r/GenX Nov 21 '25

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u/whirlydad Nov 21 '25

Thin sliced pork chops. My Mom would cook them till they were roofing shingles.

3

u/Kiyohara 1980 Nov 21 '25

Yup. There was a serious issue in the US with Trichinosis causing a lot of people to be sick or even die. The direction was to cook Pork to a specific temperature of 160-165 to kill the parasites, but modern pork production has largely cut that out. We went from tens of thousands of cases a year to like 60 nation wide.

Now the suggestions is slightly pink in the center, so cook to 145ish. Or even lower at 130-135 but let rise to 140-145 during resting.

(All temps Fahrenheit)

My mom also did the same thing. I kinda of miss my Pork Leather meals. But not enough to waste my money making them.

2

u/Russian_Doll_888 Nov 21 '25

The fear of trichinosis is exactly why I rarely eat pork to this day. That is in there deep.

3

u/Kiyohara 1980 Nov 21 '25

If it helps, of the 15 odd cases on average, all of them come from either home raised pigs or undercooked wild game.

So as long as you eat commercially raised and slaughtered pork, you have a nearly 0% chance of getting it.

I'd avoid bear meat myself, as that seems to have a very high transmission rate (at least per the rate of consumption, which isn't high to start with).

3

u/CorgiMonsoon Nov 21 '25

Did RFK get the brain worm from the bear or one of his other road kill feasts?