Anonymous Modernist 749

I don't know if this will help, but the USDA publishes guidelines for beef cooking which specify that the meat must be held for "at least" the minimum time for a given temperature, but have no upper bound. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/fr/95033F-a.htm You might also consider the Pathogen Modeling Program, which will allow you to simulate bacteria growth/decay for your specific plans. Then you'd just need to put a probe thermometer in the center of you meat to measure the internal temperature. http://ars.usda.gov/services/docs.htm?docid=6786 Hopefully some of this will help you work out a solution with the health department.

Well, Hurricane Irene took my first attempt (I had to throw out the shoulder after an extended power outage), so I didn't get around to trying again until this past weekend. I wasn't as careful as I should have been with the smoking (the meat got hotter than I would have liked it), but that didn't hurt the end product too much. The pork was still nice and tender and had a good amount of smoke absorption. I smoked it once for about 45 minutes. In the future, I'll probably smoke it twice for shorter periods of time (and maybe put a thermometer in there so I can stop it when the temperature gets too high). Overall though, I was very satisfied with the final result.

Thanks Chris. I put the pork in the water bath this morning, so it'll be ready this weekend. I'll report back on how it goes.

I just ordered a Cameron stove-top smoker (I live in an apartment, so outdoor options are prohibited) and was wondering if anybody had tips for the best ways to get smoke absorption with the limits of this setup. I'd like to try the pulled pork recipe in the book finished sous vide, but the 7-hour hot smoke is obviously not repeatable indoors. My current thoughts are: 1. Cut the food into small pieces to maximize surface area. However, it seems the smaller they get, the faster they'll dry out which will limit smoke absorption. 2. Smoke the food multiple times. I remember reading that once the food reaches a certain temperature, smoke absorption stops. Is this true? Is this actually because of the temperature of the food or is it the wet/dry issue discussed in the book? If temperature is an issue, would smoking, cooling, then resmoking work? 3. Use a heavier smoke like oak or mesquite. Would these overpower the pork or would they effectively counteract the limitations of an indoor setup? If anybody has any other thoughts on indoor smoking, I'd be happy to hear them (foods that work best, wood types, temperature/humidity control, etc). I'm looking forward to trying the smoked potatoes, which specifically mention a stove-top smoker.