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Food Safety -- Can you probe or inject if the meat temp doesn't reach 160F in 4 hours or less?

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    Food Safety -- Can you probe or inject if the meat temp doesn't reach 160F in 4 hours or less?

    While doing some research on smoking pork shoulder I ran across a post from another forum. Someone mentioned and others agreed that you shouldn't insert a temp probe or injection needle in the shoulder if it was going to take longer then 4 hours for the shoulder to reach 160F internally. The thought was the probe could carry bacteria from the surface of the shoulder into the center of the meat.

    While I understand that it can and probably does carry bacteria into the center of the cut, what difference does that make? We are cooking well past the safe temp for pork for several hours. Won't this kill any bacteria that has been introduced? Looking at my temp logs, I typically reach 160F after 6 hours, that means the temp is above 160 for another 6-8 hours. Why would we need to reach 160 within 4 hours?

    #2
    ummmm, how would I put the thermometer probe in the meat to monitor it's internal temp?

    Comment


    • ecowper
      ecowper commented
      Editing a comment
      Steve R. genius, pure genius

    • Mr. Bones
      Mr. Bones commented
      Editing a comment
      Steve R. !
      Nah, I use th torch, heat up th probe to read past 160° in a few seconds...
      Boom. Problem solved!
      Last edited by Mr. Bones; May 7, 2020, 03:39 PM. Reason: Ficksed my effed up tag :o

    • Steve R.
      Steve R. commented
      Editing a comment
      Mr. Bones redneck ingenuity at its finest, that's how it's done! lol

    #3
    Sounds like malarkey to me.
    I prefer Science.
    Last edited by Mr. Bones; May 7, 2020, 03:30 PM.

    Comment


    • ecowper
      ecowper commented
      Editing a comment
      and when you call it malarkey, that settles that

    • Troutman
      Troutman commented
      Editing a comment
      Yes I agree, science. Let's flatten the curve on this one.....

    #4
    Seriously, this is made up.

    Comment


      #5
      "a post from another forum" I think I see the problem.

      That actually reminds me of when wives used to call Click and Clack with some goofy thing their husbands said to do, like pulling over to the side of the road before resetting the trip odometer. Their initial response was always the same: "Tell your husband he is an idiot."

      Comment


      • Mr. Bones
        Mr. Bones commented
        Editing a comment
        Lol! Yup.
        Btw, I sure do miss Click an Clack...

      #6
      Get off that other forum right now. Only use this one

      Comment


      • Troutman
        Troutman commented
        Editing a comment
        Wait....there are other forums ??????

      #7
      You are perfectly safe inserting a probe or injection needle at 160. At that temp all of the nasties are killed in less ten seconds. There is a chart on the site here some where.

      I think they are shooting out the wrong side of there mouths. I am sure Dr. Blonder or Meathead has explained this in one of there articles on here.

      Comment


        #8
        All wisecracks aside, I hope it's clear to @bfortified that we're just having a good time at the expense of that other forum and not the OP.

        Comment


        • klflowers
          klflowers commented
          Editing a comment
          yeah, bfortified don't take offense. Bunch of smart asses around here. Not me of course, but these other guys...

        #9
        So you're saying that you can probe at 160* ........... yesssssssssssssss !!!!

        Comment


          #10
          Well, I must be dead 'cause I always insert the probe at the beginning of the cook. Makes me wonder how I can post here...

          Comment


          • ecowper
            ecowper commented
            Editing a comment
            That’s what got me perplexed. My pork shoulder doesn’t always get to 160 in 4 hours, so I can’t figure out how to insert a temp probe to find out and not die

          #11
          Thanks folks I appreciate it. These are all the comments that went through my head as well. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

          Comment


            #12
            So, there's a kernel of truth here.

            One reason we see less food poisoning from regular cuts of meat is that any contamination is on the outside. Even if there's billions of E Coli on the surface of a steak, they all die the second you plop that on a 700F grill or pan. They die almost as fast in a hot oven and even in a relatively cool smoker at 225, they die fast.

            Ground meat, of course, doesn't have this advantage. If the outside of a hunk of meat is contaminated and you grind it, you mix the contamination in with the meat. Cook that too rare in the middle and... boom food poisoning. Now... most people cook burgers medium or better and medium is 140F or so... and that kills bacteria pretty fast.

            Here's where the above problem comes into play... some butchers 'tenderize' cuts of meat with needle tenderizers... think hundreds of very fine needles pushed into the meat. Guess what happens if the surface is contaminated? yeah...it's pushed into the cut. See https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ized/index.htm for more on this.

            I assume someone on that other forum looked at something about needle tenderizing, thought... wait, I push a kind of needle in... and came up with a wrong conclusion.

            Comment


            • ecowper
              ecowper commented
              Editing a comment
              What they missed.... is if you raise the temp of the meat to 160F, you are killing the bacteria .... bacteria are not magic killer missiles. That meat tenderized by the butcher is fine so long as you raise the temp of the meat high enough

            #13
            I inject MYSELF once a week, and my quad never goes above about 98.6°. Am I at risk for getting food poisoning?!?!?!

            Comment


            • Steve R.
              Steve R. commented
              Editing a comment
              No, you're safe. But whatever eats you is at risk.

            • texastweeter
              texastweeter commented
              Editing a comment
              Steve R. So I'm a walking salmonella factory?

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