Eddie wrote:

> I smoked two butts the other day. Went in about 5pm and pulled out at
> around 2am after hitting 198*
> I put it in an insulated bag and left it outside. By 10am it was
> still warm and served for lunch.
> Should I have put it in the refrig. when I took it out? Any danger of
> bad little critters forming? I figured 198 would just have killed any
> bacteria, so why refrig. right away?
> Eddie

Eddie,

The right thing to do is to fridge it right away. It was warm in the
morning but it still may have been in the 40-140 F danger zone for
too long.

There is a warning you may hear about not fridging hot stuff, but,
this is only a potential problem when the combined mass and temperature
of the hot food is such that it pulls the temperature of the fridge
above 38 F, which would put the other food in the fridge at risk.

The only time I've ever actually seen this happen though is when
someone put a super hot 20 qt stock pot into their home fridge. In that
case it did indeed bring the fridge temp up too high for too long.
This probably wouldn't happen with the 2 butts you cooked though.
It doesn't happen with my home fridge.

Best way to make sure that doesn't happen is to keep a thermometer
in the fridge and make sure it never goes above 38 F for long.