OK to rub and refrigerate a roast for 20 hours in prep for smoke?

[Tallbald]

Starting to feel overwhelmed with the food safety issues I've learned on my smoking journey. Am I OK rubbing and wrapping a beef roast kept in my frige 20 or so hours in advance? Trimmed fat away, applied EVOO, put rub in between the sections and over surface, then wrapped in plastic wrap and back in the frige. Will smoke tomorrow morning.
Worst case scenario is I smoke it this evening. Didn't even think of this until after the deed was done.
Didn't know either until I joined about not doing injections and letting set overnight in frige.
Thanks. Don.

 

[indaswamp]

Yes, you are good. What you just did is considered "dry brining". This simply allows the salt to start migrating into the meat, and it will help to keep the meat moist while cooking. Cook it and post up some pics.!

 

[Rings Я Us]

Only.problem I see is that some stuff like brown sugar turns to liquid.

 

[atomicsmoke]

Look at it this way: meat counter at your local market trims some meats, grinds the trim, packs the ground meat, puts in the glass display and sells it to you with "use within two days" note.

You took a cold piece of meat, played with it a little then rubbed and returned to fridge. A good chunk with large thermal inertia.

Is it still safe 20h later? I wouldnt worry.

 

[Tallbald]

Thank you. Had visions of E.coli massing at the butcher's twine in the cold dark, planning their GI attack on me and my wife after smoking tomorrow. Don.

 

[SmokinAl]

No problem, your fine!
Al

 

[johnmeyer]

Anything in the fridge is going to be fine, and letting the meat stay in contact with the rub or marinade for a longer time is not going to create any safety issue if the meat is below 40 degrees.

There is WAY too much "safety" information provided by our press today. You'd think we were all playing Russian roulette every time we put something into our mouths. Fortunately, this is not the case and most "food poisoning" ("I think it must be something I ate") is actually norovirus or similar bug that strikes large numbers of people living in close quarters (like cruise ships).

However, if you actually look at most (not all) food poisoning reports which involve food spoilage (i.e., those that do NOT involve food contaminated at the source, something you can't do anything about), the people involved did some absurdly stupid things, bad enough to get them nominated for a Darwin Award (click on the link for a giggle). Just don't leave your egg salad sitting in the sun for six hours at your next picnic, and you'll be fine.

 

[cmayna]

This past weekend, I did a chuck roast which I brined with salt and then back into the fridge for 24 hours before I applied the dust and into the smoker. And I'm still alive............."oh joy" say's my neighbor who resides downwind from my smoker.