Cooking Pork - The New Rule

Image from thekitchn.com

When I was learning how to cook I was always told that my pork chop wasn't cooked until it was white all the way through - very well done.

This was done in order to avoid food borne illness. Unfortunately all it did was inspire generations of Westerners to not enjoy their pork! After all, who wants a dry, chewy, tough piece of meat? Not me!

Recently, however, the rules have changed.

The new rule

"Back in the day" the internal temperature of "safe" pork had to be 160º F/ 71º C. Even these hi-temps were an improvement over earlier guidelines that basically had you cooking your meat until it was jerky. Anyone with a little experience cooking pork will tell you that those guidelines were just silly. The word overkill springs unbidden to mind.

In the last year or so the guidelines have changed as food agencies have gained a clearer understanding of what makes food unsafe to eat. So yay for us!

The new rule is that pork should be cooked to a minimum temperature of 145º F/ 63º C. Now that's a minimum, mind you, and at that temp the pork will still be really pink inside, but also oh, so juicy!

Now you can't blame the government on your sad pork chop anymore. It's all on you!