Brisket safety question

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BigW.

Master of the Pit
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May 13, 2019
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I've read a ton of these questions and not come across an a exact situation. Either way, I learned something (the hard way, which is my usual method) Maybe a few other will learn also.

Put a brisket on Sat night at 11:30 temp was set to 230. Usually pellet grill works fine no issues. Woke up sun morning at 6 and no heat. Not sure if pellet jam/storm etc cause it malfunction. Temp check of brisket 95 degrees. The overnight temp was mid 40's.

2 things I did wrong...Should have cleaned out Ashes, stirred the pellets around to make sure they were not sticking together. 2. used my ThermPro PT20 to alert me if smoker quit. I got lazy.

So by 7am meat is vacu sealed in a bath at 135degrees. After some reading and church up to 155 at 11am. So that is where we're at currently. 14lb packer prime brisket with Jeff's TX rub. Never injected or probed. In a sous vide bath at 155degrees for 30 hrs.

Is that long enough to fix any possible issues from flame out? Thanks
 
Don't know where you got the 135° number, but 140° or 145° is recommended holding temp.

If I thought it had cooked through to my desired temp, or even a safe temp for beef, i would have just continued with whatever processing you had intended for it. As the meat fell from 140° down to 95° that is the least dangerous of the food temp danger zone, I doubt it had been there for too long.

Too late for that though.

30 hours is an insane amount of time, IMO. While time and temp combined can be important, the scale is weighted heavily toward temp. Half an hour at any given internal temp would be more than enough to calm my fears.

BTW, there is a whole forum here with food safety stuff: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forums/food-safety.181/

see sticky post at the top of the page.
 
It is doubtful it ever got to my goal of around 200+. It may have been a good temp for med rare steak, who knows. Smoker would not start back up, so I went to Plan B mode. I know SmokinAl and others here do a combo smoke/SV brisket and turns out well. I'm okay with this brisket being fall apart tender for sandwiches etc. Try for pretty slices on the next one. I like to eat too much to toss if this can be saved.
 
define "saved"

IMO there is zero need to hold the brisket at 155 for any amount of time.

Time is not going to get it to the point of tenderness, that is accomplished by temp. Right now you are in a no-mans-zone with nothing beneficial happening.
 
Time is not going to get it to the point of tenderness

Of course it will. Connective tissue begins to break down at 140, maybe lower. The higher the temp, the faster this occurs. If you hold it at 155 for long enough it will get fall apart tender.
 
Of course it will. Connective tissue begins to break down at 140, maybe lower. The higher the temp, the faster this occurs. If you hold it at 155 for long enough it will get fall apart tender.

Thanks bregent bregent that was what I was going for. Here is where I got the 155:

I have done it several times & I smoke it to an IT of 150, then vac bag it & into the SV set at 155 for 24 hours.
Comes out perfect everytime!
Al
 
The real concern is food safety since it appears the brisket did not reach 140º in 4 hours.
 
I personally, for my self would gamble it's safe, but it's not some thing I'd want to risk serving to guests. I've had situations like this and if it was warmer out, I'd toss it.

Suffice to say, 24 hours at 155f in Sous Vide will make it falling apart tender..if it doesn't, check you actually got a Brisket. Cause that oughta make any thing tender.
 
B BigW. Intact brisket. In at 230, 6 hours later IT was 95 with 40°F ambient. Regardless of the IT, which I would guess hit close 140 since at a low outside temp, was still 95. The ONLY place bacteria could be was on the surface. Within the first 60 minute the surface was more than hot enough to kill bacteria. Sterile outside + Sterile inside = Safe Brisket.

H HickoryHillBBQ Read up on Sous Vide Cooking and Meat Pasteurization Temps. Take a tough Eye Round Roast, SV at 135°F for 21 hours and one of the toughest beef cut, is done medium and cuts with a fork. See Bearcarver's post.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/another-tender-eye-round-sv.286213/#post-1947817

Here is a good Pasteurization Chart. Tells the Temp and Time at temp to kill bacteria.

Temperature Time Temperature Time
°F (°C) (Minutes) °F (°C) (Seconds)

130 (54.4) 112 min... 146 (63.3) 169 sec
131 (55.0) 89 min.... 147 (63.9) 134 sec
132 (55.6) 71 min.... 148 (64.4) 107 sec
133 (56.1) 56 min.... 149 (65.0) 85 sec
134 (56.7) 45 min.... 150 (65.6) 67 sec
135 (57.2) 36 min.... 151 (66.1) 54 sec
136 (57.8) 28 min.... 152 (66.7) 43 sec
137 (58.4) 23 min.... 153 (67.2) 34 sec
138 (58.9) 18 min.... 154 (67.8) 27 sec
139 (59.5) 15 min.... 155 (68.3) 22 sec
140 (60.0) 12 min.... 156 (68.9) 17 sec
141 (60.6) 9 min...... 157 (69.4) 14 sec
142 (61.1) 8 min...... 158 (70.0) 0 sec
143 (61.7) 6 min.......
144 (62.2) 5 min.......
145 (62.8) 4 min.......

Table C.1: Pasteurization times for beef, corned beef, lamb, pork and cured pork (FDA, 2009, 3-401.11.B.2).

schlotz schlotz The whole 40 to 140 in 4 ONLY applies to Ground meat, Injected meat, Flavorings Punctured meat and Boned-Rolled and Tied meat. For Intact meat, once the surface is hot enough to kill bacteria, see above chart, we don't care in the interior Ever gets to 140, example125°F Rare Steak, let alone how long it takes. 4 hours or 24 hours, the sterile interior of Intact meat has No Bacteria to grow, so we don't care about the time or the temp..JJ
 
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Thanks chef jimmyj chef jimmyj I know you answer similar type posts often. I read them enough to know not to toss out a brisket but not enough to eat with confidence, ha

So I have had brisket the last 2 nights. After eating, I believe it did get up to temp. The smaller part of flat w/o point on top was a bit dry/crispy towards the end. So it had heat for long awhile. The sous vide made the middle to other end very tender but not fall apart (chopped) tender. That surprised me some after 30hrs. I used apple pellets which I had. I usually switch between apple and hickory. Would have used a-maze-n tray for extra smoke but it was making cheese.

Next time I do an overnight, I will use the remote therm to keep an eye on temp. I promise. Thanks all!
 
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Hi daveomak daveomak I have seen his chart before(thanks to you) I did not know he made videos also. I'd like to S.V. more things but the range and times vary so much it gets a bit confusing. I'll watch a few of these videos and go from there. Thanks Again.
 
He has many charts for sous-vide cooking... Time to get up to temperature from frozen.... Time to get to finished temperature from 40ish... time for poultry etc...
His stuff is pretty elaborate for food safety reasons... I use his charts for every sous-vide I do... I usually add time to the cook to add some insurance.. probably not necessary but.... Makes me feel more safe...
If you have any questions about Baldwin's stuff, I'm here somewhere... even a PM will do...
 
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