I read the column every week in my local free weekly “alternative” newspaper. Cecil and/or the Teeming Millions can find the answer to ANYTHING. Normally, I am a fairly good researcher myself but am unable to find the answer to this plaguing question, so I now refer it to you.
Growing up, every time my mother made any pork entree [i.e. pork chops, pork steaks, pork ribs] she insisted that we eat applesauce with it to kill the Trichinella worms. So now any time I eat pork, it is ingrained that I must have applesauce. Last night I was thinking about this [before a dinner of pork ribs] and decided to do some research on the matter, to see if there was any truth to it or if it was just an old wives’ tale. I can find all kinds of info about trichinosis and Trichinella worms, but nothing that says these worms are in fact killed by applesauce. When I Googled pork and applesauce together I came up with over 150,000 hits, mostly recipes, so I understand it’s a very common food combination. Is it because everyone had a mother that believed as my mother did? Admittedly, they taste great together, but I really think there’s more to the story. :dubious:
Can someone help a gal out? I never eat pork without applesauce, but it’s honestly just because it’s so yummy, I swear! I’m not really afraid of worms…
Well, speculation here, but the way to kill trichinosis is to cook the meat thoroughly. Maybe that dries it out a bit, so the applesauce helps moisten it afterwards. And then the causality of the relationship got confused at some point.
Oh, I understand how to actually kill the worms, which are not as much of a problem as people may think these days. But your speculation makes sense. Thanks for such a quick reply!
My father had an absolute phobia about trichinosis, and insisted that any pork he ate be cooked down to the consistency and taste of shoe leather. In all that time, he never expressed a thought that applesauce helped the process.
Is that true? I know mother always told me to cook the hell out of pork but never really said why.
Cat_Jones spent the week in Leipzig where she dined on raw pork-meat spread on bread. It makes more sense to me now as to how they were able to get away with it !
there are less than 15 cases of trichinosis a year in the US ( http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm ). You are more likely to get hit by a car crossing the road. Many of the above cases can be traced to eating wild pork. I would say eat away without fear and without applesauce if need be
Trichinella worms are killed at 137 degrees F. Before digital thermoters pork was cooked to half past dead to ensure at least 137 was reached. Trust me when I tell you this, at 137 you would still consider the meat way to rare to eat.
Personaly, I cook pork tenderloins to about 150-155,pull them off and let it rest. Meat winds up very juicy and good.
[hijack]Anyone who’s eaten raw or rawish pork care to weigh in on how pork tartare/sashimi would taste if someone were willing to take the risk?[/hijack]
For me, it isn’t so much the flavor of raw pork as the texture. I find it unpleasantly “slippery”.
Cooked on the rare side of medium, however, is just fine. I usually cook pork to 150 F and let it rest, like Rick mentioned. When I’m smoking pork, I let it go a little longer (160 to 165 or so). This is because smoking is done at a much lower temperature than roasting or grilling and because I generally brine the meat for awhile first. Both of those techniques help keep the meat juicy and tender.
Concomitant consumption of applesauce will not kill Trichinella in undercooked pork. At all.
This question makes me wonder though: Why are pork chops and applesauce such obligatory culinary consorts? At my grandma’s, porkchops without applesauce was Simply Not Done. Since those days of old, I’ve had pork chops with any number of sides except applesauce, and, quite frankly, I didn’t miss it at all. In fact, I think most of the things I’ve chosen to have with my pork chops are things I’d much rather have than applesauce. Yet, if I was entertaining guests, and serving chops, I’d feel like I was being a little gauche if no applesauce accompanied it. Why the hell is that?
DUDE! I didn’t even do that in the '80’s!! Sorry, that just struck me as funny!
Seriously, I, too, grew up in a household in the '60’s & 70’s & we NEVER had pork chops w/out applesauce (and I was always told the pork had to cook a long time)! I guess as a kid I always thought that it was just a right way to serve meals. Ya know, like Roast Beef & Mashed Potato, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Hamburgers & Hot Dogs, Peanut Butter & Jelly (Mmmm, THANKS Mom!). They’re naturals!
More of an impression than a taste but - rich. And now that I think about it, Uvula Donor has a point it was kinda slippery. Most people added raw onion so the flavour of the meat itself was quite dificult to identify. I guess it tasted as porky as steak tartare tastes like cooked beef.
I don’t speak German but the people I was with just referred to it as ‘flesh’ (don’t know the spelling), essentially ‘meat’. Basically it looked like uncooked sausage meat and was eaten either spread on bread at breakfast or as part of a plate of cold meats and salad (mainly pickled) in the evening. The whole diet was very meat based and gloriously oblivious to modern health pressures (of an evening we’d be eating bread and dripping with our beer!) after a couple of days my digestive system was feeling a tad overloaded but I’d eat raw pork again no problem.
As for the risk, well this thread is the first time I’d heard of these worms (how ignorant do I seem?) - without really thinking about it I just assumed pork was more susceptble to ‘going off’ in a vague way if not kept properly. I also subconsciously may have thought that in the area where I was (actually outside Leipzig, very definitely in the old East Germany) ‘intensive farming’ might not have been that well established and therefore the food ‘healthier’.
Thanks for such a quick reply!