As a food scientist (sort of . . . college classes, reasearch grant at the Department of Agriculture Research Station at Beltsville, Maryland) and as a health practitioner (physician assistant in an emergency room in Maine for 8 years and now at a University pediatric teaching hospital in Atlanta for 15 years) I am here to tell you folks that food poisoning is real and it is a possibility in almost every cook we undertake.
I have been alarmed to hear some of the suggestions and advice put forward on the internet when it comes to food handling. As a general rule I subscribe to the theory that "dogma is ALWAYS wrong!" (a most dogmatic statement, if I do say so myself!) But food handling may be the exception to that rule. By a rigorous adherance to the very simple rules, you can most often avoid the consequences which vary from a grippey stomache up to death. I have seen a fair amount of food poisoning and almost all of it has been traced to some simple rule fracture that, if followed, would have avoided the whole ordeal.
I have seen hundreds of folks poisoned by Salmonella after the accidental addition of uncooked giblets to dressing served at a popular restaurant. "Happy Thanksgiving, Mom, here's a case of the runs!" Several elderly folks died in that incident.
I have seen epidemic vomiting and diarrhea traced to macaroni salad packed by a teenaged counter attendant at a local fried chicken joint who had a sore on his hand and wasn't wearing gloves. About fifteen folks ended up in the hospital and another hundred or so alternately hugging the throne and perching on it after that learning experience.
I have seen a nine year old girl end up having to have a kidney transplant after a vacation in Cancun where they "only ate the local fruit once" but that was enough for the enteropathic
e. coli to gain entrance. Other folks in the family had a little diarrhea. The CDC did a search on that exposure and traced it all to one hotel that didn't was their fresh fruit properly . . . I think 4 people died and another 10 or 12 ended up in the hospital on dialysis, most of them, thankfully only temporarily. But I am here to tell you, you DO NOT want to be sick enough to be on dialysis, even temporarily!
Cook things to an internal temperature that is appropriate to the meat in question. We, on this forum, tend to regard the Polder as a quality control device, which it is, but it is also a saftey device without parallel.
Don't scrimp on the amount of salt called for in a brine. The flavor that is imparted is secondary. Brines were develpoped to retard bacterial growth, but it's still a good idea to brine under refrigeration. Some of our flavoring solutions and soaks have less salt and therefore MUST be used under refrigeration because of that. It's okay to rinse the meat in fresh water after soaking and immediadely before cooking to reduce the salt flavor, but don't cut back on the salt initially.
I don't want to throw stones at anyone's favorite cooking method, but the recent string that I saw here on aging meat in a home refrigerator is a recipe for disaster! Without stringent control of temperature and air flow it cannot safely be done. And the constant handeling called for only increases the likelihood of contamination with some bacterium.
We are used to shading and bending the rules. And we all do it. Ask any of the commercial guys if they run their home kitchens the same way they run their commercial outfits. I'd wager, if they're honest about it, they will all admit to slacking off on the rules a little at home. But I'll bet if you followed them around in their home kitchens you'd also find that they run a much tighter ship than the rest of us.
Will you be poisoned every time you break the rules? Of course not. But are you willing to bet the lives and welfare of your family on it? It's a crap shoot (all pun intended!
) with the welfare of your loved ones riding the line. Sorry 'bout the rant . . . But I really like y'all and would hate to stop hearing from you, even temporarily!
(You'll note that I have removed my usual signature from this post. This IS serious folks!)