Pork butt 4 hour danger zone question

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osprey12

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 30, 2015
6
10
I rubbed my pork butt last night and put it in the fridge then went directly from fridge to smoker this morning. I'm a bit concerned because I put a new probe that I forgot to wash or sanitize into my meat this morning as soon as it went on the smoker. It was right out of the box. Once I realized what I had done I raised the smoker temp to make sure I would cross the 140 temp within 4 hours. I'm at 3 hours now and 141. Will all of the bad stuff cook off the probe or should I toss the butt and consider it a lesson learned? I'll be feeding it too my young kids so would rather be safe than sorry and still have time to throw some ribs on the grill before dinner.

 
So not to worry about anything that may have been on the thermo probe? It was out of the box with no washing or anything so anything bad would be cooked off?
 
So not to worry about anything that may have been on the thermo probe? It was out of the box with no washing or anything so anything bad would be cooked off?
That is hard to say since you don't know where it came from our how it was handled. The concern with a temp probe is usually the bacteria that is already on the meat that gets pushed into the middle when you probe it. If it was me and the thermo package was clean and well sealed I would let it go. If there was any sort of oily residue or film on any of the probes or thermo items I would be worried. 
 
So other than getting to 140+ in 4 hours most people don't think there is anything to worry about? That's good, I guess manufacturers wouldn't put any harmful solutions on a food probe knowing that it will be going into food just in case someone forgets to wash it.
 
So what do you do to sanitize/clean the probe after each use?
I just wash mine with soap and water (taking care not to submerse the probe so it doesn't get water in the wire to probe connection). If it gets really bad I will scrub it with a brillo pad to get it nice and shiny again. 
 
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