Most of the hamburgers my wife cooks are 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground pork. Mixed together, cooked together. Same for her meatloaf. It's been nearly seven years we've been together. I'm still here and have never gotten ill from her cooking.

Not sure where you got the idea that the "safe" temperature for pork is different than for beef....but it's not so.

Just cook them both until no longer pink....you will be fine!

For years I've read that pork had to be cooked thoroughly compared to beef. I see from the USDA that it is no longer so. I must remember this! Thank you both.

Safe cooking temperatures

Pigs used to carry trichonosis ...but modern animal care has eliminated that. And a safe temperature for pork was 160....very easily obtained when browning meat.

Interesting chart linked above.

Beef tenderloin, 145F plus 3 minutes resting. Why not just boil it?

dcarch

I would appreciate your thoughts on boiling it. How is that safer?

Boiling it would come in handy today when I want to dispose of a pound of ground pork I won't be using and don't want to freeze it.

Thanks!

Ginny, you're way over thinking this. Brown it just like you would your burger. You're also going to bake it so it will cook even longer. There are no safety concerns.

Yes, you are cooking the ground meat TWICE! You are very much over-thinking this.

ginjj, just to clarify -- you're talking about the internal temps of ground meat? You're absolutely correct to be concerned about reaching food safe internal temperatures of ground meats

https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html

Ground meat is a very different "animal" than whole cuts, as pathogens are distributed throughout the meat. I've heard ad nauseam the old "well, I'm 9,000 years old and have been eating raw meat my whole life and have never gotten sick"; trust me, if you watch someone retch (and I mean retch) for more than 24 hours, look at you and say 'I can't do this anymore", be overjoyed to get iv'd with zofran in the hospital, you'll have a different perspective. It only takes one time -- you're wise to check the .gov sites.

Cathy in SWPA

Sooo you frying ground meat crumbles....how you going to measure the temperature? if it's browned, it's done!
And to worry about browning beef and pork to different temperatures to put into a dish that you will then bake for 45 minutes...yep! that's over kill!

No need to get so wound up, Linda. And yeah, ground beef gets brown when it's done. So does pork. Good grief. After reading her first post, ginjj needs to read food safety information from the .gov sites.

>>Boiling it would come in handy today when I want to dispose of a pound of ground pork I won't be using and don't want to freeze it.<<

What’s wrong with just putting the package in the trash? No need to cook it first.

I wouldn't want an animal or human to find uncooked pork in the trash. I've already got the lasagne going without the pork but I will remember these comments when I make it again.

I learned something today; had no idea people boiled meat! Thanks Linda for explaining that.

Fat is flavor, so I'd just drain what has collected in the pan rather than boring. Ginjj, all ground meat needs to be cooked thoroughly and will reach it at close to the same time.

No worries about combining different animals. Leaner blends are drier and fattier blends are more succulent. Each person chooses their preference.

So sorry. *boiling, not boring.

Why is there always that one person that needs to create drama where there is none? You are not going to "retch" violently for days after browning ground pork and then cooking it in the oven for another 45 minutes.

A steak, or roast, cooked to 145° would almost bring me to tears, and go straight into the trash.

"Boiling it would come in handy today when I want to dispose of a pound of ground pork I won't be using and don't want to freeze it."

That doesn't even make sense. You are not going to use it, you don't want to freeze it, but you want to boil it? For what?

Animals have much more robust guts. Eating raw pork won’t harm them. Humans that find raw pork in your garbage and are minded to eat it are unlikely to consume it raw. Cooking the pork to dispose of it is more than a little OCD IMO.

I suspect your fear of undercooking pork stems from the old time need to cook pork very well, to kill any trichinosis that might be lurking in the meat. However, for many decades now trichinosis has been eliminated from commercially produced pork, though it may still be extant in wild boars and bears. So there is no need now to cook pork to death.

@Angela Id

I took it to be a facetious remark. You might as well throw it out if you're going to boil it before cooking. Or, boil it for consuming.

We need the /s for sarcasm, like reddit uses ;) that's a wink for humor.

Just a note....the people i know who have boiled ground meats were on seriously low fat diets...trying to rid their meat of as much fat as they could. For them browning and draining wasn't good enough...you had to boil the fat out!

And worrying that someone or some animal will find uncooked pork in your garbage?? Really?? Raw pork is not poison!!

Yeah @Angela Id -- I'll be that one foodborne illness person.

If you happened to have read the link that ginjj first posted it was a roasting chart for whole meats not ground. Then the conversation morphed into boiling meat to 145 -- based on that chart. Sorry, if you don't think there was a bit of a disconnect; feel free to scroll on by if you find my post hyperbole.

Sorry about my comment about boiling beef tenderloin. It was meant as a sarcastic remark.

I think most people will agree that cooking beef tenderloin at 145F then rest for 3 minute is insane.

dcarch

You are nothing but right dcarch. A beef tenderloin at 145 is overcooked, and you should rest for no less than 10 minutes.

I also agree that 145F is way overcooked for nearly any beef I might consume. Commercially obtained ground beef is my exception to that, I just don't trust the stuff and I eat it well done when I have to consume it, like in a restaurant.

The chances of trichinosis from raw pork is minute. There were about 400 cases in the US last year, most from rural areas which grow and slaughter their own pork. The problem came from the producers feeding pigs raw meat scraps, something which is now forbidden by government regulations for commercial operations, although I'm not sure that's enforced very stringently.

Anyway, if there are 327 million people in the United States, the chance of getting trichinosis from undercooked pork is about one in 817,000, if my math is correct.

Annie

In the past couple years, I have changed from someone who could eat rare anything to needing everything cooked well or at least medium ( No more rare tuna, salmon, beef or anything else even questionable.

I hate it, unless I want a colonoscopy prep.