True or False? We dispel four common meat myths
Dispelling meat myths
1. Should pork always be cooked well done?
Most of us remember reaching for the gravy ladle any time pork was on the Sunday table, because by the time it was “safe to eat” it was tough and as dry as the Sahara. The root of this misconception is the fear of trichinosis, a parasitic disease that’s spread through eating undercooked pork and wild game.
The fact is, through major improvements to modern pork-farming facilities, trichinosis has become an extremely rare occurrence, and because of this the US Food Safety Information Service reduced the temperature for whole pork roasts to 63C (145F).
By following this cooking temperature, you can achieve delicious, slightly pink, and juicy pork every time. (Just don’t forget to use your meat thermometer for perfect results!)
2. Is a roasted chicken only done when the juices run clear?
Roasting poultry can be the most stress-inducing technique when it comes to food safety. It is repeatedly drilled into our heads that raw chicken is dangerous and that chicken is not fully cooked until the juices run clear. One true, one false. Juices do not always run clear, and a few simple facts will explain it:
Firstly, young chickens (most of the chickens we consume today) have bones that are not fully matured and can leak dark red liquid during cooking that will look a lot like blood when it mixes with the juices of the roasted bird. Secondly, according to the USDA: “Oven gases in a heated gas or electric oven react chemically with hemoglobin in the meat tissues to give it a pink tinge.”
For these reasons, the only way to really know that your cooked chicken is safe to eat is to use a calibrated probe thermometer and ensure that the inner thigh meat has reached 165F. At that temperature it will be juicy and cooked all the way through.
3. Does searing meat lock in the juices?
While searing meat does create a beautiful, flavour-rich crust, it does not create an impenetrable barrier that locks in juices. Heat applied to meat will always cause it to dehydrate, meaning that the higher the heat and the longer the meat is exposed to it, the more liquid will be lost.
Some argue that by gently cooking the meat, sans searing, you’ll achieve the juiciest final product — that's if you’re willing to sacrifice the caramelized goodness of that crust!
4. Are tenderloin, striploin and rib-eyes the best cuts of beef?
Another misconception we’ve inherited is that the three “prime cuts” of steak are, in fact, the best. Cuts of beef are generally judged on flavour and tenderness. The more a muscle is used, the more blood runs through it and the more flavour it will have. The “big three” steaks all come from relatively lesser-used muscle groups therefore delivering tenderness, but not much flavour.
You can add tenderness to any piece of meat through techniques such as slicing against the grain, pounding and marinating, but you simply can’t add more beefy flavour to a steak like tenderloin! That said, you can get delicious cuts of beef such as flat-iron, top sirloin and flank, among many others, that will deliver big beef flavour for a fraction of the price.
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