[Sca-cooks] Re: Pork shank 2

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 17, 2006, at 6:41 AM, RUTH EARLAND wrote:

> These days, they're saying pork is safe to eat at an internal  
> temperature of 140, but that's very pink, unappetizing, and goes  
> against everything we've been trained is right about pork since  
> childhood.

What we've been trained is right for pork since childhood is based  
upon the imperative to avoid trichinosis. That's all she wrote. This  
is so much the case that there are people who become alarmed if the  
cooked pork displays even a sign of juice, and why, out of all the  
meats we commonly eat, it is [marginally] second only to turkey in  
the variety of sauces traditionally associated with it. They tend to  
be necessary. Now, I agree that rare pork is a little alarming (and  
it remains rare even after it's been brought to an internal  
temperature of 140), but if you bring it to 140 in the center, and  
it's a decent-sized cut, by the time you actually serve it, the  
internal heat will have distributed to the point where it reaches the  
medium to medium-well stage by the time you're ready to serve it: it  
certainly won't be very pink, nor confused with a rare steak.

> Cooking it to  an internal temperature of 160 is much more  
> pleasing. Take it out of the oven when the temperature is 155 and  
> let it stand until the temperature hits 160.

A fresh ham of the kind of weight we've been talking about will go  
significantly higher than 160; more like 170 in about 15 minutes. Of  
course, a fresh ham also has a lot more fat and connective tissue  
than, say, a loin, so cooking it to 160 is probably a good idea for  
tenderness. I'd just be concerned about using that as a hard-and-fast  
rule for all pork.

Adamantius


"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04