Smoker shut off!

[SecondHandSmoker]

Injected or punctured in any way that is why many of us recommend not putting a temp probe into a large intact piece of meat before 4 hours. You know it's going to take way more than 4 hours to smoke/cook so no real need to hurry that probe

Absolutley!

 

[chef jimmyj]

Guys...I could not have handled this better myself! BRAVO and points to all.
Yes, the 40 to 140 only applies to Ground or injected/enhanced meat. Whole muscle only has bacteria on the surface and that is killed in short order.
As described, essentially this was a cook, chill and reheat situation that is perfectly safe. Good job all...JJ

 

[Winterrider]

I usually probe things right away. Not anymore on the bigger slabs. Thanks PW...

 

[chef jimmyj]

When to probe is a choice.
Leave in the meat thermometers, have been around and used since the 40's. The instructions were and are to stick it in the Raw meat and roast to desired temp. There is not now or ever been a USDA/FDA/CDC or any other accredited food safety monitoring organization warning against probing raw meat. In general people usually add Salt and Pepper to the surface of their roasts. Salt at a minimum disables and inhibits the growth if not kills many types of pathogens. Now, adding the probe may push some of these and remaining active bacteria into the meat but we are talking about tiny numbers in a cold growth environment. Bacteria are not unlike people with environment change. Take a group of people that grew up and lived in Miami the last 30 years and relocate them to Kavik Alaska, 200 miles above the Arctic Circle, and they will have a lot more on their mind than reproducing. Add that many have severe dehydration or disabled and, well you get the picture. Probing raw meat or even using a fork to move the Roast into the smoker is just not something you need to worry about...JJ