forum and give us a formal introduction so we can welcome you properly.

Thanks,

Bill

I wouldn't risk getting myself and others sick. The meat has probably been between 40-140 for more than 4 hrs. When in doubt, throw it out.

What they said.^^^

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Wow, that is tough.  Sorry to hear about that.

I know that all meat has guidelines to go by for ensuring the killing of all pathogens, but from a microbiological standpoint, let's look at some things.  First, what are the most salient threats?  Parasites including bacteria, giardia, tapeworm, and trichinella come to mind.  Now the latter three are unlikely to be in most meats, anyways.  Bacteria will be in meat no matter what.  As soon as you cook it and it cools down, there is going to be some aerobic bacteria colonizing it (statistic - about 1/3 people carry the staph bacteria, staphylococcus aureus, on them at all times.  Also, we ALL have E. coli living in our guys - it's just a few rare strains that can harm us).

But the fact is, once meat cools, it's not like it becomes toxic.  If parasites were already in it, a lot probably died if they were allowed to reach 108 degrees (that number is significant because proteins in ALL organisms denature and are rendered useless at that temperature).  Those that didn't may still be around, but if they heated up, they have mechanisms in place to protect against the heat, which actually mitigate their ability to reproduce.  

So worst case scenario, you still have parasites in your meat, which were already there to begin with.  If you decide to cook to the specified temperature to whatever the meat is, then you will kill everything in there.  So I respectfully disagree with the posters here who said to chunk it.  You may have some texture issues given the lack of consistent temperature the meat was cooked under, but regarding safety, the guidelines can be superseded by practicing standard microbial sterilization (heat to kill!)

Any curiosity about this type stuff can be satiated by going to a site like www.pubmed.com - it's hosted by the NIH, which catalogs all peer reviewed journals (about 30,000 of them), including the bible for this area, the Journal of Food Science.  It takes some getting used to (the parsing of information can be a little vexing for a non-science geek), but it's manageable.  Further, my degrees are in the sciences (molecular biology, chemistry), so I know a little about this stuff.  Any more questions, drop me a message!  

-nmr

Eat This said:

I was smoking a 15lb Brisket and 20 lbs of pork butt..  I smoked it from 12 pm yesterday.  All was well I covered them with foil at 10 pm went to bed and this morning I went out to get them and it was off and cold.  The meat was temped at 92 degrees.  Can they be saved and served if I put them in the oven and take them up to 350 or 400?

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The meat was in for 10 hours at a verified sufficient smoker temp, 225*F or higher, you checked it. At that point the IT had to be in the neighborhood of 165*F or higher so you foiled, ALL Bacteria and Parasites are now dead and have been for more than 6 hours. Sometime later the smoker died but the meat was covered, leaving no opportunity for Re-contamination with even airborne bacteria. The meat is still Sterile and therefore there is NO reason why you can't finish the cook...Hope I answered this in time...JJ

When I used to drink I would always leave food on the counter over night (pizza,Mac n'cheese)..... What ever... Always ate them, it's a risk I would take.....

imjesse1 said:

When I used to drink I would always leave food on the counter over night (pizza,Mac n'cheese)..... What ever... Always ate them, it's a risk I would take.....

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LOL...no doubt - but I don't think you want to take that risk with your guests.

I defer to Chef JJ on all food safety issues and was just exercising caution.  I figure better safe than sorry.

Thanks JJ for weighing in and saving our new friend's smoke!

Bill

I was sitting back waiting on a different answer on this one after I first read it thinking to myself, "Hey, I'd eat that food!" and here comes largeneal with some great info and Chef Jimmy as always with his insight and know how.  Just another reason this site is so much better than any other one you can join up with.

Thanks Guys...JJ

Guess that I didn't read your original post very thoroughly. I thought you put the meat on at 10 pm. and missed that you had foiled at 10 pm. Sorry for the confusion.