Pork fat rules!

[snapshotmd]

I'm wondering why people think pork is so bad, fatwise.

If you compare pork and beef, beef will have the fat marblized in the meat making it more difficult to remove. It is kinda like chicken; there is fat, but the meat itself contains little to no fat. I pondered this over the winter while I was playing with the slow cooker. The beef fat just seemed to be more "fatty" than the pork fat. The beef fat just melted and made the stew greasy; not so much with pork. Also, the beef fat seemed to coagulate quicker.

IMHO, pork should be healthier than beef is; and more tastier. :D

snaps

[Dave C.]

Sounds like the start of another great debate :D ! Personally, I feel that a lot of the flavor comes from the fat, but that's just my $0.02.
Dave

[TomKattt]

Well, I'm a beef lover. Not that I don't like pork, too, but I really love beef.

Interestingly, I saw something the other day that said pork fat wasn't quite as highly saturated as beef fat. I don't know if that's really true or not, but the person said pork fat was healthier than beef fat.

Modern pork producers saw their sales drop when people started avoiding pork because of the fat, so they now raise hogs with less fat than previously. That makes for fairly dry, tough pork nowadays. But it's probably better for you. (Not counting sausage and bacon, obviously.)

But let's get real here. If you have high cholesterol or high levels of the 'bad'cholesterol, you want to cut way back on animal fats. On the other hand, if your cholesterol is OK, and you have no signs of heart disease, and your weight is OK, eat what you like.

[snapshotmd]

Modern pork producers saw their sales drop when people started avoiding pork because of the fat, so they now raise hogs with less fat than previously. That makes for fairly dry, tough pork nowadays. But it's probably better for you.

I'm not so sure if pork is tougher/drier nowadays, but raising pigs for slaughter has gotten to the point that pork can be safe to consume at lower temperatures than before, i.e. medium, and that means juicier meat. I've made pork chops that was just medium well and it was juicy as all heck. Any meat, when cooked well done will be dry; even beef.

One thing that I've notice about pork fat is it seems to have a cell structure that doesn't break down as easily. That's why it holds up so well when cooked, like bacon.

[Dave C.]

IMHO---
Some folks will always try to find out which of the 47 different choices is better for them to eat. Then the other 99.7 % will buy whatever tastes better. Guess which segment gets the headline on the 5 o'clock news? Me???, I eat what tastes good!!!! :D

[spoiledmickey]

Pork is the other white meat, i'm pretty sure they were referring to the healthy fat content when they named it that.