can you take ribs brisket or any other meat for that matter right from the freezer still frozen to the smoker?
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Hey Bluegill,
There may be differing opinions, but I'm not really a big fan of doing what you described for a few reasons.
The first is food safety. I've not taken the time to map what the inside temps of frozen meats are during a 225F cook cycle, but my guess is that, especially in a thicker cut of meat, the internals are hovering in that 40 to 140 danger zone for longer than you would like.
The second reason is flavor. Again this is non-scientific, but I would think that frozen meats would be less receptive to your rub and the smoke than thawed meat. Now, you can certainly lay down some smoke flavor on the surface of frozen meat, but I would think that the smoke wouldn't penetrate into the interior as well.
With all that said, my ribs arrive frozen, 9 non-crypacked slabs to a case. So basically, I have a 33 pound block of ribs. It takes 2 or 3 days in the cooler before the outside ribs in the box are thawed, and at that point, the slabs in the center of the case are still partially frozen. We rub those partially frozen ribs down and smoke them right with the others, and they will cook up about the same. I'm not sure that would be the case with thicker cuts of meat however.
YMMV...
Matt
There may be differing opinions, but I'm not really a big fan of doing what you described for a few reasons.
The first is food safety. I've not taken the time to map what the inside temps of frozen meats are during a 225F cook cycle, but my guess is that, especially in a thicker cut of meat, the internals are hovering in that 40 to 140 danger zone for longer than you would like.
The second reason is flavor. Again this is non-scientific, but I would think that frozen meats would be less receptive to your rub and the smoke than thawed meat. Now, you can certainly lay down some smoke flavor on the surface of frozen meat, but I would think that the smoke wouldn't penetrate into the interior as well.
With all that said, my ribs arrive frozen, 9 non-crypacked slabs to a case. So basically, I have a 33 pound block of ribs. It takes 2 or 3 days in the cooler before the outside ribs in the box are thawed, and at that point, the slabs in the center of the case are still partially frozen. We rub those partially frozen ribs down and smoke them right with the others, and they will cook up about the same. I'm not sure that would be the case with thicker cuts of meat however.
YMMV...
Matt
It's my understanding that mnhogfarmer (Roger) does this quite often with pork butt. Maybe he can shed some light on the subject.