AQ Holding temp questions.

If the turkey had come to your set probe temp, which I assume would be around 165*, then as long as the hold temp stays at 140 the turkey should never drop below that temp. Sounds like your probe may have been place in a spot that got hot prematurly before the bird was done. Unfortunately sounds like meat may have been in danger zone too long.

I'm alittle confused. If the hold feature keeps the temp to 140 why wouldn't it have kept the internal temp to close to that as well?

You can eat it below 140*, but it needs to be there a short period of time 1-2 hrs.

The biggest problem is like TN Q stated. How do we know it got to finish temp. It was probably in the danger zone 40-140* more than the 4hrs.

Hate to say better safe then sorry(sick,dead).

If it was finished at 165*, it would have stayed over 140* for 3 1/4 hrs.

It may be that your probe was in a spot that came to temp very fast before the bigger mass of the turkey came to temp. The smoker then was put into hold before the bird was ready. The meat temp then would redistribute and because the bigger mass was was colder the overall temp would drop since there is not enough additional heat from the smoker. FYI, here is the USDA Guide.

ok guys thanks. I guess I really need to just be home until I get better at these times. I just can't help mkyself though, I wanna smoke everything in sight.

Might tell us what temp you were cooking at, size of breast, and how long it took before it went to hold.

Cal,
Temp was set at 210. It was around 3 lbs And it took 5 hrs 20 minutes before it went to hold.

Looks like I'm having pizza tonight.

For future what is lowest temp I could smoke at to prolong the cook while away at work?

I'm wondering if you had an interruption in service. The AQ will go to hold cycle if this happens.

Some things you can cook low and slow without drying out,PB, Brisket, but others it is harder to do.

210 is fairly low but you can lower. I do cook salmon at 190 usually with no problems. What was your meat temp probe set at; need to try to be sure the end of the probe is in the thickest part of the breast.

quote:

Originally posted by cal:
I'm wondering if you had an interruption in service. The AQ will go to hold cycle if this happens.

Some things you can cook low and slow without drying out,PB, Brisket, but others it is harder to do.

actually the AmQ will reset to off on power failure.

db

Sorry hard to keep up with the different smokers. Just can't wait to throw the new,old CS09 knowledge in with everything else.

Hope it's the same old work horse as before.

agreed; it is a bit crazy with all the different parameters and no clearly written instructions/operating procedures in manuals.

Well. 5 hrs. 20 minutes seems like a long time for a 3# breast to come to temp.

I ,also,am not up to speed on the probes and holding temps,but I post constantly about verifying the ACTUAL temp at the cooking spot,and the accuracy of the therms.

Learn where/how the cooker likes to cook.

Have experience with the power needs,before we go away from any of our cookers-even a charcoal Weber.

There was a lot of discussion about whether to even add therms to the residential cookers,since then folks got more involved in therms than learning about the product being cooked and the cooker.

Hopefully, folks learn to use the therms and hold features as some of the MANY tools to cooking.

Another tool,of course is Smokin's Brining 101 and discussions of TQ,or Prague in the brines.

Thus,longer/slower poultry cooks can be safer.

The many experienced cooks already chimed in about power outages,etc and the "better safe than sorry" tool.

Every cook is experience and that is the only way to get most of it,which is usually the fun part.

quote:

Originally posted by Tim-In-AZ:
I'm alittle confused. If the hold feature keeps the temp to 140 why wouldn't it have kept the internal temp to close to that as well?

I'm not sure why but it seems turkey is ticklish relative to beef or pork. Anyone know why?