Pork butt safety question, first time ever had this problem.

[Bill Thompson]

I respectfully disagree based on this article. I am a doctor a chiro and have taught Health Science for several years at the community college level. Please let me know if there's some new information out the and I'll gladly eat crow!!!!!!! 8)) And there is a time factor base on final temperatures. . Here is one article at google

I believe he was saying that there isn't a time factor in getting to that temperature ex. Must reach 130 within 4 hours. Not that it didn't need to stay at that temperature for an amount of time ex. Stay at 130 for x hours.

 

[K Kruger]

There is a time factor but it is not the same across the board, i.e., there is no "one size fits all". It's very dependent on the circumstances. As for cooking, this article I posted to this board over 10 years ago sums it up well. Also see this rather long thread. Because all of this is so very circumstantial, the powers that be not only have created an erroneous "one size fits all" to dumb it down for consumers, they've also padded the numbers for years: as noted above, the top of the zone is actually 130˚ (in true actuality it's 127˚ but rounded up to 130˚); for YEARS after it was well known in food safety science that the risk of Trichina was vanishingly small, the (incorrect) admonition to cook pork to 180˚ was still printed on packaging and repeated ad nauseam via food safety training; that it is unsafe to thaw uncooked frozen meats destined for cooking on the counter (wrong!), among numerous other fallacies.

 

[tjkoko]

.........that it is unsafe to thaw uncooked frozen meats destined for cooking on the counter (wrong!), among numerous other fallacies.

I'm thinking frozen poultry thawing on the countertop. While the outer portion reaches room temperature, the core of the carcass could still be frozen and the interface between the two temperature zones could be conducive to salmonella. Hmmm, I live in the deep deep south (think swamps) where many a local never chill their home made potato salad prior to serving.

 

[K Kruger]

Could be conducive to salmonella though unlikely. Furthermore, cooking correctly destroys salmonella even were it teeming with it.

As for potato salad, typical picnic items made with mayo, etc., it is a myth that the mayonnaise is the issue. Commercial mayo (and homemade if made correctly) is too acidic to support pathogen outgrowth. Food borne illnesses one typically sees arising from picnics (or holiday gatherings) are more often caused by cross contamination (think unclean post-bathroom fingers grabbing various foods out of picnic bowls or off the holiday table), improper cooking of cooked items, or cross contaminated cutting boards, e.g., if, say, potato salad were suspected it would more likely be that the potatoes were contaminated after cooking, as one might expect were the cooked potatoes prepped for the salad on a cutting board that had been used for raw chicken and improperly cleaned - that sort of thing.

 

[K Kruger]

Cross contamination is often the big deal and why I never recommend rinsing or washing of poultry (especially), nor any other meat. Always ignore instructions to do so. (Stunning how many "chefs" repeat this fallacy.) If necessary, pat the poultry or meat dry and immediately dispose of the paper towels. Washing does absolutely nothing to make poultry/meats safer. Proper cooking does that. Furthermore, washing often produces microdroplets of water, virtually invisible, that bounce off the poultry/meat and thus contaminate the faucet, sink, countertop - wherever they land.

 

[Richard S]

Cross contamination is often the big deal and why I never recommend rinsing or washing of poultry (especially), nor any other meat. Always ignore instructions to do so. (Stunning how many "chefs" repeat this fallacy.) If necessary, pat the poultry or meat dry and immediately dispose of the paper towels. Washing does absolutely nothing to make poultry/meats safer. Proper cooking does that. Furthermore, washing often produces microdroplets of water, virtually invisible, that bounce off the poultry/meat and thus contaminate the faucet, sink, countertop - wherever they land.

I agree...I never rinse. And while I am a bit lax about countertop thawing I am serious about hand washing and disinfectant of counters and wherever my hands touch during the course of prepping the meat!