Smoker Turned Off While Smoking a Brisket

[Johnny Big Axe]

Hi All - New to this forum - loving the posts and great experience! Thanks so much!

I started a smoke (injected brisket w/beef bone broth and dry rubbed with a rub containing salt) at 10:15 PM, smoking at 220F with super smoke on. At 12:30 PM I went to bed and the temp was over 130F (IT). At some point (maybe around 2 AM?) I woke up to hit the head and checked the grill from the app on my phone - unless I was dreaming I recall the meat probe being at 150F. I was worried about it cooking too fast and turned the grill down to 215F. I woke up at 5:45 AM and the circuit was off - meat had cooked down a bit - it was smaller than when I started. I started it back up at 6 AM. Do you think it is safe to continue the cook? Thanks in advance for your input!

Update: cooking at 225F still, it is 7:45 AM, and the IT is already back up to 151F...

 

[chef jimmyj]

Welcome. I answered your DM and you are fine. The IT got high enough to kill any internal Bacteria introduced by injecting...JJ

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

Welcome. I answered your DM and you are fine. The IT got high enough to kill any internal Bacteria introduced by injecting...JJ

Thank you so much!!!

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

Just wondering for the future what is the internal temperature that would kill the bacteria from injection? I've seen 122F in some spots, and 149F in others...

 

[normanaj]

Cannot stress enough the importance of a multi probe thermometer with a hi/lo temp alarm. Check your therms app for that feature and then use it...this will save you a lot of stress and worries.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

 

[smokerjim]

Just wondering for the future what is the internal temperature that would kill the bacteria from injection? I've seen 122F in some spots, and 149F in others...

If you get to 140-145 internal with in 4 hours you'll be fine

 

[Steve H]

unless I was dreaming I recall the meat probe being at 150F.

That statement concerns me. You said you checked the temp with a app. Does your thermometer have high/low temp alerts? If it does. Why aren't you using it? That was barely a 4 hour window to get to 140. If it was at 150. Then Jimmy has you covered.

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

I was using the Traeger built-in thermometer, unfortunately. I didn't look at the clock when I woke up and saw the 150F - it might have been later than 2 AM. The fact that it hit 130F in 2 hours is a pretty good jump in temp, though, and the fact that it had only cooled to 130F after the circuit outage likely means it had climbed well above that - also it had cooked down considerably (volume of brisket was considerably smaller)...So I'm thinking it did rise to the 150F...

 

[SmokyMose]

What type of smoker is this? Curious because you mentioned the circuit being off. Tripped?

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

It was the circuit in my house, not the grill itself. It's the Traeger 880

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

To clarify, the Traeger app is what I looked at when I woke up in the middle of the night to check the IT - that's when I saw it at 150F (I think - I was groggy), although I didn't think to check what time it was. The thermometer in the meat reports the temperature to the app - I didn't actually look at the meat until I woke up and found the grill off and cold (at 75F for the grill, and the outside temp was low 60s). When I plugged the grill into another circuit around 5:45 AM - 6 AM, the meat probe was reading 130F, and after less than 2 hours was up to 150F, so it couldn't have gone too cold for too long, and it must have been well over 130F if it cooled to 130F with the ambient grill at 75F...Hoping it's OK...

 

[SmokyMose]

It was the circuit in my house, not the grill itself. It's the Traeger 880

Be careful. My first smoker was an electric smoker and I used it several times before the GFI outlet on the patio just stopped working but never tripped.
The same circuit is shared with the bathrooms and kitchen. I had to have 3 outlets replaced. Brown wires.
Apparently the smoker was pulling just slightly less than the trip point, but enough to slowly cook the circuit.
For some reason they used 14ga wire instead of 12ga for that circuit.
You may want to look into it.

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

Thanks man - good point! I know when it rains heavily this circuit has been known to go out - I didn't know we were getting rain last nught!

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

Well we ate it at 6 and it was delicious- I'll let you all know how we do tomorrow :0

It was over 200F for over 15 min, so I think all the nasties would be destroyed and we will be fine, plus I nerded out and mapped the grill cooldown and extrapolated that to the assumed grill temperature drop overnight - I think it was under 2 hours and after it had been well over 150F

 

[Johnny Big Axe]

Follow up: 12 hours later and everyone is good, and greatly enjoyed the brisket! Thanks so much to everyone who gave advice and commented. Special thanks to chefjimmyj talking me off the ledge! Thanks everybody - what a great, helpful group!