Category Archives: Thermometers

Bon Appetit and simplistic food safety

Posted on by
Reply

Bon Appetit is a food porn magazine meant to titillate (it’s even in it’s name) and stimulate rather than inform, like most of what passes for food journalism.

This month, the so-called Conscious Cook has a brief piece, 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Hate On Microwaves.

Hate is a strong word. I like my microwave, especially for reheating, not cooking.

The author maintains that microwave defrosting reduces the risk of foodborne illness and that “defrosting frozen food by using hot water or leaving it in the sink can increase bad bacteria. To defrost fast, microwave food on low heat, then cook immediately. Stir contents halfway through heating for even warming.”

I cook a whole chicken about once a week. It’s inexpensive, and provides leftovers and stock for subsequent meals. If I’m defrosting a whole chicken in a microwave, I’m not going to stir it “halfway through heating for even warming.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Health Canada recommend thawing poultry by sealing in a waterproof bag and immersing in cold water. These same groups also used to recommend washing chicken bits, but decided the microbiological splash fest created by running water over raw poultry was a bad idea. To me, immersing in cold water and changing that water every 30 minutes is an additional route to microbial cross-contamination. The Aussies and the Brits agree, and do not recommend water immersion.

Depending on my planning, I use a combination of the counter and the refrigerator for thawing the bird. American and Canadian science-types say this is awful, and I’ll make everyone barf. The Aussies and Brits say counter-top thawing is fine, as long as it’s monitored – a week may be too long.

We have previously reviewed various thawing techniques and government recommendations. Whatever technique is used, be the bug, thinking in terms of cross contamination and growth, and use a damn thermometer to ensure the food has reached a safe internal temperature. Color is a lousy indicator and piping hot is just weird (so is Canada’s Mrs. Cookwell).
 

Lamb on a shovel in a fire pit: finger test insufficient

Posted on by
Reply

Once the kid goes to sleep, Amy and I usually adjourn to the bedroom, no matter how early, and chill.

I go through my ritual of flipping through bad TV while Amy does fascinating farm animal things on Facebook.

Last night, my flipping took me to the Primal Grill With Steven Raichlen, where the dude was cooking lamb chops on a shovel in a fire pit.

Apparently, by holding the shovel over the open wood fire, the smoke curls up over the shovel to add a robust flavor to the chops.

This guy’s got way too much time on his hands.

To check if the lamb was properly cooked, he pushed his finger into a chop, proclaimed it “spongy” and therefore done.

However you want to cook meat – with a shovel, a pick-axe, a V-8 engine — use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer to ensure a safe food temperature.

I’ll take my hamburger at 160F, verified with a thermometer

Posted on by
1

Food safety has never been Mark Bittman’s strong point. But food porn triumphs, so who cares if a few people barf.

In the on-going saga of demonstrating that most so-called chefs are food safety morons, Bittman, a columnist with the N.Y. Times who apparently has a new book out, blogged about his experience ordering a burger in Toronto (that’s in Canada) the other night night, where he said to the staff,

“I begged the waitress for a really rare burger and she said, “When you ask for rare they make it medium rare,” and I said, "I know, that’s how it often is, and though I’d prefer it rare I don’t mind it medium rare, but if it’s medium I’m going to be unhappy," and she said, "Then you’ll be very happy." And it came out well done. And I wasn’t unhappy at all, I just didn’t eat much of it. I ate fries and roasted beets."

Bittman has also said in the past that "if you grind your own beef, you can make a mixture and taste it raw," adding that, "To reassure the queasy, there’s little difference, safety-wise, between raw beef and rare beef: salmonella is killed at 160 degrees, and rare beef is cooked to 125 degrees."

This is food safety idiocracy. Any food safety advice in Bittman’s book should be disregarded as fantasy.

Restaurant Don’ts

Posted on by
Reply

Raw chicken is probably the first thing that most people think of when thinking of foodborne illness. You would think chefs would know to use a thermometer to prevent undercooked chicken from ending up on the table.

However, tonight I witnessed a chef on 24 Hour Restaurant Battle (on the Food Network) serve some raw chicken to his diners. Not just to any person at that, but Marcus Samuelsson and Scott Conant, who were judges on the show. At least they got it right, immediately recognizing the risks and spitting it out.

Every person in the vicinity turned around when Samuelsson pointed out: “That is dangerous; that is not undercooked, it’s raw.”

If your restaurant makes people barf, it’s not going to fare so well. Mr. Blumenthal learned that the hard way last year when his restaurant was shut down due to norovirus.
The chef on the show also learned the hard way; the raw chicken cost him the $10, 000 prize.
 

Hamburgers: fresh is not the same as safe

Posted on by
3

‘Our restaurant’s burgers are safe to eat undercooked: The meat is fresh and ground in-house.’

This is wrong, dangerous, and nothing more than food porn, the wishful thinking that bacteria will avoid certain products if prepared with enough manual labor and love.

Bacteria don’t care about love.

Shamona Harnett of the Winnipeg Free Press reported the all-too-common chat with her server as she tried to order a burger – she went with well-done. And she urged cooks to use a food thermometer to ensure the burger has reached 160 F, which is also an effective way to ensure the cook doesn’t overcook the burger. Thermometers make people better cooks.

Harnett then goes on to say that “experts say consumers should wash lettuce — even if it’s labelled pre-washed.”

No they don’t. An expert panel concluded,

"Leafy green salad in sealed bags labeled ‘washed’ or ‘ready-to-eat’ that are produced in a facility inspected by a regulatory authority and operated under cGMPs, does not need additional washing at the time of use unless specifically directed on the label. The panel also advised that additional washing of ready-to-eat green salads is not likely to enhance safety. The risk of cross contamination from food handlers and food contact surfaces used during washing may outweigh any safety benefit that further washing may confer."

Food safety is not simple.
 

Whole Foods still sucks at food safety

Posted on by
2

Whole Foods sucks at food safety. And if they are going to recycle recipes, I’m going to recycle criticism.

With the July 4 holiday on the way, Whole Foods is once again promoting its recipe for the self-proclaimed perfect burger, which says,

“Grill meat to desired doneness; about 4 to 6 minutes per side over a medium hot fire. Be careful not to overcook, which will dry out the meat. If you’re a cheeseburger fan, add the cheese as soon as you flip to the second side.”

This is nonsense. Color is a lousy indicator of food safety and I guess “desired doneness” is about freedom of choice. But if you don’t want to make your kids or guests barf, use a tip-sensitive digital meat thermometer, and stick it in.
 

Sol Erdozain: Stick it in, Mr. Food

Posted on by
Reply

The Topeka (Kansas) news on CBS at 5am always seems to have some sort of problem with sound, weather maps, and performing lively. It has become my little morning ritual to have it on in the background while I work and see what else they can get wrong.

I can’t help myself. I have to watch, no matter how bad it gets.

With summer starting today, I can add bad food safety information to the list.

CBS had Mr. Food reciting a chili burger recipe that apparently included barfing.

He instructed viewers to cook the patty until “juices run clear” and then slap it on the bun, which is not the correct way to check if it’s safe to eat.

It exemplified why I was skeptical of experts cited in a Washington Post article, in which they agreed it was possible to learn how to cook from watching TV, yet didn’t even mention food safety. Putting together a recipe is not all there is to cooking, and with advice like that of Mr. Food’s you are learning how to make people sick.

Thermometers make chefs (and mere mortals) better and safer cooks

Posted on by
Reply

Food porn was on the menu last night as the new season of Top Chef kicked off. That’s me watching for about 30 seconds (right, not exactly as shown).

Earlier in the day I got a press release about the Grilled Australian Lamb Burger with Brie Cheese, Cranberry Compote and Roasted Jalapeno Aioli, “America’s new favorite upscale burger” created by Anthony Jacquet, executive chef of The Whisper Lounge in L.A. (left, exactly as shown).

The burger won the “Make Australian Lamb America’s New Favorite Burger” contest, sponsored by Plate Magazine and Meat & Livestock Australia.

The cooking constructions state:

To prepare burgers, place patties on hot grill. Cook for 2 minutes and then turn a quarter turn and cook for another 2 minutes. Flip burger and cook another 2 minutes. Turn a quarter turn and cook another 2 minutes. Add brie cheese and cover with a stainless steel mixing bowl for another minute. Pull burgers off of grill and let rest. They should be medium rare.

I don’t know what medium rare is. If Australia wants to increase consumption of lamb burgers, require clear cooking instructions, like using a tip-sensitive digital thermometer to ensure the burger reaches 160F so people won’t barf and consumption of lamb doesn’t plummet.

Susan Burton of Slate Magazine required almost 2,000 words yesterday to say she likes meat – well-done – and that she hates the food thermometer.

I honed in on the modern American history of doneness, in large part because it can be tracked precisely—thanks to the meat thermometer. This early-20th-century invention brought about a giant cultural shift: the reliance on a gadget—rather than instinct, or experience—to assess our meat. The thermometer was promoted to home cooks as a tool of scientific precision. It was also an instrument of relaxation, something that freed you from worrying about misjudging the meat: "A roast thermometer makes for carefree roasting," advised the 1959 edition of Fannie Farmer’s famous tome. By midcentury, temperature measurements were a common feature of cookbooks.

Our standards for doneness changed rapidly when, thanks to Claiborne, Julia Child, and others, we discovered, and began to venerate, cooking methods that originated abroad. Once American palates adjusted to the European style of underdone meat, guidelines fell even further. (Child’s leg of lamb: rare at 140 in 1961; 125 in 1979.) Times writer Florence Fabricant took note of this development in a 1982 article called "A Trend Toward ‘Less Well Done.’ " Fabricant called overcooking "a tradition in this country" and attributed the change to the influence of "Oriental" and "French nouvelle" cuisines. She also connected the trend to the then-new vogues for crisp-tender vegetables and for raw foods, like sushi. But eating rare meat wasn’t simply a matter of evolving taste. It was a means of signaling something about yourself, an ethos. When Fabricant’s article was published, serving your guests rare meat showed you were sophisticated.

These days, it shows you’re cool. (Look no further than the title of Bourdain’s forthcoming bad-ass memoir: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook.)

Somehow, author Burton manages to simultaneously trash the precision of a meat thermometer and propagate food safety myths about so-called factory farming.

She’s so cool, she likes food well-done and doesn’t need a thermometer.

I’ll continue to stick it in.

Soccer-based food safety metaphors suck: give food bugs the red card this summer?

Posted on by
2

We visited with our neighbors yesterday and their baby, Luna Sofia, who is currently called baby Luna Sofia although that may pass, and the Columbian mother asked if I was going to watch the World Cup of soccer.

I said no, and tried to extol the virtues of ice hockey.When I think of watching World Cup soccer I have this image of Malcolm McDowell being rehabilitated in A Clockwork Orange.

But that doesn’t stop the civilized British soccer fans from using bad World Cup metaphors to spread their faith-based food safety.

Food Safety Week starts today, and with many people likely to have barbecues or be eating outdoors for World Cup matches, the Food Standards Agency is reminding everyone that food bugs can cause more misery than a penalty shoot-out.

The U.K. Food Standards Agency also has some top food safety tips for people planning barbecues this summer:

* always make sure chicken, pork, burgers, sausages and kebabs are cooked until steaming hot all the way through, none of the meat should be pink and any juices must run clear.

This is wrong. Color is a lousy indicator and steaming hot means nothing. Although after my last post, a U.K. dude wrote in to say,

Not every mother of three children rushing about with a full time job has the time to use your wonderful tip thermometer and so visual advice is both sensible and correct.

Nope, still wrong, and in this case, sexist. What about fathers with four daughters making meals and a full-time job? Did it for years, with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer.

Warning: Cooking instructions from UK Food Standards Agency may lead to excessive barfing and explosive diarrhea

Posted on by
3

Many countries have a Food Safety Week or Month, which seem primarily designed to circulate bad information and blame consumers for getting sick.

The U.K. celebrates Food Safety Week 2010 from June 7-13 (I can hear the monster truck radio promo dude doing the voice-over for the commercials – ‘experience the thunder, Food Safety Week 2010 will rock your world’).

This year, the focus is on Campylobacter, which, at 55,000 reported cases annually, causes the greatest number of foodborne illnesses in the UK. The key messages for this year’s campaign are to cook thoroughly and avoid cross-contamination.

The communication types at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have come up with a draft press release that local councils could use to promote the good deeds of Food Safety Week (or in bureau-speak, FSW!) entitled, Take simple steps to avoid food poisoning.

If avoiding food poisoning was so simple, why do so many people get sick?

“People should not worry unduly about food poisoning; there are some simple common sense steps people can take to avoid getting ill. Just storing, handling and cooking food properly will minimise the risk.”

Can I duly worry about barfing from the food I eat?

Bob Martin, a food safety expert at the FSA, said,

“Proper cooking will kill food bugs. It’s especially important to make sure poultry, pork, burgers and sausages are cooked all the way through. If there’s any pink meat or the juices have any pink or red in them, germs could be lurking! Check your food is steaming hot all the way through before serving.”

These are not recommendations for proper cooking; these are recommendations for food safety failures. Is steaming hot an improvement on piping hot? How do I check if food is steaming hot, won’t I burn something? Do hamburgers and chicken legs steam when they are cooked? Is color really the best way to tell if food is cooked? Why do bureaucrats have to excessively use exclamation marks?

As part of the interactive learning section, the British feds ask,

Q4. How can you tell that chicken is properly cooked? (Tick all that apply.)

1. It’s hot on the outside
2. It’s not pink
3. The juices run clear
4. After the time stated on the instructions
5. It’s golden brown
6. It’s steaming hot all the way through

A. It’s not pink, the juices run clear and it’s steaming hot all the way through, 2,3, and 6.

To ensure chicken is properly cooked, you should check the thickest bit of meat, either large pieces in something like a curry, or with a roast bird at the thickest part between the breast and leg. The meat should be steaming hot, with no pinkness and any juices should run clear.

Check it with your eyes? Your finger? Your tongue? How about, check it with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer because color is a lousy indicator for food safety.

“During 2010, the Agency will be developing a new campylobacter risk management programme. Although this new programme is expected to involve extensive work with industry to reduce the prevalence of campylobacter in UK-produced retail chicken, the promotion of messages about good food hygiene to consumers through initiatives such as Food Safety Week will remain an important factor in reducing human campylobacter infections.”

There is no evidence such information programs do anything but lower the credibility of a supposedly science- or evidence-based agency.

On this Memorial Day, which can be traced back to Decoration Day at the end of the American civil war, stick with some of the cooking advice from the Americans and Canadians – use a tip-sensitive thermometer and stick it in.