Opinions needed ASAP on meat storage


 
Brett Fields

Brett Fields

TVWBB Fan
I prepared six racks of ribs last night to be smoked on the 23rd. They're trimmed, rubbed and vacuum packed using a FoodSaver. I have no room in my fridge to store them, so I put them in a cooler outside and tossed in a temp transmitter that I can monitor from my laptop. The current temp inside the cooler is 34 degrees while the outside temp is 24. The device sends me the probe temp as well as its own temp.

Question: If my meat drops below 32 degrees, am I in trouble?

Thanks, Brett
 
Thanks George. The probe temp is 33. I guess if it hits 31, I'll just open the lid a bit so it stays frozen.

.... or will the salt in the rub prevent freezing at 32 degrees???
 
I agree with George and I wouldn't worry about it. While living in Southern California we would camp in the high desert and used to freeze marinated steaks (with Teriyaki sauce). After several days in the ice chest they became defrosted and were ready for grilling. This was over 30 years ago and we experienced no problem.

You stay warm Brett...
 
Brett,so long as the meat stay below 40,everything is fine. And,yes,the salt will delay the freezing process.
 
I work in a food service warehouse. When we receive trucks we have temp tolerances the tucks have to be refrigerated at. Beef is 35 degrees and chicken is 45 (or might even be 55 deghrees, I can't remember). You would think it would be the opposite, with the beef having higher tolerances. So I would say your pork would be good to go.
 
Thank you all for your insight. You've all helped to dial back my stress level.

Don, in my previous life I used to be involved in factory process control relative to temperature and data aquisition. I was always partial to a company called Omega out of Connecticut because of their product quality and outstanding support. In the last few years, they've started producing wireless products but they were still a bit out of reach for BBQ. They've recently added a lower cost set of products that while still a bit pricey, are very much within reach off the mainstream BBQ community. I just ordered up a transmitter and a receiver to play with. They're so far outstanding and of far better quality than the stuff thats out there marketed towards BBQ. Another nice thing is that one receiver can monitor 48 transmitters, and the software comes with the receiver for free.

Check out Omega Wireless stuff and scroll down to the MWTC stuff. A real basic thermocouple is included, but more appropriate probes can be ordered. Ask me about that later. If you or anyone else wants to continue this discussion, I'll be happy to move it over to the Temp control forum.

Enjoy, Brett
 
Just for the sake of tossing it out there....

The probes data log shows that the cooler got as low as 31 degrees from 5:45am to 10:25am then back to 32 to 33 degrees.

Brett
 
Update to my event:

So after4 days living in a cooler in my backyard, I opened the ribs at about 3:00 on the 23rd. They were not frozen and smelled excellent. I gave them a quick sprinkle with the same rub and tossed them into the WSM. No problem.

As for the Omega Transmitter & Receiver, they worked great. The transmitter ran non stop for the duration, and I had a temp indicated on my desktop continuously with a data log to refer back on.

All in all, an educational experience.

Thank you all again.
 
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