Pork butt safe to eat? (w/ temp graph)

[CLKNoche]

I need some food safety advice in a pair of Boston butts I have on the smoker currently. I put two 8lb Boston butts on my electric pellet smoker last night and went to bed. The plan was to smoke it at 200 until it hit the stall, then push it to 220/230 until I got an internal temp of 190. My smoker acted really weird all-night and never got up to 200 until I messed with it this morning and cranked it up to (eventually) 250. You can see in the graph that the internal temp was rising, but slowly and lower than I'm used to. My wife is incredibly risk averse and wants to trash it. I don't want to waste the time and money and don't want to trash it on just a "better safe than sorry" reasoning. Can anyone offer some expertise?

 

[mike243]

Welcome, I would throw them out, they didn't hit 140 internal in a timely manor. Better safe than sorry imo. 140-4 hours is the recommended target.

 

[Steve H]

I wouldn't use it. 140 in 4 rule wasn't met.

 

[thirdeye]

Denser whole muscle meats like beef, lamb, and pork are too dense for bacteria to penetrate below the surface. Meaning the inside is sterile, and your primary goal is to kill the surface bacteria before they multiply. A true 250° pit temp will allow the surface of the meat to rise above 140° within a couple of hours, and kill the surface bacteria. And generally we are using a rub with a salt component, and of course some smoke is at play too. However... looking at your graph, the pit temp was only around 155° at the 2-hour mark?

An exception to this surface bacteria theory happens when you heavily inject, or de-bone a pork butt. Either of these things can introduce surface bacteria deeper into the butt, so you should start with a pit temp in the 275° to 300° range to give the internal temp a head start on the journey to 140° in less than 4 hours.

The way I see it... the surface of your butts did get above 140°, but it might have taken ~4 hours. Looking at the chart below, at 90° bacteria will double every 30 minutes. We all have our own threshold for food safety, so consider wisely.

 

[CLKNoche]

Denser whole muscle meats like beef, lamb, and pork are too dense for bacteria to penetrate below the surface. Meaning the inside is sterile, and your primary goal is to kill the surface bacteria before they multiply. A true 250° pit temp will allow the surface of the meat to rise above 140° within a couple of hours, and kill the surface bacteria. And generally we are using a rub with a salt component, and of course some smoke is at play too. However... looking at your graph, the pit temp was only around 155° at the 2-hour mark?

An exception to this surface bacteria theory happens when you heavily inject, or de-bone a pork butt. Either of these things can introduce surface bacteria deeper into the butt, so you should start with a pit temp in the 275° to 300° range to give the internal temp a head start on the journey to 140° in less than 4 hours.

The way I see it... the surface of your butts did get above 140°, but it might have taken ~4 hours. Looking at the chart below, at 90° bacteria will double every 30 minutes. We all have our own threshold for food safety, so consider wisely.

View attachment 689638

Thanks for the well crafted response. If it was your meat, would you throw it out?

 

[chopsaw]

My wife is incredibly risk averse and wants to trash it.

I don't want to waste the time and money and don't want to trash it on just a "better safe than sorry" reasoning.

Which is more important to you ?
I'm surprised you even have to ask .

 

[schlotz]

Trash it. So the Pit Boss didn't alert you in the middle of the night? If so, then it's time to get serious and pick up a known calibrated reporting thermometer with an alarm. Test it to make sure it can wake you and set it to warm about grate temps out side of a programed range. I use one from Thermoworks. On another front, it should not take that unit more than 15-30 minutes to reach 200+ degrees. Something definitely wrong there.

 

[gmc2003]

It's totally your choice, but I would say it's still safe. Reason being your butts are considered intact unless you've injected it multiple times or kept jabbing it with your temp probe. Neither seems to be the case here. With your smokers temps the outside of the butt appears to have reached 140* in 4 hours, and since your butts are intact the inner temp doesn't matter. Like I said it's totally up to you and your family, but I would keep on smoking.

Here's a good read that our well respected safety expert left us before his passing. The top couple of paragraphs pertain to your situation. Read them and compare them to your situation before jumping to conclusions.

40 to 140 in 4...A Guideline and what to consider...

You will often see this called, " The Rule " here at SMF. This RULE, a Guideline actually, is the most frequently misquoted and misused info on SMF. More perfectly good meat has gone in the garbage at the hands of this," RULE " then from folks cleaning their Refrigerator or Freezer!!! Rules...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

and no JJ didn't pass away from food poisoning.

Chris

 

[CLKNoche]

Trash it. So the Pit Boss didn't alert you in the middle of the night? If so, then it's time to get serious and pick up a known calibrated reporting thermometer with an alarm. Test it to make sure it can wake you and set it to warm about grate temps out side of a programed range. I use one from Thermoworks. On another front, it should not take that unit more than 15-30 minutes to reach 200+ degrees. Something definitely wrong there.

Yeah I had an error when I fired it up and spent until midnight fixing it (or so I thought). When I cranked it back up and the temp started climbing, I thought I was good to go but obviously not.

 

[CLKNoche]

It's totally your choice, but I would say it's still safe. Reason being your butts are considered intact unless you've injected it multiple times or kept jabbing it with your temp probe. Neither seems to be the case here. With your smokers temps the outside of the butt appears to have reached 140* in 4 hours, and since your butts are intact the inner temp doesn't matter. Like I said it's totally up to you and your family, but I would keep on smoking.

Here's a good read that our well respected safety expert left us before his passing. The top couple of paragraphs pertain to your situation. Read them and compare them to your situation before jumping to conclusions.

40 to 140 in 4...A Guideline and what to consider...

You will often see this called, " The Rule " here at SMF. This RULE, a Guideline actually, is the most frequently misquoted and misused info on SMF. More perfectly good meat has gone in the garbage at the hands of this," RULE " then from folks cleaning their Refrigerator or Freezer!!! Rules...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

and no JJ didn't pass away from food poisoning.

Chris

Thanks. Yeah I was reading this which made me think it's ok (only 1 jab with temp probe in one butt) plus salt in my rub plus smoke. I still have a feeling I'd be the only one eating this one, unfortunately.

 

[indaswamp]

I'd keep rolling smoke and finish the cook, but that's just me. Even if I were the only one who ended up eating the rest of it for lunches during the week.

 

[civilsmoker]

It’s your call, but just so I understand it took 8 hours before the INT went above 125 and it was stuck with a probe into the center and the smoker temp was below 155 for the initial 2 hours…… it would be an easy decision for me….. but I happen to enjoy pizza!

 

[indaswamp]

but I happen to enjoy pizza!

Mmmmm....pulled pork pizza! Yum!

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Just curious was it injected? Either way if it were me I would toss it. I’d hate to spend the next day regretting trying to save a some money.

 

[CLKNoche]

N

Just curious was it injected? Either way if it were me I would toss it. I’d hate to spend the next day regretting trying to save a some money.

No injections, just one probe in one of the butts. It's less about the money and more about the time. There's also a frustration I have a tough time putting words to about the "better safe than sorry" approach. Not that it's wrong necessarily, it just bugs me for some reason.

 

[DougE]

The low pit temp is concerning to me. Like thirdeye said, you only need to be concerned with surface temp getting to 140° in 4 hours on unadulterated (not injected or deboned) solid muscle, but at your low pit temp, I am not certain that happened.

 

[JLinza]

If it was me, I would toss them. If I was nervous enough to ask, I probably wouldn't eat it. Start early in the morning on the next one. Then you can drink beer while you monitor it lol.

 

[Flatrate]

If I was nervous enough to ask, I probably wouldn't eat it.

This right here, there is a lot of validity to what is said.

 

[thirdeye]

Thanks for the well crafted response. If it was your meat, would you throw it out?

I believe in the science of killing surface bacteria in this example of using heat when barbecuing. But in your case, the meat stayed in the higher multiplication temperature zones long enough that you had a higher population of baddies than I feel comfortable with eliminating. Granted, the baddies will become less active as the surface temp rises past 120°, and they will die as the surface temp rises above 140°.

My standard drill on long cooks, especially overnight cooks is to make sure the pit is running well enough for me to walk away for a while, or catch a few ZZZZ's. And that first 2-hours is really important to me, so I would toss it.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

I use to do my pork long overnight cooks or get up real early to make sure they were done by dinner time. But now I just run them at about 275*-280*, wrap and done and over with. A lot easier, less time, and same results.