Flame out for 2 hours. Is beef ruined?


 
J

Jacob

New member
So, I'm not too concerned because I decided to try my first pastrami using store bought corned beef. I "fell asleep" last night after a long day of drinking (Relay for Life event, so good cause at least) and slept through my flame out warnings.

My Smokefire shut down around 5am and I woke up at 7am. The meat was at 63 when I pulled it off, but I have no idea how done it got in the 8 hours or so it was on the smoker. In another smart decision I decided I didn't need to use a probe, since I would just do it when I woke up.

Can I safely recover from this and eat the beef? I wrapped it and threw it in my oven for right now. If it's safe to eat, I'll just heat it back to temp. If I have to throw it out, no biggie. I have some ribs I'm doing today. But now I'm craving pastrami and want to recover this if possible.
 
Absent any data on time and temp it does not seem possible to make a judgement, in my opinion; I would not consume it. But out of curiosity, is your SF connected to the app where you have the timeline showing the pit temp?
 
I have to admit that I don't completely understand the timeline of your post, but I'd guess your OK for a couple of reasons:

1. Store bought corned beef is heavily salted, etc. - the original intent of "corning" was to preserve meat
2. It is a large, uncut slab, so the surface for bacteria to grow on is minimized
3. It is likely fresh when you started and not old and leftover
 
Nope, I didn't think about it and didn't even look at the temperature timeline on my app. I'm estimating I put it on the smoker around 9:30pm last night, woke up at 7am, and when I checked the app it said it flamed out a little after 5am. When I went out and checked on it at 7:15, the temp of the meat read 63. I wrapped it and it's in the oven now.

It's like low 40s high 30s outside around that time. Don't know if that matters.
 
So nearly 8 hours on the grill, it likely got to at least stall. And slowly cooling over two hours? It’s probably fine. We’ve had meat do that during a meal
 
TimA said:
So nearly 8 hours on the grill, it likely got to at least stall. And slowly cooling over two hours? It’s probably fine. We’ve had meat do that during a meal
Click to expand...
That's kinda what I was thinking. I'm bringing it back up to 203 in the oven now. We'll see.
 
Did this a few times with my WSM, pretty much why I switched to the SmokeFire.
I’d cook the crap out of it and eat it, however I have thrown briskets away before, so 🤔.
 
I'm new to pressure canning. A few weeks ago I canned several pounds of ground beef. While processing, I was uncomfortable that I was achieving the prescribed "jiggle" intensity, which is an indicator of the required pressure, but I let it ride. Then I accidentally toggled the kitchen timer and shut it off. I reasoned with myself that I knew how much time was remaining, so I set a new timer for what I thought was the remaining time.

The following day, I took a hard look at myself and knew I did not have proof that the beef was processed safely. I chose against saving it for several reasons but also on this basis: it could be possible that myself and others would consume it and not suffer any ill effects. But that could lead to complacency in the future and luck may run out.

For me, money down the drain one time is hard enough of a lesson to get it right the next time and not only reduce risk but eliminate risk. But I'm not a food safety expert, so I am mostly sharing my personal opinion here.
 
Well, I ate it. Or at least a few slices. It wasn't great, but it was also my first time, and I used store-bought corned beef. It hasn't made me sick or anything yet.

I think what got me was that I used Pit Boss pellets because I was in a pinch last time and that's all I could get to the store and buy. They must have gotten a little funky in the hopper or something and they piled up on one end, which is what led up to the flame out.

First time I've ever had a flame out with the Smokefire and I would put this on myself. Normally I would ensure that I woke up early enough to make sure the pellets were still feeding smoothly, but I had a few drinks last night and I was a little hungover this morning, so I didn't get to it.

However, I've been thinking about going back to the WSM for a while, so once the weather gets nicer I'm going to pull it back out of my shed. It's been a few years, but I kind of miss it. If I could get my hands on a summit Kamado with the table I would replace my performer and my WSM and just keep the pellet smoker for convenience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top