# may have ruined pork butt... need advice



## logancp (Mar 18, 2015)

Hey,

I ran into a problem with my cook tonight so I figured this would be the place to ask for help

I started a pork butt on my traeger tonight at around 9:00pm, I had the grill on "smoke" running at about 130°, I intended to leave it on smoke for a few hours then turn it to 225°.

I ended up falling asleep watching TV and woke up at 3:30am with the grill still on smoke, at that point I turned the temp up. Meat temp at that point was about 115°. 
So is it safe to eat still or not?? What are your thoughts?

Thanks!


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## bmaddox (Mar 18, 2015)

If you go by the USDA guidelines the answer is no. Based on the time line you gave it was in the danger zone for over 6 (and probably over 7) hours and anything over 4 hours is considered unsafe.

Some people might say yes it is safe but that is a big gamble. I personally don't like gambling with the chance of getting serious food poisoning so if it was me I would throw it away and start over.


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## gary s (Mar 18, 2015)

Better Safe than sorry,   Lesson Learned

Gary


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## sota d (Mar 18, 2015)

Definitely toss it. You need to get it out of the danger zone(40*-140*) in 4 hours or risk food poisoning. Def not worth the risk. Guess you'll just have to do another one and post pics for us! :-) David.


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