Lately I’ve read that, due to improvements in hog raising and meat handling, pork is so much cleaner now than in times past that it’s no longer necessary to cook it until there’s no pink left. That one can, in fact, safely eat pork that’s visibly, well, underdone. Indeed, there was one source I read which actually recommended serving it that way!
Now, I’m a pretty damned good cook, and have a particularly nice hand with pork. I have* always* cooked the stuff just until the last trace of pink is gone. The very notion of eating pink roast pork is off-putting to me, no matter who claims it’s safe to do so, to say nothing of serving such undercooked (to my mind, anyway) fare to anyone else. Nonetheless, I’ve read that it’s not only safe, it’s even desirable sometimes. Are they serious? Even considering modern advances in swine science, is eating underdone pork *ever *a good idea?
Is the color an accurate indication of whether or not it’s properly cooked? The USDA says to heat it to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit, and that the color may vary.
Well, if it’s any help, freezing meat kills many of the swine specific parasites. Undercooking a thawed pork chop is safer than undercooking one that has never been frozen. Still, I’m not sure I’d want to do it.
When I was in Australia 4 years ago there were TV adverts for the Pork industry saying that pork could safely be served medium rare- I don’t think anyone is suggesting you serve it rare or blue.
This matches my experience with using a meat thermometer. Unless mine is inaccurate, there can still be some pink at that temperature and above. Also the colour varies according to the breed, as well.
The rule to have the pork completely white was overkill dating from the days before meat thermometers were all that accurate: it’s a simple rule and easy to apply. But it does tend to lead to dried out meat.
Well tell me pretty damned good cook do you make people eat their steak the way you like it - cook it until there’s no pink left, or is that for some reason not “underdone”?
A good cook doesn’t serve food that carries a potential health risk to his or her guests. That’s not a matter of taste, but a sense of responsibility. The OP is asking if the scientific opinion on pink pork being unsafe has changed.
That issue has never arisen with beef, which doesn’t carry the trichinosis bug, so serving pink beef is simply a matter of taste.
Anyway, I recall reading a couple years ago that there had been about 15 cases of trichinosis in about the last 20 years in America from pigs.
The wiki page says, “The few cases in the United States are mostly the result of eating undercooked game, bear meat, or home reared pigs.”
Still, I just don’t enjoy rare pork as much as I do rare beef. Maybe I haven’t had it prepared the right way. But, I certainly don’t go through the effort of throwing that tenderloin back on the grill if I cut into it and find it a little pink.
Since we started using a thermometer, we’ve served our pork pinker. But we found our preference was for it to be a little more done than the thermometer said is “acceptable.”
My SO and I have been eating pork slightly pink since Alton Brown said it tastes better that way. Since Alton is my Food Network god, I trust that it’s mostly safe to do this. It does taste so much better and had allowed me to actually like porkchops after hating them my whole life due to their toughness and dryness from being cooked to carbon dust.
We use a meat thermometer when we do pork chops or tenderloins, and end up with pork that’s a little on the pink side, and tender and juicy. We tend to shoot for about 150 or so on the thermometer, and as said above, that often results in pinker meat but nothing that I’d call “rare.”
Same thing now apparently applies to Chicken. It doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through. Surprised the hell out of me when I was out to dinner and recieved a half-raw chicken breast. I still prefer my meat cooked thank you.
Chicken that isn’t cooked all the way through has a texture that is inedible to me. I’ve never heard of serving chicken that has any pink remaining and I would send it back if a restaurant served it to me. I’ve eaten plenty of pork with a pink middle, ever since a waiter explained to me about 8 years ago that it is perfectly safe if the meat is cooked to the right temperature. Ten minutes later he brought me the best pork chop I’d ever had.
Trichinosis is basically unheard of these days in commercial pork.
You used to be able to get away with overcooking pork, because it had enough fat in it to still be juicy. Nowadays pigs are bred to be so lean than by the time there’s no pink it’s like eating leather.
If you ask me, you’re much more likely to choke on a tough piece of overcooked pork than to get trichinosis from an undercooked piece.
I’ve even heard of pork tartare being served, but I don’t think I’d go that far.
No, chicken still needs to be thoroughly cooked. Most people overcook it, so maybe what you’re seeing is being cooked to the right temp instead of 10-20 degrees over, but I haven’t heard anybody suggest that we can start undercooking it.
I would second what Doctor J has said. Pork is perfectly ok to serve less than well done these days. Trichinosis is not really a concern anymore with commercial pork products. So, if you like your beef less than well you would probably like pork the same way.