Pink pork won't kill you

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/pin ... a-2488054/

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service has lowered its temperature recommendation for cooking pork to 145 degrees -- down from 160. (This means that pork will be held to the same standard as beef, veal, and lamb.)

Of course, there's an inherent irony in the fact that the USDA is lowering pork's minimum temperature ...

It's that professional chefs have been cooking pork this way FOR YEARS! Now home cooks and backyard barbecuers can finally catch up to the restaurant standard without worry. But the question is: Will they?

[Robin Garr]

Yeah, USDA is finally catching up with what's been the conventional wisdom for years. New York Times had a short blog report on it, too.
http://nyti.ms/pinkpork

Of course, I'm still much more trustful of local producers like Dreamcatcher or Stonecross for pastured pork that's been humanely raised by responsible farmers. Thanks in part to an old day job, I know a little too much about industrial pork, and I'll avoid eating it if I can.

...pastured pork that's been humanely raised by responsible farmers.

....THAT'S what we're doing wrong at these BBQ contests !!! From now on, if someone didn't tuck that pig in at night and sing it bed time stories...WE ain't cookin' it.

[Robin Garr]

...pastured pork that's been humanely raised by responsible farmers.

....THAT'S what we're doing wrong at these BBQ contests !!! From now on, if someone didn't tuck that pig in at night and sing it bed time stories...WE ain't cookin' it.

Steve, I'm not telling you not to do it your way. I don't get paid to evangelize about this stuff. But quality is important to me, and so is health, and so is humaneness. You start dealing with industrial pork, you're messing around with all three. It's your business, your decision, but personally I'm not going there.

...pastured pork that's been humanely raised by responsible farmers.

....THAT'S what we're doing wrong at these BBQ contests !!! From now on, if someone didn't tuck that pig in at night and sing it bed time stories...WE ain't cookin' it.

Steve, I'm not telling you not to do it your way. I don't get paid to evangelize about this stuff. But quality is important to me, and so is health, and so is humaneness. You start dealing with industrial pork, you're messing around with all three. It's your business, your decision, but personally I'm not going there.

Dude, I aspire to be like you one day but as of this moment you are so far above me on the pyramid of Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs, that I am surprised you even talk to me. Self Actualization is a mere concept in my world, whereas I'm pretty sure you're already there. I really do strongly admire your sense of...what ?...humanity ? principle ?...but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna pull your chain every now and then...Which IS pretty easy given you wear your "buttons" on your sleeve.

May the Force be with you Obi Wan.

[Robin Garr]

Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs

Nice!

[Robin Garr]

Nice!

PS: Was Mazlow a Buddhist? Discuss.

...pastured pork that's been humanely raised by responsible farmers.

....THAT'S what we're doing wrong at these BBQ contests !!! From now on, if someone didn't tuck that pig in at night and sing it bed time stories...WE ain't cookin' it.

1. Robin, while intellectually I agree with you, I have always wondered about this. The top 50 New York City restaurants buy their pork from a total of 3 producers (Neiman Farms (sp?}, a few others). If you do the calculations - and recognize that these producers are also selling to restaurants and stores nation-wide - then you will realize that unless you personally knew your pig from a suckling, around 99% (my number, not a "real" statistic) of pork comes from mass producers! It takes me back to the days when some chickens were fed marigolds, and as their skin turned yellow good ole Mr. Purdue claimed that the yellow skin was more natural, more flavorful, and demonstrated his humane attitude toward poultry!

The farms you mentioned do good work, but if they get successful and grow will you still term them as "responsible" or will they then be a "mass producer"??? Are the two always mutually exclusive???

2. Steve, this brings up another question: If every night you feed pigs a mix of bbq sauce and bourbon, will you then have well-rested tender pink meat basted on the inside???

Nice!

PS: Was Mazlow a Buddhist? Discuss.

I'm thinking he was more Zen...which of course everyone knows is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

BTW, I'm thinking of becoming a Buddhist...Lord knows I've been working on the Buddha Belly for the past year.

2. Steve, this brings up another question: If every night you feed pigs a mix of bbq sauce and bourbon, will you then have well-rested tender pink meat basted on the inside???

Hell, if we could also get Steve to sing to them and rub their bellies, maybe we could compete with Kobe Beef.

I'll take a $34.99/lb rack of "Steve P Pork" ribs.

Hmmm . . . I like to eat bbq sauce, drink bourbon, and have my tummy rubbed, but I'm still tough; I guess it's time to find someone to sing to me

[
2. Steve, this brings up another question: If every night you feed pigs a mix of bbq sauce and bourbon, will you then have well-rested tender pink meat basted on the inside???

....By crackies, you may be on to something. Might have to get me a few little pigs (I'm thinkin' three...three little pigs) and raise 'em up from puppies and find out. I'm thinkin my neighbors would go for it. Tell ya one thing though...right off the bat, every night as soon as their dinner is over, I'm having Robin up to read to 'em.

[Robin Garr]

The farms you mentioned do good work, but if they get successful and grow will you still term them as "responsible" or will they then be a "mass producer"??? Are the two always mutually exclusive???

Andrew, you've hit on a central problem, all right. It's sort of a similar question to the one we often debate here about chains and the occult hand of the bean counter that begins to descend when a great local eatery spawns a few additional outlets, then grows into a regional or even national chain: At what point do economies of scale cross with the ill effects of focusing on the quarterly balance sheet? At what point is the entrepreneur no longer able to respond nimbly and positively to customer service needs and recognize the long-term benefits of quality and value over maximum profit.

Short answer, for now, it seems that the body of individuals willing to pay a premium for quality, humainely raised local meats roughly balances the body of committed small farmers willing to meet those requirements. What happens if demand grows? I dunno. Whole Foods may offer us the best current example; they're imperfect, but they do bring certain requirements to their suppliers.

Michael Pollan and others have plenty to say about all this, of course.

Whole Foods may offer us the best current example; they're imperfect, but they do bring certain requirements to their suppliers.

Well cuz....

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2011/01/990 ... s-monsanto

After 12 years of battling to stop Monsanto's genetically-engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's organic farmland, the biggest retailers of "natural" and "organic" foods in the U.S., including Whole Foods Market (WFM), Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm, have agreed to stop opposing mass commercialization of GE crops...

[Robin Garr]

Well cuz....

http://www.prwatch.org/spin/2011/01/990 ... s-monsanto

After 12 years of battling to stop Monsanto's genetically-engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's organic farmland, the biggest retailers of "natural" and "organic" foods in the U.S., including Whole Foods Market (WFM), Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm, have agreed to stop opposing mass commercialization of GE crops...

Yeah, I know. I just saw that the other day and am still processing it.

I'm less wound up over the principle of GM crops, in any case, than I am about Monsanto. It's sort of like nuclear power: I'm for it in principle, but not so much for letting corner-cutting engineers build the power plants.