Cooking meat for the first time - please help me to not kill us!

[HippyJess]

DS is approaching weaning age so I'm trying some new recipes out to make our evening meals as healthy as possible. Thing is, my parents are vegetarian so I've never learnt how to cook meat! I've always only eaten it when eating out or as frozen rubbish!

I have turkey mince to make meatballs. How do I not kill us? How do I prepare it etc? I have a recipe for it but this part isn't covered - please help! :)

As long as you apply the basic food hygiene you normally do for cooking you will be fine. Follow the instructions in the recipe and just make sure the meat is cooked before you serve it.

What part of cooking is not covered in the recipe?

Is the mince in the fridge or the freezer? You need to thoroughly defrost first if in freezer.

Generally, the centre of the meat should not be pink unless it is a whole piece of steak meat that has not been minced. Burgers or sausage or meatballs or any kind of processed meat shoud not be oink after cooking. Th e reason being that processed meat has the bacteria incorporate don the inside of the product but whole meat has the bacteria on the outside only. Pork is the only exception in that tape worm can live in pork flesh so always has to be cooked thoroughly.

Anything minced should be light brown all the way through. Never pink.

In reality the cente of the meatball, sausage, burger, needs to be at 70 degree centigrade. You can buy a cheap probe thermometer like this to be absolutely sure. They come in different colours but all do the same thing.

The other way without a thermometer is stick a fork in the meat ball, sausage, burger and after 30 seconds take it out and put the prongs on your lower lip. If it is to painful to keep on your lip it is hot enough.

oink = pink

It definitely should not 'oink'. That is far too raw.

I would suggest you get hold of a recipe written by someone reliable and then follow the instructions, particularly the timing and temperature, carefully. Repeat this often enough and you'll quickly learn what 'done' looks like. If you really want to go belt and braces, meat thermometers can be reassuring

Thanks :)

Calico it's not the cooking so much as the taking it out of the fridge and mixing it with other ingredients! I guess I'm just scared of the unknown.

The only way to stop being scared of the unknown is to get experience. You're bound to make a few mistakes at first but, provided everything is cooked through, you're very unlikely to make anyone sick. Does your partner have no experience of cooking?

If it is just mixing the ingredients, as long as everything is clean and you wash your hands before and after handling the meat, you will not kill anyone.

Have all the ingredients you need out by the bowl then it is easier to keep things clean.

Good luck.

He does Cog and offered to do it for me but I want to learn!

Thanks, fingers crossed it'll go ok, sure it will get easier with time :)