Cooking a not fully thawed butt.


 
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Don Marco

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Howdy folks...

I took a 9# pork butt out of the freezer 3 days ago to cook it tonight.I had it in the refridgerator at about 38-40 F since then.

I?ve put it into the WSM a couple of minutes ago, but it was not fully thawed inside.
The outside was as usual, but i checked the inside temp with my thermapen and ET 73 (wich i use for the first time tonight) and it was 29 F.

Did you ever cook a half frozen piece of meat ?
How did it turn out ?Is there anything i should worry about ?
Will it stay too long in the danger zone (70-140F, right ?)

Please help mo out here so i can sleep without bad
dreams tonight. (Its almost 10 pm over here and i hope i can trust the ET 73).

Thanks,

Don Marco
 
UPDATE !


Hey there...

Butts are on for two hours now and the internal temp is at 71 F.
Everythings fine i guess, so i?m gonna hit the pillow now.

By the way, i REALLY love that ET 73.I checked if the connectin is stable at my bedroom, and it works like a champ through 1 window and 2 concrete walls over a distance of 40 feet.


Don Marco
 
I'd say that based on the fact that you can even get a thermometer probe into the center, that you're only talking a few degrees away from being technically thawed, and the fact you're going to be cooking it way past the temperature considered safely cooked for pork-- it shouldn't be a problem. On large muscle cuts, it's mainly the exposed surface that's considered the prime candidate for bacterial activity.
 
Morning everyone...

Its 8.20 right now and i?ve had a full night of
sleep without having to worry about the WSM.Well, i
dreamed of it, but thats another story.

I woke up an hour ago and the WSM temp was 250 at grate level and the pork was at 175.I set the ET 73 Alarm between 210 and 265 F and the temperature never went out of that range.

Stirred the coals a litttle and temp is now at 265, but slowly goes down as i?ve closed the vents a bit.

The smell of pork in the morning is awesome, and even better if you didnt have to get up every 3 hours to check the WSM.


I really dont know how i could ever live without that ET 73 anymore !

Have a nice weekend !

Don Marco
 
I too got a good night's sleep (well, from 5 a.m. until 8 a.m, having put the brisket on at nearly 5) knowing that my ET-73 was keeping vigil while I snoozed. I did dream about my smoker, tho. When the phone woke me at just after 8, I checked the remote and darned if I didn't forget to turn the alarm button on. D'oh! But the temp was perfectly within my desired range, and the brisket turned out fantastic (it was an angus, with that texasbbqrub.com rub) so I'm thinking the WSM did its thing while the ET-73 and I slept.
 
I also used the ET-73 for an overnight smoke over the weekend, and darned if it didn't wake me up about 3 a.m. when the smoker drifted up to 265. I got it back down to about 235 with little trouble and went back to bed. One of my butts also wasn't quite thawed, but it just took a tiny bit longer to cook.
 
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