I always hear that pork has to be thoroughly cooked to prevent things like trichinosis and other parasitic infections. However there’s a lot of types of cured pork commonly eaten, right? Here in Spain everyone eats ham, lomo, chorizo and other stuff that is cured but essentially not cooked, and the few cases of trichinosis that happen are all from people eating game they hunt themselves. Is pork really dangerous?
In: Biology
Curing is a great way of preserving food and has been around for a very long time.
The general principle is that the meat is dehydrated or has a much lower water content than raw meat. Different types of salts are also added which aid in the dehydration and prevent bacterial growth.
Bacteria grows best in moist warm environments so these things act against that.
Similarly, raisins last a lot longer than grapes.
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