Cooking Subversive

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/ExpellarmusPathogenus/2

This post is part of the Geeking Out series which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101.

In  part 1 of “Expellarmus Pathogenus!” Understanding Pathogens, I gave a broad overview of  Pathogens so we can all be on the same page with basic Hygiene and Sanitation rules.  

In this installment of “Expellarmus Pathogenus”, we’ll talk about how to kill or minimize these disease-causing microorganisms and why your fridge deserves more respect.  I’ll summarize the rules from both parts of the article at the end.

Let’s Kill them pathogens!

When we talk about foodborne pathogens, bacteria and viruses often come to mind, but these are just a few of the microorganisms that can make us sick.  Parasites, fungi (yeast and mold), protozoa are also pathogens that make their way into our kitchens.  With the exception of the Norovirus,  the most common foodborne pathogens in the US are bacteria such as Salmonella,  Clostridium Perfringens, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus, E.Coli and Listeria.  If you’ve never heard of them before, that’s totally okay. Some are new to me as well.  What matters is you know they’re in food and more importantly, that you learn how to make your food safe.  The good news is, all of them, including the virus Norovirus, can be killed or rendered inactive at certain temperatures.

Temperature control is just one way we manage our pathogen levels and probably the easiest to control.  There are other contributing factors such as moisture, air, acidity, light, which we’ll talk about in future posts.  As it turns out, it’s fairly easy to make our foods safe from the most common foodborne pathogens, and it involves the pleasant activity of cooking.

Earlier we said that pathogens reside in our raw food, especially in animals. This is exacerbated by unhygienic and cruel farm practices, such as housing livestock in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), active breeding grounds for pathogens.  Remember the cesspool of feces?  Pathogens in our animals is why consuming raw or undercooked poultry, meat and shellfish is among the leading causes of foodborne illnesses, or what we call food poisoning.  Cooking to the right temperature remains the most effective way of killing these disease-causing pathogens. 

Here are the recommended minimum internal temperatures needed to safely cook our meats, poultry and seafood.  Note that internal temperature is different from  the temperature you cook your food at.  To measure internal temperature, you will need a thermometer.  You can check the full list from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection service site.

Ground Meat and Meat mixtures:  165°F for chicken and turkey; 160°F for all othersPoultry: 165°F

Beef, Pork, Veal, Lamb, Fish: 145°F

Rest time for Meats (not poultry): 3 minutes

Rest time refers to the time necessary for food to sit before cutting and consuming, because temperatures fluctuate during the rest period.  Resting is also recommended from a culinary standpoint, because slicing meat/poultry too soon will cause valuable juices to leak out. 

Okay, first let me say that what I just mentioned are official USDA guidelines.  It is necessary to give this as a basis before discussing exceptions, because from the gustatory standpoint of  taste, mouth feel, and other markers of deliciousness, absolute safety is not always the prime concern to the mad chef, or diner, for that matter.  Why dishes like wild fugu- the poisonous puffer fish that’s a delicacy in Japan, or Casu Marzu, a Sardinian cheese infested with maggots make it to anyone’s table could perhaps be attributed to rarified taste buds and perhaps a proclivity towards danger. For those of us outside of cultures that prize such dishes, it seems tantamount to playing Russian roulette with your life, if not your general well-being.  Then again, my favorite dish as a child was Steak Tartare, raw ground beef that used to be served in fancier restaurants a long time ago, and which has all but disappeared today.

This overview on pathogens is to give you a starting point on understanding dangers that are part of the cooking process. When we are more informed, we’re in a better position to calculate the risks should we decide to deviate from the rules.  I love sashimi and sushi, for instance and understand that parasites can pose a risk eating raw fish.  So I only consume these from reputable sources and should I be preparing it myself, to only purchase sashimi or sushi-grade fish, which has nothing to do with any special process or divination, according to this article on Serious Eats,  just that the processor has deemed it safe to eat a particular fish raw.  So it will come down to, do you trust your fishmonger? And on that note, you really should be thinking twice about buying sushi from local convenience stores.   

Another common deviation from the internal temperature rule is what many gourmets consider the best way of preparing steak, and that is, medium rare to medium, temperatures which range from 129°F - 135°F, which is lower than the USDA guideline of 145°F.   Steaks cooked to this temperature are moist and have great mouth feel and flavor.  To reduce the incidence of pathogens in meat, I only purchase from butchers and stores that don’t source from farms that have their animals in CAFOs.

Rule-bending is not something I normally advocate to those new to the kitchen. There is a reason why there are official guidelines in the first place.  For public safety, rules need to be concise, easy to understand and to account for the worst possible conditions, even the uneven temperaments and habits of cooks who don’t follow basic hygiene and sanitation procedures.  Official guidelines tend to be conservative;  a prudent stance, if not the most delicious.  For an interesting account on the origins of food safety rules from the perspective of writers who argue against overcooking, check out this article from The Scientific American.

In the interest of precision, I did some digging.  The actual temperatures that kill most bacteria according to the World Health Organization  is at 149°F-- below the 165°F recommended internal temperatures for poultry and ground meat.  All the pathogens I mentioned earlier are killed at 149°F except for Norovirus, Clostridium Perfringens and most strains of Staphylococcus, which only require 140°F, although a few variants of Staphylococcus are more heat-resistant, but these are rare.  Parasites are killed between temperatures 140-160°F.   So there are already many inconsistencies in the official guidelines which by its own standards, leads to overcooking poultry and undercooking meats and seafood.    

Now if you’re worried you’d be glued to a food thermometer every time you cook, I want to reassure you that doesn’t have to be the case. While a food thermometer is the most accurate method of determining food temperature, there are many ways to tell a dish is sufficiently cooked.  Be advised that some of what I mention may deviate from the USDA guidelines on internal temperatures, and are given more in consideration of gastronomic value and calculated safety risks where sanitation and hygiene rules are observed and food is procured from trusted sources. Here are some examples on what to look for:

Chicken:   flesh is opaque; only clear fluid (no blood) is released when prod with knife or fork  Shrimp/squid: flesh is opaque and firm; when overcooked, this becomes rubberyFish:  flesh is opaque and flakes when you prod with knife or fork (flaking is when flesh fans out)Mussels/Clams: shells open when cooked (note: only cook mussels/clams with intact and closed shells; discard if they are open or damaged prior to cooking)…

#GeekingOutSeries/Safety101/ExpellarmusPathogenus/1

This post is part of the Geeking Out series from Cooking Subversive which presents data-driven information on food and farming, safety in the kitchen, practical science for cooks, cooking techniques and processes and other relevant nerdy stuff that every cook should know.  For the next few weeks, we will be covering topics from the chapter, Safety 101.

As a music educator, I tell my students I always like to start at the beginning. Students come to me with varying degrees of knowledge – they may have taken lessons before, or have music as a subject in school; others come with zero knowledge. But often times with students who already have had some prior music instruction, I find that they have a patchwork understanding of music, which is understandable, since everyone consumes information in a variety of ways.

It’s the same with cooking.  Many forget that the process of cookery can sometimes be dangerous--the possibility of food poisoning, kitchen fires and knife accidents abound.  More insidiously, our health has gradually deteriorated with the prevalence of unhealthy food and food products laden with toxic chemicals and additives. There is also much confusion on our understanding of what healthy food is and what makes for good nutrition.

Many of you during the pandemic have tried your hand at cooking and not only managed to survive it (presumably along with the rest of your household) but produced edible, if not scrumptious fare. Well, congratulations, that’s an excellent start!  Because I am rooting for your continued success and to make sure that surviving cooking is not entirely due to sheer good fortune (though divine providence has certainly helped me survive a few fiascos),  I will take a page from Maria in The Sound of Music when she sings,  “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”  And a great place to start is Safety 101—what we need to know to keep the cooking process safe for us and our loved ones.  While I can’t promise you’ll never draw blood, if we can keep it to a few cuts and scrapes here and there, or mild tummy problems, then we’re good.  Mistakes are normal and critical to learning. The information we cover in Safety 101 will hopefully keep them from being dangerous.

This post is the first of two parts on “Expellarmus Pathogenus!” Understanding Pathogens.

“Expellarmus Pathogenus!” Understanding Pathogens (part 1)

One hot summer day many years ago, a friend decided to grill some chicken.  She brought the raw chicken breasts marinating in their Styrofoam packaging to the heated grill and plopped them in. Minutes later, I realized she had forgotten to bring a platter for the cooked chicken, so I grabbed one to bring to her.  “Hey, you forgot to take a platter with you!”  I called out as I approached. “Oh thanks,” she replied, “but I already have one.  I’m just going to put the chicken back in its container.”

If nothing struck you as amiss in this exchange, then this post was written especially for you.  Because my friend, an otherwise intelligent adult in her forties, was about to make a cardinal food handling error, one that could make her (and all those she fed) very sick, or worse.  Since then, I have not taken for granted that even if it’s the 21st century and most of us have learned about bacteria and other microorganisms in elementary biology, its practical and most importantly, safety implications, might not be fully understood.     

The Federal government estimates about 1 in 6 Americans get food poisoning every year from eating contaminated food.  That’s 48 million cases, according to the FoodSafety.gov site, a gateway for food safety information provided by government agencies.   Much of this has to do with improper food handling, which means most can easily be avoided just by understanding how pathogens work and implementing basic safety practices.

Here’s an overview on Bacteria and Pathogens.

Most bacteria are good and necessary for healthy living. We’ll cover the good when we talk about Microbiome basics later on.  In this post, we’re concerned about pathogens-- the few bad bacteria, as well as virus and other microorganisms that cause disease.  Yes, the coronavirus disease 2019, or covid-19 for short, is one such pathogen that we’ve been forced to become familiar with.  However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that handling food or consuming food is associated with COVID-19.

While covid-19 may not reside in food, the respiratory droplets that contain the virus may spread through cross-contamination:  people touching contaminated surfaces and then touching their eyes for example, which is why the CDC also advises not to share food or utensils when gathering with people from different households.

Since I originally wrote this article before the pandemic, I mulled over whether to edit out some of the basic guidelines, for example, the importance of hand washing, since it was among the first imperatives given by the CDC to combat the coronavirus spread.  It seems like everyone knows this already, right?  But pathogens are here to stay and when covid-19 becomes a distant memory (one hopes), this imperative will still be as important and should not be forgotten.  So I’ve decided to keep the guidelines as is.   Since covid-19 is not known to be food-borne, I will limit the scope of this article to understanding how common pathogens work and how they can make us sick within the cookery context.  Though covid-19’s been getting the spotlight, these bad boys are always around just waiting to wreak havoc on the novice cook.  You may have heard of some of them like e. coli and salmonella.

Pathogens are everywhere.  They’re in your bathroom; on your pets, everything Aunt Liz sneezed on.  Your kids bring them home from school; so do your shoes—imagine where they’ve been (a public restroom, dog poo).  The organic soil your lettuce grows in has it; those free bar nuts?  Practically Petri dishes from every hand that’s scooped out a nut or two (if it wasn’t cool pre-covid, it’s certainly not cool today).  Fruits, vegetables, eggs have it. Raw meat and poultry have lots of it.  Especially if they were raised in close confinement such as in animal feed lots where they are so crammed they’re practically immersed in a cesspool of feces, which of course, has lots of pathogens.    

But while bad bugs are everywhere, we don’t always get sick from them.  It’s a testament to our immune systems that most of us are not as sick as we could be.  The valiant soldiers of a healthy immune system can duke it out with many pathogens and come out victorious.  But if you don’t have sanitary and hygienic practices, you’ve just stacked the odds against them.  Big time.

So let’s talk Hygiene and Sanitation. 

And start with:   Wash your hands

ALL EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK

Yes, you’ve seen these signs posted in most every restaurant restroom in the United States.  The thought often comes to mind, really, a reminder is needed? For someone like me growing up in a family that was borderline germ phobic (my father disliked shaking hands; my sisters and I wouldn’t touch doorknobs in public restrooms), I take it for granted that washing hands is common knowledge and practice. But as I’ve learned, common knowledge  really isn’t always that common, and certainly does not translate to common practice.

According to the CDC’s observations,  food workers in restaurants only wash their hands a third of the time they’re supposed to.    

In one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, “The Pie,” Jerry is in the restaurant restroom with Poppie the chef and is shocked when the latter doesn’t wash his hands after exiting the stall.  This drives Jerry nuts and he refuses to eat the pizza Poppie serves.  It would drive me crazy too.  This is the sort of thing that makes people sick, which is what happens to…

Dear Reader,

When I founded The Refined Cook a few years ago, my mission was to teach healthy and gourmet cooking to promote a slow and sustainable lifestyle. Slow was an important operative word.  I’ve understood the value of slowing down since I quit a hectic corporate job in Manila when I was in my 30’s to pursue music studies as an adult in Boston by way of Berklee College of Music.  Twenty years later, I’m still a gigging musician and educator.

But along the way, I learned how to cook; and when my husband and I bought our home eight years ago, to grow a garden.  Pursuing both passions obsessively gave me new lenses to understand just how much joy I’ve had in being able to pause, reflect, create; luxuries for those who believe they are too busy. 

My interest in slowing down and a subject that’s often associated with it, happiness, continued to grow, along with a budding intention to encourage others to explore these ideas.  The long and short of it, which I’ll expound on in my newsletters, is I realized that lifestyle cooking is a gateway to slowing down.  It’s also an indirect and pleasant way to tackle some very large issues—health, environment, family and community, all of which are contributors to happiness.

And so I wanted to teach people how to cook healthy and gourmet meals; not just how to cook, but to experience other facets of cooking often taken for granted--  camaraderie from shared endeavor, pride in creation, the delight of the senses brought about by elegant place settings, artfully plated dishes and a curated music playlist. Not to mention the rewards of the palate. So in 2017, my husband Jeff, and I hosted our first Refined Cook cooking class party out of our residence.  Since then, we’ve welcomed hundreds of participants into our home and hosted annual Refined Cook reunions.   It was amazing.

Then covid struck and the world screeched to a halt.  

Suddenly, my mission to promote a “slow and sustainable lifestyle” sounded hollow when I rattled it off to my now- online cooking class participants.   Everyone seemed to be cooking and gardening. Social media was replete with photos of bread-making and vegetable garden forays. Even my bass player was making pasta noodles from scratch. Is it possible Americans are now on track to reverse 2017’s statistic that only 10% of Americans liked to cook with the rest split between hating it and being on the fence?  Perhaps.

If there was a silver lining to the pandemic, it’s that many had a taste of what life could be at a slower pace: one where we can live deliberately and in the moment; spend quality time with those we loved.

It is my concern that in a post-covid world, many who have flirted with cooking and gardening may just see it as that—a brief affair that need not be revisited again. When a semblance of normalcy returns and life gets busier, will home cooking be relegated to the once-in-awhile activity? Will we suddenly find out that home-cooked meals are not sustainable in the long-run when we have to commute to work, pick up kids from school or balance all the other chores that make for daily living?  (Is that pizza delivery sounding like a God-send just about now?)

From what I’ve observed, many who have started cooking during the pandemic do what I call “linear” cooking, i.e., cooking a dish all in one go, instead of breaking them down over several days or even months. That’s because it’s natural for new cooks to follow recipes, which are a great way to learn new techniques and expand flavor palates.  But recipes don’t teach you how to manage time, consolidate cooking processes, or repurpose leftovers.  They don’t teach you how to make multiple dishes at the same time, work with available ingredients nor explain why certain steps are necessary or optional. That is beyond the scope of a recipe. So it’s understandably difficult to sustain this kind of cooking.   

I want to show you another way.  I decided to start this newsletter to convince those of you whose curiosities may have been piqued, that it is possible and in your interest to make cooking (and perhaps gardening) a lifestyle choice.  Even if you think you are too busy.   

For one, perhaps the most immediate advantage of cooking besides being able to fend for yourself when restaurants are closed, is the ability to have an impact on your health.  The pandemic put a spotlight on how sick we are as a nation.  I learned the word comorbidity when covid hit because suddenly it was apparent that our illnesses were not only risk factors in and of themselves, but more so for severe complications to those who caught the virus. With 42.4% obese and nearly half with some type of cardiovascular disease (the leading cause of death before covid), it’s not a surprise that the US death toll is staggering.

We’ve heard this before.  We’ve been shamed about our diet choices; our inability to stay away from junk food; of not finding time to cook.  But what you might not know is that there are forces which conspire to make us choose poorly; people and corporations who peddle the snake oils of faster, bigger and more as American ideals.  And what they count on is your ignorance of the facts; the back story, as I like to call it.

Cooking Subversive is about battling these forces by arming you with data-driven information;  learning and implementing strategies to integrate cooking into a busy lifestyle; having fun; empowering you to make healthy lifestyle choices; being a lifestyle cook. Here’s how we’ll do it.  There are 4 Big Topics I’ll be tackling in series-style releases, with a brief description of each.

Why Cook?   Everyone needs motivation.  I’ll give you a few. This is the heart of the Cooking Subversive Manifesto---why I cook.

The Game Plan-  We’ll talk about Cooking Strategies, Help in the Kitchen, Creating a Conducive Environment and Having More fun

Geeking Out- I’ll curate information related to the food and farming industry (like the back stories I mentioned earlier), safety in the kitchen, practical science every cook needs to know, health and nutrition, useful cooking techniques/processes.

Let’s Do It!- This is where we put knowledge into practice. We’ll apply stuff we learn through recipes, demos, cooking events and classes (paid subscribers have free access to some of these events)

And I’ll have stand alone posts as well. As I get a hang of things, I may introduce other categories, like growing food and gardening.  

In the meantime, if you’ve read this far, thank you for your time.  I hope you consider subscribing to join me in being a lifestyle cook (and gardener).  Please help me spread the word.

Cheers!

Marlene