I used to have a ThermoPro cooking timer/thermometer with a wireless remote display. I used that hard for many years for home use and bbq contests. It worked great and lasted through a lot of abuse and weather conditions. Eventually an internal connection where the probe plugs in failed and I replaced it with a ThermoWorks version.
Ground meat is typically safe at 160. Ground chicken needs 165.
Ground turkey and ground chicken - I guess I used “chicken” instead of “poultry”. But there are chicken sausages out there. Most of those seem to be precooked, though.
There used to be an FDA time/temp chart out in the wild somewhere. I don’t know if it’s still current or even available. It had a chart for, say chicken and salmonella and other bad things. The charts were like 165F-instant, 160F-10 seconds, …, 147F-xx minutes. Any of those combinations would be safe.
It’s probably this one:
The pork shoulder/Boston Butt on the grill is currently at 187 degrees with an hour to cook. I usually shoot for 195 degrees, although a lot of folks go a little hotter.
Depends on what texture you're shooting for. This year I pulled the pig off a little cooler (right when it hit 190) and chopped it. I think that came out a lot nicer. Going to 210 and having it fall apart is kind of meely.
I’m good with that 195 +/- a couple for pork butts, too.
I recently bought some ground chicken that was on a really good sale. I had a $2 coupon and the store had it on sale (BOGO), so it was less than half price.
Yay food science and food safety.
This is one of our favorite ways to use ground chicken: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/buffalo-chicken-burgers-5617667 . You may want to back off on the butter, this recipe would make Paula Deen seem like an ascetic.
Do check the labeling on steaks. I’m a fan of Costco but switched over to their primals because the steaks are blade tenderized.
I would like to try Sous vide, but ALL THAT PLASTIC!
I haven’t tried for sous vide in particular, but my freezer bags I reuse a bunch of times by taking out what I need and resealing what remains. Sous vide wise, as long as you get them clean, they would reseal. And the contents typically are pasteurized so even less worry on contamination. I’d probably still aim to not mix food types as some flavor may remain. Or they make ‘reusable’ but you lose the ability to vacuum so…not ideal in my book.
I think so. I haven't used the Weber but I have used several types of analog "instant" read thermometers. It still take several seconds to a minute to swing the dial up to the internal temperature. My Thermapro really is (practically) instant.
ThermaPens claim about 1-3 seconds for a steady reading. The old school steam gauges can take a while to stabilize. The advantage of instant read is being able to poke several different places and quickly get a feel for heat distribution in a large chunk of meat. Other digital brands, like Weber, probably take 5-10 seconds (just my guess) because they seem to have a thicker probe. ThermaPen and TheroPro, and ThermoWorks brands, have a thinner needle-like tip that holds the thermocouple.
because the cheaper alternative to that is "mechanically separated chicken". Don't google what it is shortly before a meal.
