The slightest trace of pink in a grilled pork chop or roasted pork loin was cause for alarm. Generations of people grew up wholly unaware that pork could be served in any way other than overcooked.
It's the only way they'd ever tasted it. A pork loin roasted to F is going to be tough, dry, and thoroughly flavorless. The good news is, it doesn't have to be that way. Why do so many people learn to cook the pink out of their pork? It all started with a parasitic worm called Trichinella. Fairly prevalent in pork in the s and '40s, trichinella caused a particularly unpleasant and sometimes fatal disease called trichinosis.
To combat it, the government urged people to cook their pork to F, which would kill the parasite. As it turns out, F was overkill. The trichinella worm is actually killed at F. For all those years, people had been drastically overcooking pork for no good reason at all. In later decades, stricter laws governing the ways pork can be raised and handled helped drive the prevalence of trichinella way down, to the point where by the mids it had been nearly completely eradicated.
Modern pork is much leaner less fatty than it was in decades past, making it much more prone to drying out if it's overcooked. Even so, people kept right on cooking their pork to F, despite the fact that F was always too high and trichinella had been wiped out in any case. It was just the way they'd always been told to cook pork. Additionally, the USDA continued to recommend cooking pork to a minimum internal temperature of F.
In , the USDA updated their recommendations. This cooks pork to medium as opposed to well-done. A pork loin cooked to F might look a little bit pink in the middle, but that's perfectly all right.
In fact, it's great. The dry, mild flavor that often accompanies pork is due to cooking beyond F 71C. But pork must have a white not pink color to be safe, right? Many cookbooks say the juices have to run clear to prevent food-borne illness. However, product and juice color are poor indicators of the safety of cooked pork. Pork chops, for instance, can remain pink after reaching the optimal time and temperature combination to ensure safety.
Ground pork patties, on the other hand, may exhibit the same premature browning that has been observed in beef patties Hague et al, Premature browning in ground beef occurs when the interior color is brown, indicative of thorough cooking, but the internal temperature is lower than that needed to kill pathogenic bacteria. Thus, premature browning is of concern from a food safety standpoint. The lesson derived from this combination of findings is to use a meat thermometer— judging meat doneness by appearance alone is risky business and almost guarantees less than optimum eating quality.
Although hemoglobin often comes to mind when thinking about red color in meat, myoglobin plays a much more significant role in meat color. Different forms of myoglobin produce different colors, resulting in purple deoxymyoglobin , red oxymyoglobin , and brown metmyoglobin meat. The chemical reactions of oxygenation and oxidation-reduction produce the three forms, which lead to the change in color as meat is exposed to heat. These changes in color in beef products have been identified for years and are frequently used by consumers and chefs for doneness judgments.
The typical doneness levels of beef rare, medium rare, medium, and well are evaluated by cooked color AMSA, Such guidelines have not been established in pork products. While beef follows a red to pink to brown pattern as it is heated, pork turns from pinkish-red to less pink to tan or white.
Myoglobin concentration in beef is greater than in pork. Consequently, the forms of myoglobin are easier to identify in beef, while the color changes in pork red, purple and brown are more subtle. Muscle pH and quality are factors that have large effects on cooked meat color.
Pale, soft and exudative PSE meat, which results from a rapid decline in pH, makes the myoglobin more heat liable and leads to premature browning in cooked product. Conversely, dark, firm and dry DFD meat has a higher pH, which protects the myoglobin and keeps the meat pink for a longer time than usual. Due to myoglobin form differences, ground pork is not expected to have the same color as whole muscle pork e.
The center of chops and roasts are not exposed to oxygen and are purplish-pink. The anaerobic condition causes the myoglobin to respond to heat in a reliable manner and change from pink to less pink to tannish white when cooked. For ground products, however, all three forms of myoglobin may be present because conditions are more aerobic These three forms react differently to the heat, causing inconsistent cooked color in ground product.
In beef, oxymyoglobin and metmyoglobin turn brown readily when heated, leading to premature browning Hunt et al. Deoxymyoglobin is more resistant to heat and changes color in a predictable manner from red to pink to brown when heated. The pigment form in the center of the ground product is critical to the color observed after cooking. For instance, if the product begins with a brown interior color, the interior will be brown after cooking. If the product is bright pink in the center, premature browning is possible.
But, if the product begins with a purple-pink center, the product will progress from red to pink to tan, just like the chops. Premature browning is a more serious concern in ground pork products than chops and other whole-muscle cuts. Chops are only susceptible to surface contamination. Therefore, identifying cooked color trends in chops is a product quality concern, not a concern of safety. In ground pork, however, premature browning can result in a patty appearing to be safe when bacteria may still survive.
Although cooked color in pork is already complicated enough to frustrate most processors and consumers, the myoglobin in meat can further complicate the situation. Intact and ground meat can display two other characteristics known as persistent pink color and return-to-redness Cornforth These phenomena are characterized by an unusual degree of pinkness relative to the endpoint temperature. The persistent pink color is principally related to high pH conditions that stabilize myoglobin to heat Mendenhall ; Trout Consequently, the pigment that has not been fully denatured during cooking will appear pink, and when exposed to air, it can become brighter pink due to the formation of oxymyoglobin.
There are numerous factors that affect persistent pinkness; however, most often the culprits are a higher than normal muscle pH and myoglobin predominately in the deoxymyoglobin form. Pork with a pH 6. However, persistent pink color can start to appear at pH 6. This pigment form must be heated to a higher temperature for browning and denaturation than oxy- or metmyoglobin.
The return-to-redness phenomenon a condition separate from persistent pinking can occur in wellcooked, vacuum packaged meats during distribution and storage Cornforth, The brown pigment denatured globin hemichrome is slowly reduced to the pink or red denatured globin hemochrome under anaerobic conditions.
Consequently, the meat will appear tan or brown when cooked but it will be pink to red when sliced by the consumer. In this case, return-to-redness is not a food safety issue because the meat was thoroughly cooked. However, return-to-redness also called color reversion has been associated with microbial growth and spoilage of ground beef Faustman et al. Pork today is very lean, making it important to not overcook and follow the recommended pork cooking temperature.
To check doneness properly, use a digital cooking thermometer. Following these pork cooking temperature guidelines will not only result in a safe eating experience but also preserve the quality of your meat for a juicy, tender, delicious meal.
Skip to content Main Navigation Search. Cooking Temperature of Pork Finding the correct pork cooking temperature is the final step in plating a perfectly juicy, tender cut of meat. Using a meat thermometer is the best way to test for doneness, ensuring both a safe and delicious eating experience.
0コメント