Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

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FDA-Specified Oven Temperatures for Roasting Whole-Meat Roasts
Roast weight
Oven type
Temperature
(°C)
(°F)
<4.5 kg / 10 lbs still dry 177 350 minimum oven temperature for small roasts in still ovens
Note
convection 163 325 minimum oven temperature for small roasts in convection ovens
high-humidity 121 250 relative humidity must be greater than 90% for at least 1 h as measured in the
cooking chamber or exit of the oven, or roast must be cooked in a moistureimpermeable
bag that provides 100% humidity; temperature given is a recommendation
but can be less
≥4.5 kg / 10 lbs still dry or convection 121 250 minimum oven temperature for large roasts in still or convection ovens
high-humidity 121 250 see note above for high-humidity oven roasting
FDA Time-and- Temperature Standards for Cooking and Storage Sous Vide
Sous vide specification
raw animal foods
stored at 5 °C / 41 °F
stored at 1 °C / 34 °F
stored frozen (less than −20 °C / −4 °F)
raw food stored in sous vide bag at 5 °C /
41 °F before cooking and consumption
Regulation
cooked to temperatures and times as for other foods (see FDA-Specified Cooking Times and
Temperatures, page 184)
stored for no more than 72 hours
stored for no more than 30 days
no limit on length of storage
stored for no more than 14 days
FDA Time-and-Temperature Standards for Freezing Raw Foods
Food
raw or partially cooked fish
(except tuna and farmed fish)
Temperature
(°C)
(°F)
Time
Note
−20 −4 7 d raw fish must be frozen at specified temperatures and
−35 −31 15 h
times then thawed before being served
−35/−20 −31/−4 1 d frozen at −35 °C /−31 °F; stored at −20 °C/−4 °F
The Last Step Is a Big One
almost always done at 75 °C / 170 °F or above;
many steaks are seared until they brown at temperatures
greater than 100 °C / 212 °F. As a practical
The thermal death curve for a 6.5D reduction of Salmonella in beef (black line) has been established by many
scientific studies. The FDA’s time-and- temperature recommendations for cooking whole-meat roasts (red dots)
matter, then, the level of pathogen reduction on the accord well with the scientifically determined parameters, except for one notable deviation at 70 °C / 158 °F. Here
exterior of most seared steaks will approach the the FDA recommends cooking whole roasts for one second or less—a rule that flouts the scientific evidence and
6.5D level no matter what the rules are.
could be downright dangerous because such a brief cooking time is unlikely to reduce Salmonella populations to
safe levels. The correct cooking time (blue dot) is 11 seconds.
The FDA’s requirement for cooking the surface
of beef also raises the question of why the rules
Temperature (˚F)
single out steaks but not roasts, which are also intact
130 135 140 145 150 155 160
beef muscle. Officials in the FSIS, in fact, confirmed
10,000
to us that no real difference exists between
a thin rib roast and a thick rib-eye steak when it
comes to pathogen reductions. More generally,
1h
10 min
6.5D Salmonella reduction
1,000
FDA data points
for whole-meat roasts
repeated food safety tests have shown that animal
FDA3—401.11(B)(2)
muscles are generally sterile insideat least with
100
1min
regard to the most common food pathogens. This
30 s
finding is not true for parasites like Trichinella, of
course, but most meats do not harbor the parasitic
10 s
Correct value
10
worm. So why not broaden the surface-cooking
requirement from beef to lamb and other commercially
1s
Incorrect value
1.0
farmed meats? 55 60 65
70
FDA Time-and- Temperature Curves
The curve plotted from the FDA’s time-and- temperature table on whole-meat roasts (blue
line) follows the curve for a 6.5D thermal reduction of Salmonella in beef (black line)
except for an odd deviation at 70 °C / 158 °F. The curve plotted from the FDA’s time-andtemperature
table for ground or minced fish and meats, injected or mechanically
ten derized meats, and eggs other than those cooked to order (red line) also follows the
same basic curve as the 6.5D reduction in Salmonella, except that it starts at 63 °C / 145 °F
instead of at 54.4 °C / 130 °F.
The cooking recommendation for both fish and eggs cooked to order (green dot) would
Time
Temperature (˚C)
reduce Salmonella counts by less than three-fold instead of the more than 3-million-fold drop
produced by using the 5 min cooking time sug gested by the Salmonella curve. The single data
point for cooking the surface of beef (brown dot) is equally un likely to yield a substantial drop
in pathogen levels. The FDA-recommended temperature for cooking poultry (purple dot), on
the other hand, is needlessly high. It’s even more conservative than the pasteurization curve
for dairy (pink line), which is based largely on outmoded methods of analysis. The curve for
ice cream (orange line) reflects concerns about the difficulty of destroying pathogens in eggs
and milk fat, but its accuracy has not been demonstrated.
Time (seconds)
raw or soft-cooked eggs
raw or rare cooked meat
molluscan shellfish (such as clams, oysters)
raw tuna
raw fish, commercially farmed
no minimum temperature or time requirements
should not be served to highly susceptible populations
must warn consumers
1 h
10 min
Temperature (°F)
130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210
Ice cream pasteurization
10,000
1,000
raw food of plant origin
no minimum temperature or time requirements
no warning requirement
eggs are contaminated, this amount of cooking
will not make them safe to eat. If they aren’t
contaminated, then the requirement is moot; even
eating them raw would have no harmful effects.
The requirement for cooking the surface of beef
(see brown dot in graph at bottom right) raises
a similar issue. One second at 63 °C / 145 °F has no
substantial impact on typical beef pathogens such
as E. coli or Salmonella. The 6.5D reduction curve
for Salmonella shows you need to cook steak for
one second at 76 °C / 169 °F; one second at 63 °C /
145 °F is far too short. As in the fish and egg cases,
an arbitrary and ineffective number has been
chosen to make it seem as if the regulation is
effective, but there is no science to back that up.
In actual practice, searing a steak typically
involves much higher temperatures. Searing meat
with a hot pan, griddle, plancha, or blowtorch is
Time
1 min
30 s
10 s
1 s
0.1 s
0.01 s
Ground or
marinated meats
FDA 3–401.11(A)(2)
Fish, eggs to order
FDA 3–401.11(A)(1)
Beef steak, surface
FDA 3–401.11(C)(3)
Whole meat roasts
FDA 3–401.11(B)(2)
Salmonella thermal death
curve (6.5D)
Poultry
FDA 3–401.11(A)(3)
Dairy pasteurization
60 70 80
90 100
Temperature (°C)
100
10
1
0.1
0.01
Time (seconds)
186 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
FOOD SAFETY 187