I decided to make some mapo tofu with ground pork and some premade mix (brown the pork, put in sauce, heat to simmer, put in tofu, heat 'til it’s all warm). The ground pork was sticky and hard to “crumble,” so the cooked result ended up in larger chunks than I would’ve liked. The time it spent on the stove in the two final steps were shorter than I thought it’d be. So when I bit into many of the larger chunks, the center still looked kinda pink (while the outside was brown, almost seared in some spots).
Is this a problem, health-wise? I know Alton Brown said pork was clean these days, but that’s whole pork, not ground.
Trichinosis is virtually non-existent in today’s pork, but there are other microbes that can make you sick. Ground pork and ground beef have the same problem - when the meat is ground any microbes on the outside are mixed into the meat. For these germs to be killed, the meat has to be cooked all the way through (for unground meat like steaks and chops, only the outside has to be thoroughly cooked). If the microbes include anything bad, like e. coli, you could get really sick.
That being said, the pork would have to be significantly undercooked to pose a danger. Most germs are killed at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and at this temperature the meat can still be pink.
If the texture seemed like raw meat, it was undercooked. If you’re not sick now you are probably OK, although you won’t know for sure for a couple of days (which is how long it can take some gastrointestinal illnesses to incubate).
Well, I didn’t notice anything unusual about the texture while I was eating (and I don’t usually eat raw meat), and I feel fine at the moment. I guess that means, by your knowledge, all is well?
Here are some more thoughts. A pork chop or pork roast cooked to 145 F will be slightly pink inside, so I would expect ground pork cooked to the same temperature to also be pink inside. Given this, I wouldn’t expect slightly-pink ground pork to be dangerous.
Still, there’s little reason to take chances with a recipe like mapo tofu. Ground pork cooked to the point of being well done won’t seem tough if it’s then simmered in a sauce. This isn’t like cooking a medium-rare hamburger, where you’re deliberately skirting the edge of safety for the sake of flavor and juiciness. For recipes like this its better to cook the pork thoroughly.
Just to clarify this part, if I stop eating the pork for the rest of the servings (just the tofu, sauce, and rice, which ain’t bad on its own), and I’m fine by Sunday, then the “danger time” has passed?
And how quickly can this kind of thing set in, anyway, judging by the first part above?
You can’t take the safe temperature for a solid piece of meat and apply it to ground meat. A steak or chop is only going to have bacterial growth on the outside of the meat. Even cooked rare that outside surface will be heated to a temperature sufficient to kill the bacteria. Ground meat will have bacteria on every surface that has been exposed to air and many of those surfaces won’t be cooked fully if you’re cooking to a rare temperature.
As I mentioned before, the incubation period for gastrointestinal illness can be a couple of days. If it’s been less that 48 hours, I wouldn’t assume it’s safe. Why not just put the whole thing in the microwave and heat it until the pork is cooked through?