Smoked Meat Smoked Meats 101 - Safe Internal Cooking Temperatures

Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Slicer Why Cook To A Specific Temperature?

Roughly 1 in 6 U.S. citizens will suffer from some form of a foodborne illness every year according to the CDC. There are many reasons for this but one good way to prevent this from happening is to cook your meats to the FDA recommended internal cooking temperature. Reaching this temperature will kill off harmful germs and spores associated with that meat type and form.

What Are The Safe Internal Temperatures?

For Beef, Pork, Veal and Lamb you want to cook entire pieces like steaks, chops or roasts up to 145° and cook any ground product like hamburger or ground beef up to 160°. The reasoning for this is that the center of something like a steak has been protected from being introduced to harmful bacteria by the meat on the outside, as soon as you grind that up you are potentially exposing all of it to the bacteria.

For Poultry, like chicken and turkey, you want to cook your meat until the internal temperature is 165°. This includes all cuts of poultry including the breast, legs, wings, and ground meat. This is going to kill off a large number of harmful bacteria including E. Coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus amongst other.

For Fish, including shellfish, the safe internal temperature is also 145°. There are obviously some exceptions to this like sushi and sashimi but those are made safe in other ways, mostly freezing it to a temperature that will kill any parasites that are living within the fish.

How Can You Monitor This?

The best way to ensure you are cooking your meat to the correct internal temperature is to use a digital probe thermometer. The Grilleye Pro Plus Thermometer makes monitoring your foods internal temperature easy, with this system you leave the probe in the meat through the cooking process. It communicates the temperature back to the base of the unit that sits outside the smoker or grill and this one will communicate that information back to your smartphone so you don’t even have to be able to see the base unit to monitor the temperature.

USDA Documentation

Check out the USDA’s documentation on Safe Minumum Internal Temperatures and also check out the USDAs Appendix A specifically the bottom where it shows you the time and temp holds for lethality treatments.

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Smoked Meat Smoked Meats 102 - Using Different Woods

Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Smoking Chips Smoking Fine Does The Type Of Wood Impart A Specific Flavor?

Few things cause more confusion with people who are new to smoking than the different types of woods available. They here Apple Smoked Bacon and expect the bacon to have an apple flavor. This is not how using different woods works, the type of wood you use is not going to impart a different flavor of smoke. What the difference between the smoke different woods put off is the strength of the smoke. Fruitwoods like Apple and Cherry put out a milder smoke and are great choices for lighter flavored meats like chicken and fish, I also smoke any vegetables I am doing over fruit woods.

When To Use Apple

Apple has a mild, subtle smoke. It works great with poultry, fish, pork, and vegetables. It can be, and often is used for Hams, Pork Shoulder, and Turkey.

When To Use Cherry

Cherry is also a milder subtle smoke. It works great with large cuts of meat like Ham, Pork Shoulder, Fish (especially Salmon) and all types of Poultry. This is also a good wood to use with Chimineas.

When To Use Hickory

Hickory has a very strong smoke to it. It works well with all types of beef and pork as long as you like smoke flavor. Hickory is the most popular wood to use when smoking and grilling.

When To Use Mesquite

Mesquite has a very strong smoke to it. Similar to Hickory it works well with any red meat especially wild game. Mesquite is often the culprit when something has too smokey a flavor to it.

When To Use Pecan

Pecan is similar to Hickory with a lighter smoke, it imparts a subtle mild flavor of smoke. Pecan is good on every type of meat, especially poultry but it also works very well when doing vegetables or other non-meat items. Pecan is what I use almost exclusively when either smoking or grilling with my pellet grill.

When To Use Osage Orange (Hedge)

This is a very hard wood and it burns extremely hot. When used as a blend with oak it is suitable for smoking but by itself, it is best used as a heat source.

Pellets Vs. Chunk Wood

Pellets grills are becoming more and more popular in the United States with numerous manufacturers entering the market. Pellets grills main advantage over charcoal and wood is the convenience, you can simply push a button and be smoking or grilling in a few minutes. People have wildly varying opinions on how effective these “combo smokers” are, I will tell you from experience that Pellet Grills impart somewhere between 50-75% of the smoke flavor that using a wood and charcoal smoker will.

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Smoked Meat Header Smoked Meats 104 Smoked Pork Loin

Attend this entry-level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Pork Loin Grinding Meat Pk-100 What Is Tenderloin?

One of the easiest and most common things to be smoked at home is a pork tenderloin. They are readily available at almost any grocery store or supermarket and they are easy to get right. The fact that it is a tenderloin means it is the psoas major muscle, which is it is a muscle that runs along the spine. They are tender as they aren’t a heavily used muscle like the chest or leg would be.

Meat Block

3 lb of Pork Tenderloin
1 Shaker of Pork Roast with Apple Cinnamon and Butter
1 Shaker of Apple Sweet and Sassy Rump Rub

Equipment

Walton’s Automatic Syringe Injector
Grilleye Pro Plus

Process

The usage on the Pork Roast with Apple Cinnamon and Butter is 5 oz to 6.25 lb of pork and just about 1 lb of water. Since we have about 3 lb of tenderloin we are going to dissolve half the shaker in half an lb of water. Next, we will place our pork tenderloin in a bag and pour in the mix over it, then we will vacuum seal it to remove the air and leave it in a refrigerator overnight.

Marinating

So to marinate this I am going to put it in a vacuum bag with the seasoning and since this marinade already contains phosphates it will do a good job of soaking in and staying in the meat through the cooking process. If the marinade you are using does not contain phosphates I would consider adding some as it will chemically change the meat so it has a higher water holding capacity. If we were doing a thicker cut like a pork butt and maybe even an entire Pork Loin I would inject it but as this is a 104 class we will cover injecting in later videos.

Topical Rub

Rub all sides of the Tenderloin with the rub of your choice. Since we have already marinated this it should have enough moisture for the seasoning to stick to the tenderloin, if it is not sticking to the meat you can rub it with some mustard and then rub the topical seasoning onto the mustard.

Wood

For Pork you can really use any wood you want, Fruitwoods like Apple and Pecan are good choices if you like a lighter smoke flavor but the pork will definitely stand up to Hickory or Mesquite as well. If we were smoking chicken or fish I would definitely stay in the fruitwood family though as stronger smoke flavors will overpower those types of meat.

Note

Adding a pan of water to your smoker can help increase the humidity inside of the smoker. Humidity can help speed up cook times and it will give you a moister finished product. I like to use the Grilleye Pro Plus as it allows me to monitor the temperature of the meat without ever having to get up. It can connect through Bluetooth or through my wireless network. It also allows me to set alarms so if I am not paying attention it will start beeping at me once it has reached a set temperature or is outside a temperature range.

Thermal Processing & Smoking

225° until the internal temperature is 145°

Cooling

Let the meat sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before cutting.

Wrap up

If you are looking at smoking your first piece of meat pork tenderloin is a great choice, it is very easy to do, does not require any special preparation and almost always ends up as a delicious meal!

Additional Tips If you want to pull your Pork Loin at 140° and wrap in foil it will continue to cook for another 5° to get you to 145°. Other Notes

We can get away with an internal temp of less than 160° because this is a whole muscle cut and very little if any, bacteria live inside of the muscle of the animal. It will instead be concentrated on the outside and by getting the internal temperature to 145° we know the outside is well above 160°.

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Smoked Meat Smoked Meats 103 - Benefits of Marinating Meat

Attend this entry level class from Meatgistics University by watching the video, reading the article and post any questions you have!

Slicer Marinated Tenderloin Why Marinate?

As you cook any meat you are going to have a fair amount of moisture loss. This happens because as the meat is heated up the muscle fiber expel water and that is pushed to the surface of the meat where it evaporates. Different meats will lose different amounts of weight through cooking but a lot of cuts of beef can lose up to 25% of it’s starting weight during a cooking process, mostly due to moisture loss. A good way to combat this is to marinate your meat before grilling or smoking it. This is not only going to impart a flavor but will also increase the water content of the meat so you will have a moister finished product, especially if you use phosphates.

What Do Phosphates Do?

Phosphates work by increasing the pH level of the meat and move it farther away from the isoelectric point of 5.2 which is what most meat starts at. Isoelectric means that the meat has no electric charge or difference in electric potential, so there are no negative ions for the water to bind too. However, when we move the pH we are creating negative protein charges, the water will then bind to these and increase the water holding capacity of the meat. In short, it means that you can pump more water into your meat and it will stay there throughout the cooking process. An important note is that no other pH altering substance should be added.

Can I Add Phosphates?

Yes, Cold Phosphate can be added to any marinade to help it increase the water holding capacity of your meat. When adding phosphates you need to be sure that the marinade, or seasoning, that you are using does not already contain any type of phosphates. The maximum usage of phosphates is 2 oz per 25 lb of meat if you go over that amount you might notice a slight soapy taste, so be careful.

How Long Should You Marinate Meat?

The minimum amount of time to marinate any meat is 2 hours. Any less than that and you are basically getting the taste on the outside but it will not penetrate the meat. It IS possible to over marinate meat though as the ingredients in some marinades can actually toughen, or even begin to chemically cook, the meat if it is done for too long. If I am marinating beef or pork I generally like to put it in the refrigerator, in a vacuum bag, for 12 hours. For chicken, I like to marinade it for 24 hours as it takes longer for the marinade to penetrate chicken then it does for beef.

Vacuum Packing And Marinating

Adding Vacuum Packing to your marinating process helps in two ways. First, as it removes the air from the bag it will make sure more of your marinade comes into contact with the surface of your meat. The second thing it does is it will SLIGHTLY pull the fibers of the meat apart as it is under a vacuum, which allows the marinade to penetrate quicker and deeper.

Vacuum Tumbling

Vacuum Tumbling, especially when combined with injecting, is the most efficient way to marinate your meat. The Vacuum pulls all of the air out a chamber and then the chamber rotates the meat, picking it up off of the bottom with paddles and then drops it down back into the bottom of the chamber creating impact energy. This energy loosens the fibers of the meat and allows the marinade to penetrate quickly and fully. The Vacuum also plays a small part in this but it is generally done under a vacuum to prevent the marinating solution from foaming up.

Wrapup

So marinating, especially under a vacuum, can provide you with a juicier more tender piece of meat with more flavor. Injecting or vacuum tumbling is the preferred way to marinate though as it will allow you to get your marinade directly into the muscle of the meat and you won’t have to rely on osmosis to pass the solution through the permeable cellular structure.

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