Food Temperature

[Anonymous Modernist 541]

During much of the first volume, the book discusses specified cooking times and temperatures in order to kill bacteria and other pathogens. When it says for example that a certain bacteria dies at 130 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, what does that mean? Like for a steak, does it mean the internal temperature of the steak needs to be 130 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, or just exposed to that temperature for that amount of time? Thank you!

[Anonymous Modernist 310]

The inside of a piece of meat is considered to be sterile unless you contaminate it with a jaccard for example. So for a steak you just need to kill what's at the surface of the piece of meat. But the cooking time given in volume 1 are the time needed at the middle of the aliment (the coolest place) to pasteurize it.

[Anonymous Modernist 3027]

One should be careful when stating that heating for a given time to a given temperature destroys all bacteria. It does not. The times and temperatures given in the book are indicative of the times that are required to kill something like 99.99% of relevant bacteria - it is pretty nigh impossible to kill every last bacterium without going to very high temperatures (ca. 100°C).

[Anonymous Modernist 2491]

Core temperatures that remain palatable are not strictly "clean". Cooking requires that anything detrimental to health be killed by applying some form of heat; be it dry or moist. Sufficient temperature change has to render any pathogens present on the surface dead. Anything that still survives below the surface also needs to be destroyed. This will vary from product to product. Various food standards regulations will give you the "safe" measure. However, as in the case of pork, some regulations need to be updated to reflect contemporary knowledge and practise.

[Anonymous Modernist 3021]

So using the tables on page 193 of volume 1 implies that you would have to hold a poultry breast at 55 degrees centigrade for 39 mins 31 secs to achieve a 6.5 D (approximate) reduction in salmonella? I initially thought this meant surface temperature (and time would obviously depend a lot on the surface area to volume ratio of the meat), but if this is the temperature in the thickest or most central part of the meat then size is immaterial.

Hope I've got this right!

[Anonymous Modernist 6826]

To answer the OP's question, the internal temperature has to held at 130 for 20 minutes in that example. But as LFMichaud pointed out, it is often unnecessary since the inside of a muscle is sterile. The general worry is with commercially raised poultry, (especially those being sold whole with the skin on) as they are a potential carrier of salmonella. Cattle is not known for being a popular carrier of salmonella. If you are worried about E.Coli on the other hand, then I would recommend pasteurizing your beef as well. Jaccarding is a common practice in meat products, so seemingly intact muscles can be infected. You can do the same with ground beef if you want to consume it in rarer states.

I may be mistaken, but my understanding is that E. Coli is fairly easy to destroy and will readily die at low temperatures.