http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/dining/porks-safe-cooking-temperature-...
THE other pink meat?
`
That could be pork’s new slogan after the United States Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said it was lowering its safe cooking temperature to 145 degrees, from the longtime standard of 160. The new recommendation is in line with what many cookbook authors and chefs have been saying for years.
`
“History is littered with examples of what people thought was dogma and then dogma changed,” said David Chang, the chef and owner of the pig-happy Momofuku restaurants in New York. “Everyone thought the sun revolved around the earth, too.”
`
The agency said that after pork hits the target internal temperature, it should be allowed to rest for three minutes, while its temperature rises a few more degrees. That should be enough to kill any harmful bacteria, but the meat should be juicy and may look pink. The same temperature guidelines already apply to whole cuts of beef, lamb and veal.
`
Other recommendations are unchanged. Ground pork, beef, lamb and veal should be cooked to 160 degrees, the agency said, and poultry should be cooked to 165 degrees.
`
“Finally, people from the U.S.D.A. start cooking themselves, and they realize that if you have a lean piece of meat it gets tough and dry,” at the higher temperature, said Jacques Pépin, the chef and cookbook author.
`
Mr. Pépin said that the 145-degree recommendation was fine for leaner cuts like a pork loin, but that cuts with more fat would often be braised longer and reach higher temperatures. “People are crazy about pork belly,” he said. “It has to be cooked for hours and hours. When you do a pig’s head or pig’s feet, that has to be cooked a long time, braised.”
`
Nathan Myhrvold, an author of “Modernist Cuisine,” said the Department of Agriculture has long had an attitude that he described as “very paternalistic, father knows best, we can’t let those dumb consumers know the real thing.” The new guidelines, he said, are closer to what regulators have long told chefs and food manufacturers.
`
Chris Cosentino, the chef and owner of Incanto in San Francisco, said he was excited by the change. After all, he sells a raw pork dish made from the flesh of Spanish pigs fed with acorns.
`
He said adventurous eaters shouldn’t get their hopes too high. “I don’t foresee the U.S.D.A. agreeing with serving chicken sashimi anytime soon,” he said.