pork pie

[sunsue29]

how come pork pie meat is so pink

[smudge]

Well what colour are pigs?

[Philtaz]

Damn, I was going to say that smudge!

[Ouisch]

Not exactly sure what pork pie is, but cooked pork that is pink in the middle could be dangerous - runs a risk of trichinosis.

[SteveD]

This is for Ouisch and other American ABers:

 

http://www.blogjam.com/pork/

 

 

[ewand]

The reason why it is pink is the meat is usually made with a combination of belly and shoulder pork, which is mixed with various spices and bay, and then cooked within the pastry itself. Therefore the meat doesn't brown inside. If you make your own at home, the meat doesn't stay too pink, but as it's cooked for about 3 hours, it cant not be cooked! I think that commercial pork pie manufacturers may well add a colourant to the meat mixture, to maintain that colour that people, I suppose, are used to.

[Sproutstick]

Sorry - but how can ANYONE not know what a pork pie is??  That's madness!

[ewand]

I'm with you Sproutstick.......mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pork pies.......Homer would love em.

[Oneeyedvic]

Its definitely artificially coloured - they covered this recently on tv when they were talking about Melton Mowbray Pork Pies

[9087]

It's coloured simply to make it more appealing. Think of ham. Uncoloured, it is a murky grey colour - so are sausages - and only a few manufacturers are brave enough to flog such products. The worst part of a pork pie is the way they actually ADD that horrible jelly.

[petrastone]

SteveD - Fantastic graphics and sound!!!!

[New Forester]

I think pork pies must be pink for the same reason as bacon, ham, gammon and sausages are.  It's because they have a small amount of salt-petre in them -- a simple preservative, effective in very small amounts.

 

The nitrite in the salt-petre reacts with the myoglobin in the meat to form the strongly pink colour.  Myoglobin is a form of haemoglobin found in muscles.  It normally absorbs oxygen, but it also forms a stable complex with nitrite.  The globins are red when combined with something, even when it's not oxygen -- a similar thing happens with haemoglobin and carbon monoxide, giving poisoned people a healthy-looking flush.  We are all familiar with this from Casualty when the evil landlord's not maintained the gas water heater properly.

 

I used to make raised pies with rabbit meat and a little bacon (yum!).  When cooked, around each piece of bacon would be a little patch of pink rabbit meat, while the rest of the rabbit remained pale brownish.  This must have been the nitrite diffusing out of the bacon.