Pork loin cooked 'rare'

[Waterzoy]

My husband and I had a lovely lunch today in a well known and reputable tapas bar in London. We ordered a pork dish which was cooked rare, just like a fillet steak might be cooked. My husband ate it with gusto and said it was by far the best of all the dishes we chose. I didn't eat it because I always believed that while you ate rare steak, pork had to be well cooked through. What are the current thoughts on cooking pork...is it OK to cook rare if you are confident in the quality and provenance of the meat, or should pork always be cooked thoroughly no matter what you know about the source?

Edited January 12, 2007 by Rachellindsay (log)

[hathor]

Pink pork tastes good. It still have flavor and juice. We've been eating it forever like that, and no problems to report. My understanding is that your chance of catching trichonosis (sp?) is minutel.

[Busboy]

Not only has the National Pork Board, or whatever the hell they call themselves, here in the USA determined that trichinosis is killed at 140 degrees (used to be 160 or so) which leaves the meat still pink, most pork is irradiated and modern husbandry methods, for all their other horrors, have dramatically reduced its incidence.

One assumes that the UK is enjoying similar benefits.

A quick googling gets a couple of quotes that in the U.S. that there were an average of 11 cases a year between 1999 and 2004.

Interesting quote from one article: "A total of 72 cases were reported to the CDC between 1997 and 2001. Bear meat was the most common known source of infection."

Do NOT eat the bear carpaccio!

[Ling]

In every instance that I've had pork in a western restaurant in the past several years (with the exception of it being braised, obviously) it's been served medium. I thought this was fairly standard nowadays. I've only had medium-rare pork served in a restaurant once--it was definitely pink in the center 1/3 of the medallion, and it was tasty and juicy.

Edited January 12, 2007 by Ling (log)

[david coonce]

Also, a little side note, if you're still worried about trich (which is exceedingly rare), you can freeze pork and kill it, then thaw the pork and cook to medium-rare. Pork cooked to 160 degrees is bland and chewy.

[hathor]

Do NOT eat the bear carpaccio!

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Good to know!

[muichoi]

If it's one of the places I'm thinking of it may well be Iberico pork, which is perfectly safe cooked rare and indeed should be. It will have been previously frozen.

[Kent Wang]

But aren't Iberico pigs allowed to roam in the forests?

[pounce]

But aren't Iberico pigs allowed to roam in the forests?

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I think only the ones destined for bellota grade otherwise the pigs can be pen fed commercial feed.

[DTBarton]

Modern agricultural techniques and refrigeration have pretty much made trichinosis a thing of the past with commercially prepared pork.

Some data points: I saw Ina Garten on TV cooking a pork loin roast and she took it out of the oven at 137 degrees. Still had some pink in it, looked good on TV.

I buy Berkshire heirloom pork sometimes from a farm in Minnesota. It has a higher fat content, more like "old fashioned" pork. They recommend cooking their loin roasts to 150 degrees. I've been taking them out at about 145 and there's not much pink and boy do they taste good!

[Waterzoy]

Thanks for the reassuring replies. I didn't know of the benefits of freezing it first.

Muichoi - yes, it was Iberico pork.

(edited to remove typos)

Edited January 13, 2007 by Rachellindsay (log)