Pork question

[ahrjmrecr]

Can you take pork out of the refrigerator and let it get to room temp before you start smoking it?

[5aces]

All meat contains at least some bacteria.
Bacteria grow most profusely between 40 and 140 degrees F.
Meat should not be left in that danger range for more than two hours.

It's thermally impossible for large chunks of meat to get to room temp. in such a short time and I think most sources tell you to bring the meat out between 30 mins. to 2 hrs. before cooking to avoid litigation!

I don't sweat it it if my unrefrigerated prep time goes past two hours with larger pieces...(bear in mind I'm not feeding the public either)

Same goes for getting a hamburger cooked 'pink' in the middle,the public restaurants won't do it but I go for rare when I have good farm beef at home!

[Peter]

Like he says ... Take it out long enough to put the rub on and let your pit come up to temp, that's all. Any longer and you are taking a chance.

[doogster]

I wouldn't let meat sit out to slowly rise to room temperature. Unless you really like talkin' on the big white phone.

[stevo]

I'm with Peter,

My ribs are out for at the most 15 minutes and the butts the same. I don't mess around with that stuff. It's not worth it. Mind you I am probubly being too cautious but hey!!

40-140 is NOT how I roll........... STAY OUT!!!!!!!

[nashbama]

Like others have said, meat contains a certain amount of bacteria. Bacteria will multiply rapidly at room temperature, so I always want to avoid letting meat get to that point. I like to have my smoker just about preheated before I take the meat out of the fridge to apply seasoning. Then it goes straight to the smoker. Meat that is around fridge temperature can still absorb smoke, so there is really no benefit to letting the meat hit room temperature. IMO, it's much safer to avoid it.

[BobEQue]

If the meat goes on colder, the longer it will absorb smoke. I've read that 140F is the magic number for smoke absorption.
Take it out when the smoker is up to temp, add your second layer of rub, if applicable, then put it on your smoker.

[daveg]

Meat will take on smoke as long as smoke is present. 140* refers to smoke ring formation. I don't see the point in letting a butt (I assume that's what you are talking about) sit out. It isn't like a tender steak. I get my Minion Method fire going, rub and add meat right out of the fridge. No need to wait for smoker, WSM in my case, to get to any temp IMO

[ROXY]

Yes you can, many folks let their pork come to room temp before they place it on the smoker.. Any bacteria that forms will be killed in the heat but the by product that they produce will not be.. so.. the cycle begins... to cook cold meat or to cook room temp meat.. that is the question, wither it is nobler in the minds of men.......

Personally, take the meat from the fridge, sprinkle... then off to the smoker. But that is just me.

[Shawn W]

the simple easy answer is get it on within 2 hours plus you get better smoke ring starting cold as mentioned above ... the full answer is too long, too complex with too many variables to get in to ... I'm still learning about it (when the fit takes me ) and no expert but here's my $0.02

our safety and standards bodies come up with foolproof easy to remember numbers for us, but bacterial reductionss are a function of TIME at temp, when they say something like cook hamburger to 165ºF to acheive pasteuriztion the part they aren't telling you is that they chose that number because it only takes 1.64 seconds seconds at that temp to obtain a 5D kill ... but 51.85 seconds at 150ºF will accomplish the same thing

it's much more important to get your cooked food chilled quickly and stored in the fridge as cooked food has lost some natural defense against pathogen growth

handling AFTER cooking, not before, is considered by many most to blame for food bourne illness ... don't cram 5lbs of pulled pork tight into an ice cream pail while it's hot then throw it in the fridge and call it good, it will stay in danger zone inside for a number of hours ... better to cool quickly in single layers say on cookie sheets in the fridge THEN cram it in the ice cream pail

when considering safety pre-cook bear in mind the difference between intact cuts such as a bone-in shoulder and contaminated meat (meaning been exposed to air or potentially contaminated tools) such as ground meat, boneless shoulder, injected bone-in shoulder ...
personally, I wouldn't hesitate to cook an intact shoulder I forgot on the counter for 4 hours ... not a bit .... but I'd pitch a raw meatloaf that sat out that long (not because it's CERTAIN to make me sick, but I choose not to accept that much risk)

"85ºF - 115ºF the range in which relatively rapid growth by the largest amount of different pathogens can be expected" ... read that somewhere

'if in doubt throw it out' is pretty tough to argue ... arm yourself with factual knowledge as best you can to make decisions then fall back on that when you have to

[daveg]

Yes you can, many folks let their pork come to room temp before they place it on the smoker.. Any bacteria that forms will be killed in the heat but the by product that they produce will not be.. so.. the cycle begins... to cook cold meat or to cook room temp meat.. that is the question, wither it is nobler in the minds of men.......

Personally, take the meat from the fridge, sprinkle... then off to the smoker. But that is just me.

I didn't say you couldn't. I was not addressing any safety issue. I was simply saying that IMO there is no practical point in letting a pork butt sit out. That's all. For anyone who likes to let the butt sit out I say go for it. Where did I say you couldn't due to possible safety issues? I think you read something into my post that wasn't there, but that's ok. No harm, no foul

[ROXY]

Yes you can, many folks let their pork come to room temp before they place it on the smoker.. Any bacteria that forms will be killed in the heat but the by product that they produce will not be.. so.. the cycle begins... to cook cold meat or to cook room temp meat.. that is the question, wither it is nobler in the minds of men.......

Personally, take the meat from the fridge, sprinkle... then off to the smoker. But that is just me.

I didn't say you couldn't. I was not addressing any safety issue. I was simply saying that IMO there is no practical point in letting a pork butt sit out. That's all. For anyone who likes to let the butt sit out I say go for it. Where did I say you couldn't due to possible safety issues? I think you read something into my post that wasn't there, but that's ok. No harm, no foul

daveg:

I was not commenting on your post at all my friend. I was simply replying to the first one.

[daveg]

Yes you can, many folks let their pork come to room temp before they place it on the smoker.. Any bacteria that forms will be killed in the heat but the by product that they produce will not be.. so.. the cycle begins... to cook cold meat or to cook room temp meat.. that is the question, wither it is nobler in the minds of men.......

Personally, take the meat from the fridge, sprinkle... then off to the smoker. But that is just me.

I didn't say you couldn't. I was not addressing any safety issue. I was simply saying that IMO there is no practical point in letting a pork butt sit out. That's all. For anyone who likes to let the butt sit out I say go for it. Where did I say you couldn't due to possible safety issues? I think you read something into my post that wasn't there, but that's ok. No harm, no foul

daveg:

I was not commenting on your post at all my friend. I was simply replying to the first one.

Oh, I guess I jumped the gun. Allow me to wipe the egg off of my face.