One question that continues to come up in my mind is the issue of food safety and particularly in the danger zone range of 40 to 140 degrees. Now obviously, when you take the meat out of the refrigerator, it is probably in the 36-38 degree range. But then you plop it in the CS and it (or substatial parts of it) remains in the 40-140 range for a long time. For example, a few weeks ago, I did a 10.5 lb. beef round tip roast. I had it in for over 9 hours at about 200 degrees and took it out when it reached an internal temperature of 140 degrees. Now, that's a little over nine hours in the danger zone. Is this too long?
I have even seen some government documents on food cooking safety say to never cook meat at less than 325 degrees. On the other hand, I am not seeing or hearing of many of you (ie. CS forumer's) droping dead or complaining about sicknesses relating to your "slow/low" cooking on the CS. And just to assure you, I am still alive and well after eating many portions of my round tip roast that was in the danger zone for over 9 hours.
I have also seen much discussion about using cures in certain low temperature cooking circumstances (Particularly cold smoking). There is certainly much discussion on using cures when, let say, doing turkeys over long cooking times such as 15-20 hours.
The question is then, how long can you stay within the danger zone (for even small portions of the meat) and still remain relatively safe? Obviously, even when you put it in a regualr oven at 350 degrees, the internal parts of the meat will still be in the danger zone for a time-albeit substantially less that at a lower temperature such as in a CS.
Thanks.
MIN Que
