Replies to a recent post talked about injected pork. I have been smoking
for years and have followed this NG for years. But I am not aware of
injected pork. I know bout brining, but don't care for it.

What is injecting (by the stores) and how can one tell?

Thanks for putting up with a dumb question.

Bob wrote:

> Replies to a recent post talked about injected pork. I have been smoking
> for years and have followed this NG for years. But I am not aware of
> injected pork. I know bout brining, but don't care for it.
>
> What is injecting (by the stores) and how can one tell?
>
> Thanks for putting up with a dumb question.

Packer uses injection pump to place a mixture of water and salt
into meat. this results in two things. 1. packer gets meat prices
for water. 2. you get screwed.
The store is "supposed" to put labels on the retail packages
telling of added ingredients. You would have to ask if you
buy your meat from a butcher served case. Of course this depends
on finding an honest butcher. (After 25 years in the business using the
terms honest and butcher in the same sentence still makes me cringe ).
If you buy in packer labeled vac pacs It should say if it has any
added ingredients.
Dave

"Bob" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Replies to a recent post talked about injected pork. I have been
smoking
> for years and have followed this NG for years. But I am not aware of
> injected pork. I know bout brining, but don't care for it.
>
> What is injecting (by the stores) and how can one tell?
>
> Thanks for putting up with a dumb question.
>
> In most cases, injected meat or "pumped" meat is cured meat like a ham or
corned beef. Brine pumps are used to inject salt, curing salt, sugar and
spices into a thick piece of meat like a ham that is too large to just
brine. In a really thick piece of meat, you could soak for a week and not
penetrate to the middle of that particular cut. Now and then, non-cured
meat is pumped to add flavor, or in the case of an unscrupulous butcher, to
add weight. Usually it is done for the flavor.
Jack Smith

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:33:30 GMT, "Jack Smith" >
wrote:

>Now and then, non-cured
>meat is pumped to add flavor, or in the case of an unscrupulous butcher, to
>add weight. Usually it is done for the flavor.

In "The Complete Meat Cookbook," Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly offer
another reason: pork is much leaner these days than it was 20 or 30
years ago, but people still cook it as if it were not. Worse yet,
people concerned about food-borne bacteria and other nasties cook it
to ungodly high temperatures. The result? Shoe leather. But if the
pork is injected first, then the chances are better that it will turn
out juicy and flavorful.

Hormel seems to agree:

"Pork today is leaner than ever before, decreasing the amount of fat
in diets and resulting in health benefits for all ages. But, leaner
pork also affects the way pork should be cooked. Because there is less
fat to moisten and to add flavor to the meat, care should be taken to
not overcook pork. It was once thought that pork must be cooked to an
internal temperature of 185°F to ensure that trichina bacteria would
be killed. It is now known that trichina is eliminated at 137°F,
however, it is still recommended that pork be cooked to an internal
temperature of 155°F to 160°F so it is safe to eat. Cooking the pork
to a temperature of 185°F will produce tough, dry meat."

http://www.hormel.com/cm/templates/k...=555&zoneid=76




--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a University Somewhere in Idaho
"Anything, when cooked in large enough batches, will be vile."
--Dag Right-square-bracket-gren, in alt.religion.kibology

In article >, Kevin S.
Wilson > wrote:

> Hormel seems to agree:
>
> "Pork today is leaner than ever before, decreasing the amount of fat
> in diets and resulting in health benefits for all ages. But, leaner
> pork also affects the way pork should be cooked. Because there is less
> fat to moisten and to add flavor to the meat, care should be taken to
> not overcook pork. It was once thought that pork must be cooked to an
> internal temperature of 185°F to ensure that trichina bacteria would
> be killed. It is now known that trichina is eliminated at 137°F,
> however, it is still recommended that pork be cooked to an internal
> temperature of 155°F to 160°F so it is safe to eat. Cooking the pork
> to a temperature of 185°F will produce tough, dry meat."
>
> http://www.hormel.com/cm/templates/k...=555&zoneid=76

Hmmph-if they knew so goddam much they wouldn't incorrectly call
Trichina a 'bacteria'.
Corporate dumbasses.

monroe(look for local pork-it's worth the trouble)

In article >,
"Monroe, of course..." > wrote:

> In article >, Kevin S.
> Wilson > wrote:
>
> > Hormel seems to agree:
> >
> > "Pork today is leaner than ever before, decreasing the amount of fat
> > in diets and resulting in health benefits for all ages. But, leaner
> > pork also affects the way pork should be cooked. Because there is less
> > fat to moisten and to add flavor to the meat, care should be taken to
> > not overcook pork. It was once thought that pork must be cooked to an
> > internal temperature of 185°F to ensure that trichina bacteria would
> > be killed. It is now known that trichina is eliminated at 137°F,
> > however, it is still recommended that pork be cooked to an internal
> > temperature of 155°F to 160°F so it is safe to eat. Cooking the pork
> > to a temperature of 185°F will produce tough, dry meat."
> >
> > http://www.hormel.com/cm/templates/k...leid=555&zonei
> > d=76
>
> Hmmph-if they knew so goddam much they wouldn't incorrectly call
> Trichina a 'bacteria'.
> Corporate dumbasses.
>
> monroe(look for local pork-it's worth the trouble)


Oh, I have no doubt they know exactly what Trichina and trichinosis is.
Explaining to your customers why their 'other white meat' contains a
huge number of roundworm-filled cysts would be a marketing nightmare.

Hence the fallback to the mendacious, yet not so scary terminology of
bacteria.

Mmmmm... time to go get some BBQ ham!


EC

"Monroe, of course..." wrote:

> In article >, Kevin S.
> Wilson > wrote:
>
> > Hormel seems to agree:
> >
> > "Pork today is leaner than ever before, decreasing the amount of fat
> > in diets and resulting in health benefits for all ages. But, leaner
> > pork also affects the way pork should be cooked. Because there is less
> > fat to moisten and to add flavor to the meat, care should be taken to
> > not overcook pork. It was once thought that pork must be cooked to an
> > internal temperature of 185°F to ensure that trichina bacteria would
> > be killed. It is now known that trichina is eliminated at 137°F,
> > however, it is still recommended that pork be cooked to an internal
> > temperature of 155°F to 160°F so it is safe to eat. Cooking the pork
> > to a temperature of 185°F will produce tough, dry meat."
> >
> > http://www.hormel.com/cm/templates/k...=555&zoneid=76
>
> Hmmph-if they knew so goddam much they wouldn't incorrectly call
> Trichina a 'bacteria'.
> Corporate dumbasses.
>
> monroe(look for local pork-it's worth the trouble)

Trichinosis is becoming very rare in the US with only a handful of incidents being
reported every year most of those being from wild game. The hog population is seldom
fed raw garbage and (more significantly) never the ground up intestines of other hogs
which used to be the main method of hog to hog transmittal,. As a consequence the
incidence in hogs which used to run 40 or more percent of the hog population is now
only a few thousand animals per year. Even those tend to be infected so lightly that
the trichinosis have difficulty making the jump to humans.

This of course does not mean you should eat pork rare as there is still a slight
risk. This has lead to the newer recomendations in the 155 range. I have seen some
lower but that is a little too on the edge for me.

Are the cysts visible?

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:34:48 -0600, Bill > wrote:

>
>
>"Monroe, of course..." wrote:
>
>> In article >, Kevin S.
>> Wilson > wrote:
>>
>> > Hormel seems to agree:
>> >
>> > "Pork today is leaner than ever before, decreasing the amount of fat
>> > in diets and resulting in health benefits for all ages. But, leaner
>> > pork also affects the way pork should be cooked. Because there is less
>> > fat to moisten and to add flavor to the meat, care should be taken to
>> > not overcook pork. It was once thought that pork must be cooked to an
>> > internal temperature of 185°F to ensure that trichina bacteria would
>> > be killed. It is now known that trichina is eliminated at 137°F,
>> > however, it is still recommended that pork be cooked to an internal
>> > temperature of 155°F to 160°F so it is safe to eat. Cooking the pork
>> > to a temperature of 185°F will produce tough, dry meat."
>> >
>> > http://www.hormel.com/cm/templates/k...=555&zoneid=76
>>
>> Hmmph-if they knew so goddam much they wouldn't incorrectly call
>> Trichina a 'bacteria'.
>> Corporate dumbasses.
>>
>> monroe(look for local pork-it's worth the trouble)
>
>Trichinosis is becoming very rare in the US with only a handful of incidents being
>reported every year most of those being from wild game. The hog population is seldom
>fed raw garbage and (more significantly) never the ground up intestines of other hogs
>which used to be the main method of hog to hog transmittal,. As a consequence the
>incidence in hogs which used to run 40 or more percent of the hog population is now
>only a few thousand animals per year. Even those tend to be infected so lightly that
>the trichinosis have difficulty making the jump to humans.
>
>This of course does not mean you should eat pork rare as there is still a slight
>risk. This has lead to the newer recomendations in the 155 range. I have seen some
>lower but that is a little too on the edge for me.
>

be wrote:

> Are the cysts visible?
>
> On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:34:48 -0600, Bill > wrote:

Not directly. Low power mangification is required.

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 10:23:20 GMT, "Bob" >
wrote:

>Replies to a recent post talked about injected pork. I have been smoking
>for years and have followed this NG for years. But I am not aware of
>injected pork. I know bout brining, but don't care for it.
>
>What is injecting (by the stores) and how can one tell?
>
>Thanks for putting up with a dumb question.
>

As another poster put it in another news group, "fresh meat should not
have an ingredients list". If it does, there is something suspect.

Usually the product will come from one of the super large packers (ex.
Perdue for chicken) and there will be a notice in the tiniest type
that the printing process can create and in something like dark blue
on black type. This will tell you that somewhere between 5 and 15
percent of the "meat" you are buying is added salted water and other
chemistry.