Posted on 03/04/2022 11:45:25 AM PST by mylife
Growing up, the answer to can pork be pink? was an absolute no. The only pork we ate was gray, tough and chewy. That's not a knock to my mother's cooking; she followed the guidelines established at that time, cooking pork to the safe temperature of 160°F. Sadly, that "safe" pork was also overcooked.
Luckily for pork lovers, the United States Department of Agriculture—the organization responsible for determining minimum safe food temperatures—revised their recommendations for food-safe temperatures in 2011. Now, pork is safe to eat when it reaches 145°F. The lower temperature means your pork will be juicy, tender and delicious, but it may also have a hint of color.
So, is pink pork safe? In short, yes! We used to be afraid of pink pork because of a parasite known as trichinosis, but the risk of contracting it is virtually nonexistent these days.
Like beef, pork temperatures are designed to cook the meat long enough to nix E. coli, which means it may have a little color in the middle.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Iirc Alton brown recommended a minimum of 143.5 a few years ago.
Other than ribs I cook most pork in either a crock pot or dutch oven with a liquid.
Fish and Chips today - Pork tomorrow.
Mohammed says eat it raw! /sarc
Thanksgiving 2019 my wife got us a ham; cooked it up and it smelled great. At the dinner table I went to carve it and noticed that small thread-like things came out if you pressed the meat with a fork or knife. A magnifying glass showed us that the were dead worms (thousands of them). We had mac and cheese for Thanksgiving.
Fasting is biblical.
I just cook chops on one side til blood (cloudy juices) bubble up, flip and when clear juices come up let it rest
perfecto
It is if you’re Catholic.
If you sous vide pork at 135 for 5 or 6 hours there is not going to be any trichinosis alive. It time and temp, not just temp.
where’d she buy than ham?
If it’s not pink, it’s overcooked
I agree.
It should only have a hint of pink, at best. It should never be obviously pink!
I’ve had white pork meat that’s really good - but *I* didn’t cook it! I tend to get lazy and let things overcook.
And the pigs "the other white meat" comes from wouldn't survive outdoors.
Grilled cheese, tomato soup and cheese squares tonight for me.
Pigs are the best. You can eat everything and do anything to it.
Ham, salt ham (Smithfield), bacon, just plain pork....etc.
Germans loved it - my mom’s family was a pork packer in Baltimore (technically still are - but “that side” of the family as grandpa let his brothers have it all).
The admonition that pork had to be cooked until it was good and white comes from a time where there were more dangerous organism in pork (trichinosis anyone?) and pork came from a variety of sources, some of which were not well regulated.
I believe that danger is still present if you eat wild game, but not so much from pork raised in an environment where they make it less likely to have the organism.
So it is safer today to cook it less. I personally try to cook right up to the point it is about to go all white inside, and stop there.
I don’t mind a rare to medium rare steak, but can’t do it with pork. Even a little pink makes me...suspicious.
Safe is a relative term.
There endeth the lesson.
That has been the best way to cook meat, I have found. The flavor is great and you can rescue some pretty tough meat with long cooking times.
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