- 179
- 10
- Joined Dec 20, 2008
I would like the Chef Professionals to answer the below scenario .
A guy is going to smoke a couple of pork butts, using an electric smoker with temp and time controllers.
He inserts a meat probe in the smaller butt at the start of the smoke, the other has no probe,
The cooker is cooking at 225º +/- 5 deg.
At 4 hours the smaller butt is finally at 130º, but due to some cold winds the outside ambient drops and he isn't sure what his cook temps are. At 5 hours the smaller butt achieves 140º, he removes the probe cleans it and inserts in the larger butt, it is only at 130º. Now he is really worried, the 4 hour danger zone is being violated twice. An hour later or 6 hours into the smoke the larger butt achieves 140º.
Now our cooker wants to know if he continues to take his two butts up to 200º and hold their for at least 5-15 minutes, is his food safe to eat?
Now lets talk honesty. In commercial kitchens where meat has to be thawed the same day, and big orders are coming in, yet staff is maxed out, is meat routinely left either in ovens or counter in the danger zone for 2 hours and if in the oven for 4 hours, are restaurants tossing that meat or cooking that meat in a dish where they know the temp will get over 160º, thus not wasting the meat or they just throwing out that meat that sat in the danger zone too long?
A guy is going to smoke a couple of pork butts, using an electric smoker with temp and time controllers.
He inserts a meat probe in the smaller butt at the start of the smoke, the other has no probe,
The cooker is cooking at 225º +/- 5 deg.
At 4 hours the smaller butt is finally at 130º, but due to some cold winds the outside ambient drops and he isn't sure what his cook temps are. At 5 hours the smaller butt achieves 140º, he removes the probe cleans it and inserts in the larger butt, it is only at 130º. Now he is really worried, the 4 hour danger zone is being violated twice. An hour later or 6 hours into the smoke the larger butt achieves 140º.
Now our cooker wants to know if he continues to take his two butts up to 200º and hold their for at least 5-15 minutes, is his food safe to eat?
Now lets talk honesty. In commercial kitchens where meat has to be thawed the same day, and big orders are coming in, yet staff is maxed out, is meat routinely left either in ovens or counter in the danger zone for 2 hours and if in the oven for 4 hours, are restaurants tossing that meat or cooking that meat in a dish where they know the temp will get over 160º, thus not wasting the meat or they just throwing out that meat that sat in the danger zone too long?