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How to choose the right pork?
All meat eaters value pork for its excellent taste and nutritional value. But such outstanding characteristics are inherent only in a high-quality product, which is difficult to assess “outright”. With a high price for meat, the ability to choose a good piece will come in handy for everyone. To do this, you need to know where to choose, and what to look for.
The quality of pork is in direct proportion to the following characteristics:
- The age of the animal;
- His health;
- Features of the diet and nutrition;
- Correct slaughter;
- Technological cutting of carcasses.
The fresh product is called “steam room” and has the highest nutritional value. But it is used after more than three hours after cutting, during which time the carcass has time to cool down. In this form, the meat should be sold within 4 hours. If the product is cooled to t ° not higher than + 20 ° C, the sale can be carried out within two days. For long-term storage, carcasses are frozen to -40-XNUMX ° C.
You can choose pork in the supermarket or at the market… But you can’t do that on the streets. The best choice for this would be a store in which the quality of meat products is necessarily controlled. Organoleptically, they are assessed by the color and surface of the cut, then by smell. When choosing, the buyer has the right to ask for a piece to be cut, check the color and determine the smell.
Before buying loose meat, the seller is asked about the freshness, you can also ask for the corresponding document… If a rejection is received for any reason, then the product is most likely expired. When choosing, you need to keep in mind that for each carcass, depending on the location, the meat is divided into varieties. The lumbar and scapular portions belong to the highest, and the cervical portion is considered a lower grade.
Be sure to check out the pork!
Visually, pork should not be too dark or unnaturally light… The first option indicates that the animal was not young, and its meat will be tasteless and tough. The second option is the use of hormonal agents for feeding, which are often abused by unscrupulous livestock breeders. Eating it in food will negatively affect your health.
In a young pig, the meat is moderately light with a pale pink tint, and the fat is soft and white. It is good if it is possible to evaluate the skin, its color is also white without the presence of various spots, which may be evidence of disease. A yellow tint indicates a stale product or a middle-aged pig. Also, a healthy pig has white hard bones, but young individuals have a reddish tint on them.
Pork is also tested for firmness.… Under normal conditions, they have elastic and dense properties. Finger pressure will not leave a dent, this place should immediately return to its original position. Quality meat is almost odorless and filmless, but the presence of small veins that look like marble is a good sign.
Loose consistency and bright color are a sure sign of pork, which was grown with the use of hormonal growth stimulants. You can verify this with a small test for naturalness. A small piece is set on fire over the fire, and if no extraneous odors are heard, everything is normal, but if an extraneous chemical shade is felt, it is not worth buying.
Several tricks are used by unscrupulous sellers to hide the smell of stale meat.… One of them is the processing of products with a solution of potassium permanganate. But this is easily determined by the color of the fat, which naturally does not have red tints. The use of vinegar for such purposes is determined by its smell. Attempts to increase product weight by injecting water can be seen in the characteristic swelling and excess moisture.
When buying a frozen product, you need to make sure that there is no fact of secondary freezing… Re-freezing is characterized by pink crystals, which are especially visible in the section. Long-term storage causes darkening of carcasses and characteristic spots along the edges. Each such procedure takes away the marketable appearance and nutritional value of the meat.
The choice of pork is a responsible process, since not only the taste and quality of the prepared dishes depends on it, but also the health… Having mastered the simple rules of this process, you can easily distinguish a low-quality product. In this case, you should not hesitate to conduct a dialogue with the seller. If he sells normal goods, he will always go to a meeting, since he has nothing to hide.