How to cook the perfect pork chop: Scientists discover that cooking the meat to 63°C is best for ‘juiciness, tenderness and flavour’
- The study confirmed previous results from trained taste testers about pork taste
- Average consumers were asked to rate pork chops cooked to 63, 71, and 82 °C
- They rated 63°C (145°F) as the best tasting meat irrespective of its ‘quality’ or pH
- ‘Quality’ includes the marbelling of the meat and colour grade of the cut
- 63°C is the temperature considered safe for cooking pork in the US and UK
Cooking pork to 63°C is best for juiciness, tenderness and flavour, according to scientists.
Average consumers consistently rated pork cooked to 63°C (145°F) as superior to joints cooked to 71 °C (160°F), and 82°C (180°F) in a new study.
This was irrespective of the ‘quality’ of the meat or its pH, long thought to be important factors to taste.
The latest study confirmed results previously carried out by trained taste testers that temperature was the most important factor in making delicious pork chops.
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When it comes to taste, meat quality seems to have little influence when compared to the temperature at which it was cooked, with 63°C (145°F) yielding the best flavour, consumer tests have confirmed
A previous study using trained taste-testers showed that pork chops cooked to 63 degrees were rated as tasting better, and the current test replicated this using average consumers.
They were asked to rate based on rate juiciness, tenderness, flavor, and overall acceptability of pork after tasting chops cooked to 63°C (145°F), 71 °C (160°F), and 82°C (180°F).
Other factors that have long been thought to influence taste include the ‘quality’ of the meat, which the researchers described as a cut’s ‘degree of colour and marbling’
It also includes the pH – the measure of how acidic or alkaline something is.
Traditionally, a higher pH meant higher water-retention in the meat muscle which is thought to increase juiciness when the meat is cooked.
The latest study showed that pH had no impact on cooked taste of the meat, as consumers still rated chops cooked to 63°C as tastier, juicier, and more tender than chops cooked to the old standard of 71°C, regardless of pH.
Average consumers consistently rated juiciness, tenderness and the flavour of pork cooked to 63°C (145°F) – higher than those cooked to 71 °C (160°F), and 82°C (180°F). This was irrespective of the ‘quality’ of the meat or its pH, thought to be important factors to its taste
Lauren Honegger, graduate student and lead author on the study from the University of Illinois, said: ‘The results were what we expected – consumers rated juiciness, tenderness, and flavor much higher in pork chops cooked to 63 than the other temperatures.
‘These were the first data in consumers that conclusively supported what we knew from our own experience.’
Up until 2011, the safe cooking temperature of pork was set at 71°C (160°F) in the US but has since been lowered to the same as beef and lamb.
Dr Dustin Boler, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois and co-author of the new study, said: ‘Pork cooked to 63 degrees is absolutely safe.
‘And our results show that everyday consumers strongly prefer pork chops cooked to 63 over the old standard of 71 degrees.’
Dr Anna Dilger, associate professor at the department, added: ‘We think darker colour and more marbling should lead to a better tasting pork chop, but that’s not what consumers told us.
‘They gave the highest ratings to pork chops cooked to 63, regardless of colour and marbling.’
