I use it in the thin ones, too! I probably don’t have to, but I’m a ThermaPen convert and I’m hyperconcerned about food safety, to avoid any food poisoning in the house, to avoid the ER which has ridiculous waittimes where I live. It was often a 18-24 h wait last summer, and that’s been in the back of my mind all yearlong. 
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Or Curse! 
Just kidding, very useful tools.
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I hear you about the ER. I’ve been taken in an ambulance, and we were still in line (on gurneys) in the hall. Don’t want to do anything ER-worthy that I could have avoided.
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I get this with any meat having different muscles. Centercut pork chops, Porterhouse, top sirloin. One muscle will read 110°F and the other 120°F.
It’s consistent enough that I don’t think it is user error. Maybe it’s differing fat contents, with phase change of the fats stealing heat. I don’t know if one muscle is likely to have a substantially different water content than another, at least not as different as fat contents can be. For example using a Porterhouse steak, USDA says tenderloin side is about 25% fat, but T-bone side is only 16%.
I don’t see this effect when checking different areas of single muscle cuts like baseball sirloin or picanha.
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I always cook an extra steak for just this reason. I love leftover steak. Today’s breakfast was thinly sliced sirloin tossed with some mass market “Cajun Seasoning” and dumped into small tortillas.
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I put mine in noodle bowls.
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Freezing meats also kills trichinella. I can’t remember exactly but I think it’s a couple weeks for pork, longer for game meat (maybe different species of trichinella).
As for bacterial contamination on pork or on beef, the surface should go over 160°F. [Edit - I’m going to delete this next part because I just recalled there’s a sliding scale between a given temperature’s effect on bacteria depending on how long the meat is at that temperature. So it’s possible (just as an example, not sourced) that one could sous vide a piece of meat at 130°F for 2-3 hours and at least Pasteurize the surface even if not quite killing bacteria to the level that grilling or frying would do.] So if someone were to sous vide a product only to a desired cook point (e.g., 125 for beef or 145 for pork (my desired endpoint)), they could run the risk of harmful surface bacterial contamination unless they also seared the surfaces following the sous vide cooking.
Generally speaking though if pan frying or grilling a steak or a chop, I can’t imagine how one could do so without getting the exterior surfaces (including the sides which don’t contact the pan or grill grate) well past 160.
(Edit - all the above said, personally I can’t stand the texture of pork below about 145°F.)
But don’t buy Costco steaks - they’re micro bladed so any surface contamination gets injected inside the steak where you’re never going to get it to kill temperature. Not to mention the mechanical tenderization may make the steak seem more tender, but it also gives a somewhat mealy texture to the meat.
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The only time I got sick from eating a steak I prepared was when I got a jaccard meat tenderizer and tried it out on the steak. Didn’t like the texture either, regardless of the possible contamination. Pitched the jaccard device.
Does Costco really tenderize its prime steaks? I’ve bought them and didn’t notice their texture as being any different from other non-Costco prime meat I’ve bought.
Trivia: Dewey Balfa (Cajun musician)’s wife died from trichinosis. I think I read it was from deer meat.
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A few hunters in Quebec die after eating bear meat every so often (not sure which organism). Seems a little more dangerous to eat that other game.
Yep. You have to look carefully but it will say so on the label. Someone here explained that even within “prime”, there are various levels of quality. They suspected Costco gets the lower level “Prime” and has them needled. This person (sorry I can’t recall who it was) said this is why you don’t usually see bone-in steaks at Costco.
Here’s a photo (not mine, just googled) - prime grade boneless ribeye. “Blade Tenderized. Cook to internal temp of145…”. Several years ago the label said “cook to minimum internal temp of 160”.
Who does that??
OTOH, they sell a lot of cut steaks, and I’m not hearing about any rash of food poisonings, so maybe they’re only buying from the most careful producers.
Edit - this small E. coli outbreak was from 2012 and they thought might be linked to the tenderization.
I only bought prime NY strips once. A big pack. Vacuum packed and froze each one individually to cook later. I’d never willingly do a prime steak to 145. I did these rare, but I will admit I don’t recall seeing anything on the label about mechanical tenderization. When I go back to Costco, I’ll check the labels carefully. If anything’s been tenderized, I’m not going to buy it. I like my steaks rare, without an added dose of injected pathogens.
I guess the only thing left to do then is to buy a whole loin and cut it into steaks myself.
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This cannot be true. At least not for all their steaks.
In fact, it cannot be true, as their bagged tenderloins do not look like they were repackaged nor tenderized with any type of manmade contraption like the Jaccard.
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It may just be the rib-eye steaks.
The article specifically talks about them.
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Never have seen it. It would be truly visable . The meat structure stands true and proud. Also the spinalus of the ribeye . The cap is undamaged in anyway. I spend time when picking one out . 2 inch or more thick
Cut steaks are needled - all of them, so near as I have been able to determine.
Whole muscle bagged stuff like tenderloin (cryovac packed) are not and I did not say they were.
I apologize for not making that distinction clearer, but a bagged tenderloin is not a cut steak.
Their NY Strip steaks are also needled.
Not at my Costco. At least not all of them.
In fact, any Costco steak (or any steak for that matter) that is tenderized must be properly labeled per USDA regulations.
I have purchased cut steaks (ribeye and T-bones) that were not so labeled.
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I will check my Costco soon. The strip steaks I bought several years several years ago were not so labeled. If they had been, I wouldn’t have bought them, trust me.
Consumer Reports says Costco is one of the few sellers who label their tenderized meat as such.
That CR article was written in 2013.
USDA regs effective 2018 (cited above) makes labeling of mechanically tenderized meat mandatory.
But of course these are just rules. Enforcement is a different matter entirely.
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Yeah, I know now about the labeling change. Oh well, time to find another source.
Cattle ranchers in northeast California who harvest their own cattle. The best . Anyway costco prime ribeye are great . I think i was paying close to 50 bucks for one . Maybe 2 1/2 pounds .
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