[Sca-cooks] Re: pork internal temp

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jan 18, 2006, at 7:10 AM, RUTH EARLAND wrote:

> When I'm cooking for family and friends, whose tastes I know, I  
> tend to cook differently than I would for a feast. I serve quite  
> rare beef and lamb, pork with a bit of pink, and medium-rare duck.  
> But I wouldn't do that for a feast.
>
> If your experiences recommend a different starting temp, by all  
> means, go with it.
>
> Berelinde

I can certainly understand that you don't want to frighten people,  
and people can and do get frightened even after you've made sure  
everything is absolutely safe and there's nothing to be frightened of.

I'm probably pretty lucky, living where I do, in that our locals have  
fairly eclectic tastes and aren't easily spooked by unusual foods or  
presentations, and even when they might otherwise be, they tend to  
place a fair amount of trust in our cooks, when it's someone they know.

I remember serving medium pork a few times (the meat was ivory white,  
and if you squeezed it you got juice that was just slightly tinged  
with pink; to my mind it was absolutely perfect), and made sort of a  
game of it. There's a fun section in Le Menagier (I think) wherein he  
says that if your guests are French, you have to cook your fish until  
it's just properly done, whereas if they're German, you pretty much  
have to cook it to death, or they'll just send it back to the kitchen  
to be recooked.

I turned on the pancake griddle and waited five or ten minutes while  
a herald announced that the cooks had roasted the meats to a perfect  
state of "doneness" for French diners (it was an Agincourt-themed  
event), but also understood that there might be some Germans out  
there in the hall, and would be glad to overcook any portions of meat  
any German should care to send back the kitchen for incineration...

I got one taker, and that was a friend who was at least as interested  
in busting my chops as he was in well-done meat.

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