Advise on Danger Zone

I have been smoking with the Weber Bullet for a couple of years now and have produced some great Q.

A buddy of mine recently sent me a Traeger Grill. Only had to pay for the shipping. I have produced some OK Q on this to date. About 5 cooks under my belt so far on the Traeger. I just haven't been able to get the same smokey flavor in butts, ribs and sausage I get from the WSM. I think the problem is that I've been very concerned about using the "Smoke" setting on the Traeger. On the "smoke" setting the grill runs around 130-150 degrees. I'm concerned with food safety and being in the danger zone for too long. It would take far more than a couple hours to bring the meat up to 140 degrees on this setting.

So, lets assume I start some butts on the "smoke" setting for about the first 3-4 hours, should I be fearful of producing Q that could make someone sick? If so, perhaps someone could offer suggestions that has experience using the Traegers or knows more about food safety than myself. I've seen several posts from Jim M on Traegers.

I've been starting my cooks on the 180 degree setting, getting past the 140 degree danger zone then switching to the smoke setting for 2-3 hours. I'll then switch to the 240 degree setting to finish the cook The problem with that is I'm not producing much of a smoke ring and again it lacks the smoke flavor. From the many post I've read I understand that the smoke ring stop forming after 140 degrees and the meat will not take on much more additional smoke flavor. Please advise.

I'm getting ready for a big showdown between my WSM and Traeger on the 29th. Butts,ribs and sausage contest.

Thanks to all of you that help make this an awesome site.

Grady,

Since this site is dedicated to the WSM, help with the Traeger may be limited. There could very well be a forum dedicated to the Traeger, like this one is to the WSM. Poke around the internet!

As an alternative, I know you could get some quality information on The BBQ-Brethren forum. There are some Traeger users that post quite often.

Good Luck!

JimT

Grady, I have several Traegers among my collection of Q's and have produced some award winning results (literally)from them.

Why not cook on the Traeger the same as you would your WSM, 220 - 250 for the entire cook? Forget about "smoke" for 3 hours, then 250 for x # of hours...Just stick the food in, set it to 250, and go to bed.

Different fuel will give different smokering when comparing a Traeger to a WSM.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">So, lets assume I start some butts on the "smoke" setting for about the first 3-4 hours, should I be fearful of producing Q that could make someone sick? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>No, you shouldn't be fearful. Here's why not:

The danger zone's top temp is 130, not 140 as is commonly thought.

It is the meats surfaces where one should be most concerned in terms of pathogen growth when one is cooking intact cuts (roasts that are 'intact', not injected, cut or probed); ground meat, sausage, roasts that are not intact, poultry, are a different matter. Were you cooking to a low internal finish temp,as you might with, say, pork loin or sausage, there might be a time limit if cooking at low temps, but this would depend on cooktemps and finish internals. Intact roasts (like butts and briskets) are cooked to internal temps that pretty much guarantee pasteurization. This would be the case with your proposed scenario.

By far, illnesses caused by food borne pathogens--when you're talking barbecue--are due to contamination that occurs after cooking.

See Pasteurization: Avoiding bacterial problems for additional, fleshed-out info.

(I'm with Harvey though. I don't see an advantage to cooking butts at very low temps for several hours before raising to 'normal' cooktemps.)

Jim/Harvey/Kevin,

Thanks so much for your time and replies.

These Traegers don't produce much smoke in the 230-250 range. I feel that perhaps the meat would get more smoke flavor and a more pronounced smoke ring on the "smoke" setting of this unit. My main concern was with food safety. Thanks for clearing that up Kevin.

I can't wait to do the side by side cooking and taste tests of Q cooked on the WSM and Traeger. Thanks again.