Danger Zone Question - Pork Butt

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nbnorcross

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2016
13
10
Making pulled pork for my nephew's birthday party tomorrow. My intent was to smoke it the two nights before and reheat it on Sunday. I put the pork in last night (Friday) at 7:30 pm. Smoker temperature was 230 knowing I didn't want it to finish somehow in the middle of the night. Checked the IT of the butt at 10:30 and it said 185. I thought that can't be right. I opened the smoker and moved the probe to a new spot (hole in butt created). Same IT. I opened the smoker and moved the probe again (another hole in butt created). Same IT. Decided to get a secondary probe and inserted it (another hole created). IT temp was 130 or so. I went to bed.

So now I have 2-3 holes in the butt and it's been short of four hours and hasn't hit 140. I woke up at 7:30 that morning and checked the IT of the secondary therm I inserted the night before and the IT was 154. So it still has a while to go. I don't know what the air temp was overnight but it was cold, probably in the 20s so the MES may have trouble keeping a temp.

So considering I've punctured the butt a couple of times and it's only at 155 12 hours in would you say it's safe past the danger zone? Should I keep smoking until done, or throw it away and not risk ecoli or whatever? I cranked the smoker temp up to 270 so hopefully it will get done sooner.
 
Last edited:
It's safe to eat when it's done.

The outside of the butt was sterile when you probed it at 10:30, so no bacteria was introduced into the center of the meat.

Just keep cooking it until it's done.

Al
 
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