Smokin-It User Forum!
User Guidelines and Instructions => Guide to Smoking Times, Temps, Woods => Topic started by: Sean Olivares on December 27, 2015, 06:38:27 PM
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Hello guys, I have heard about people cooking meat at 165 Fahrenheit for extended times for very tender meat.
Having read through the forum and understanding the Smoking it model 2 the best way way to go about something like that would be to get a meat thermometer and decide on a internal temp and then just wait till the correct temp is reached. Do not depend on a set time.
Anyone have experience cooking with real low temps for extended times?
Do you feel that it adds anything beneficial?
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Sean, my guess is it wouldn't add much and meats like port butts need to be in the 190 range to be tender. I would think that is a little low for temp. Check out sous vida in another part of the forum and you will see some really low and slow cook methods. Happy New Year!
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In addition to the pork butts that Bob mentioned, some meats should reach an internal temp of 140 within 4 hours. A box temp of 165 would make that impossible to reach with anything other than the thinnest of cuts.
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That does work well for sous vide. Check out my post about cooking a chuck steak at 131 for 4 days!
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=4390.msg39848#msg39848
You can break down a tough cut of meat at a lower temperature given A LOT of time. You end up with a very tender, prime-rib-like medium rare steak. 130 is actually a safe temp if held for 112 minutes or more (not widely publicized since it mostly pertains to sous-vide and requires precision/accuracy. 140 is safe when held for 12 minutes or more).
I also started wondering about lower temp prolonged smoking/cooking. Sous vide is in a sealed pouch. My fear with super low and slow in the smoker, is even if you can get the meat up to a safe temp within 4 hours (which is possible, start at higher temp, turn down when IT 140 is reached), a prolonged period at a low temp might eventually just dry out the meat. You'd need to wrap it, or cook it in a pan with liquid (braising). As long as you keep the IT of the meat above 140, anything is possible I suppose. You could always try it and see what happens. As long as you make sure it stays at a safe temperature, the worst that can happen is that it turns out terrible.
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Thanks, all.
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Sean, the only meat I smoke below at least 200 is jerky, and that's at 140. I don't think 165 would be good for most things.