Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [35]
A note on the doneness of ground meat: We believe that you should cook ground meat thoroughly but not overcook it (for details, see “Judging Meat Doneness” on page 42). Here’s why. Most harmful bacteria are destroyed by temperatures in excess of 140°F. Because these bacteria live largely on the surface of a piece of meat, cooking processes like roasting, grilling, frying, and boiling are sufficient to destroy the surface bacteria, even if the interior temperature of the meat does not reach 140°F. However, if the meat is ground, the bacteria live throughout all parts of the meat, not just the surface. So you should take care to cook ground meats to an internal temperature of more than 145°F.
06. Grading
All meat that is slaughtered in the United States is inspected for sanitary handling and wholesomeness by the USDA, but only the most expensive meat is graded. Grading determines quality and yield, not safety, and whether a meat producer decides to have a carcass graded or not is purely voluntary.
Although any animal can be graded, graded beef is the most widespread, followed by pork. For several reasons, less and less meat is graded in this country. First of all, grading is an added expense in bringing meat to market, and for all but the most luxurious cuts (rib, loin, and tenderloin) a high grade will not increase the retail price by much. What’s more, the qualities that consumers say they want in their meat (less fat and more lean) are contrary to the criteria used by the grading system.
The amount of marbling, the webbing of fat deep within the lean muscle of well-fed animals, is the primary factor that determines a high-quality grade. Other criteria, such as the age of the animal and its musculature, are considered in determining grade, but they have less effect on the flavor and texture of the meat, and they are given less weight in determining the final grade.
Most of the meat sold in supermarkets is “No Roll,” which means not graded. After meat is graded, the USDA grade stamp is marked on the carcass in blue ink with a roller that imprints the grade on each primal cut. If the carcass is not graded, it doesn’t get rolled with the stamp; hence the name. Grading information for specific meats can be found in the sections on beef (page 50) and pork (page 59).
Because most mass-marketed meat is not graded, meat producers and supermarket butchers have devised brand names to distinguish their products from the competition. Some companies identify their meat as “pure” or “natural,” terms the government has defined simply as using minimal processing and avoiding artificial ingredients. Some companies go a step further, producing meats that are free of hormones and antibiotics. And some brands are specific to certain breeds, like Certified Black Angus and Certified Hereford Beef.
Many supermarkets label meat with very little marbling “extra-lean” and charge a premium price for it. The USDA defines extra-lean beef as having less than 5 percent fat and less than 2 percent saturated fat, which would place it at a middle to low level on the grading scale. Not only is it not worth the high price, but it is easily destroyed by overcooking.
07. Beef
Cattle are huge animals, weighing well over 1,000 pounds and yielding more than 500 pounds of edible meat per carcass. Almost all of the cattle raised for meat in the United States are hybrids. The longhorn of cowboy ballad and cattle drive fame, the breed that established the beef industry in North America, was stringy and tough, and they all but died out as a source of meat in the late nineteenth century, when they were replaced by blockier, meatier, British breeds, such as Hereford and Durham, and the Scottish breed Angus. These animals were bred with drought-resistant humped breeds from Asia, particularly Brahmans, to create a stock that was resistant to environmental hardships and disease but possessed large musculature, good marbling, and tender meat. These qualities