Brisket Failure- I screwed up big time- Let me have it!

[Edward]

Just wanted to publicly announce how bad I screwed up today. Make me feel better-kick me, punch me, slap me around I dunno but I feel like the biggest idiot right now. 15 pound Prime packer brisket from Costco. Trimmed, dry brined for 2 days, rubbed last night & into the smoker at 9pm. Auber was set for 200 until it reached an IT of 195 then hold for 30 hours at 140. Cooked my last brisket like this & didn't touch Auber settings since then. So let the dog out after I loaded the smoker- glance at the Auber & its at 145 figured great it's coming up. I fall asleep on the couch to wake up at 7am go check it out & its sitting at 140. I was like WTF. I go check my iPad as I have all the temps record/graph out. Box never made over 150 all night & Internal temp been 125 pretty much all night. So basically this brisket is trash because it's been in the danger zone for 10 hours already . I don't even know. I'm at a loss for words. So I open the door to take a look at it & it looks so damn good. Looks perfect- kills me even more! It will be a sad day. So go ahead, let me have it. I won't even try to block a kick or punch.

 

[Edward]

Here are the pics

 

[Edward]

More pics of failure

 

[Edward]

Here shows the box was 140 all night & meat IT was 125 all night.

 

[SuperDave]

In your first smoke, did you reprogram C1 when it hit 195 or did you program C2 for the hold temperature? 

P.S. - too bad you are not a little older with a prostate that makes you get up every couple of hours during the night.  LOL!  I got to check on my brisket multiple times last night.

 

[Edward]

Dave, this is what I have & used for the pork shoulder I did last weekend:
C-1  225
E-1  F
F-1  195
C-2  30

 

[SuperDave]

When you turn your Auber on, and you can even do it now in your kitchen, hit the "+" button and it should read "P-1" for program C1.  If it reads "P-2", it is stuck in your second program. 

 

[Edward]

Just checked it Dave & reads C1

 

[SuperDave]

Just checked it Dave & reads C1

C1 or P1.  It should read P1. 

 

[DivotMaker]

Edward, I'm missing something here.  When you setup your Auber, did you scroll through the program to make sure it was correct?  Is you Auber a GPH version, with the pre-set recipe programs?  If it is, some of the first models of these revert to the last program entered, after a power loss.  The later ones corrected that, but you may have one of the early versions. 

I'm failing to see why it stayed at 140 all night.

 

[Edward]

Dave-C1
Tony- Ive done last 3 smokes haven't touched the settings. I did scroll thru last night & looked to be on point. I do have a GPH version. Only thing I can think of is I had powered up the Auber to compare temps with the rest of my equipment with the smoker unplugged from the Auber. I fiddled with it for about an hour before I eventually put the meat in, plugged the smoker back into the Auber, & then flipped my bypass to digital. At that time the light on top of smoker came on & figured I was in business.

 

[nvw-ssv]

Either way.......sorry for your loss.  I mean that one HURTS!!! 

 

[DivotMaker]

Edward, whenever I set up a smoke, I always scroll through the 6 program settings, just to be certain I have it programmed right.  Definitely worth the 30 seconds it takes!

 

[Paul Case Luca]

I wonder.... Did you have the meat probe and smoker temp probe swapped on the back of the Auber?

 

[Pork Belly]

I don't know about Aubers, BUT I would have took that chunk of meat up to 200 and called it a day.

1. It was a whole muscle cut not ground product. Bacteria easily gets into ground product.
2. Taking it above 165 kills bad stuff.

Is there still some risk, sure but I'm talking about me and what I would do.

 

[SconnieQ]

I don't know about Aubers, BUT I would have took that chunk of meat up to 200 and called it a day.

1. It was a whole muscle cut not ground product. Bacteria easily gets into ground product.
2. Taking it above 165 kills bad stuff.

Is there still some risk, sure but I'm talking about me and what I would do.

+1. I probably would have risked it too. Being a solid hunk of meat, the risk is less. At around 120-125, the bacteria can no longer reproduce, so depending on how quickly the meat got to 125, you probably didn't experience much additional bacteria growth.

Bacteria start to die at 130. All bacteria will be killed if an internal temperature of 130 degrees is maintained for 112 minutes. 165 is the magic number for instantaneous bacteria death.

You are taking the brisket internal temperature all the way to 200 (as opposed to a pink interior like a steak). That would certainly kill all of the bacteria. But heat has no effect on the toxins that bacteria produce. Since your meat did get up to 125, a temperature where bacteria are no longer multiplying, there probably wouldn't be enough toxins to worry about. I wouldn't risk feeding it to elderly, children, or people with a lot of health problems, but being relatively young and healthy, I doubt I'd have a problem.

Disclaimer for the Legal Department: Of course I am NOT recommending everyone do that. But that's what I would do.

 

[nvw-ssv]

So, would you still chance it for a pork butt that took 4.5 to 5 hours to get from 40F to 140F, considering you're taking up to 190F or more? 

I mean, if all bacteria are killed at 165+, then it would be OK, right ?  just trying to learn and not sweat the magic "40F to 140F in four hours" so much.

 

[Pork Belly]

No I would throw out a pork butt they are cheap, prime brisket is not. Having said that, I freely admit to doing a lot of dumb stuff before I knew better.

 

[SconnieQ]

It's probably best to follow the USDA food safety guidelines. The whole food safety time and temperature thing is way more complicated. What the USDA is trying to do is come up with a "one size fits all" approach that is simple enough for everyone to understand and follow. It is also overly-cautious in order to keep everyone safe. So there is some wiggle-room built in there. But unless you are confident and have studied up, you should follow the USDA guidelines. I have read several articles on the topic since I got into sous vide, which at first glance seems to turn the USDA guidelines on it's head. I'm starting to understand why it is such a challenge for the USDA to come up with simple guidelines. Here's an example of an article that demonstrates the complexity of the danger zone, but has some good information and graphs, if anyone has the patience or interest to read it.

http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/februarymarch-2004/the-danger-zone-reevaluated/

 

[BedouinBob]

+1 PB! As long as the temp gets up to almost 200, the bugs, if there are any, are dead! Basic biology. If it was bad it might taste "off" but I doubt it.