How does core temperature relate with slow cooking

slow-cookingtemperature

What I have understood so far:

  • You can slow cook to produce pulled pork/beef/lamb/chicken by applying relatively low temperature for long time so that proteins can denaturate (sous vide can help here to prevent drying out)

  • Before achieving the core temperature, meat is rare which is not pulled.

So is slow cooking temperature (sure different for different proteins):

  • same or below core temperature, just for longer time,
  • or somewhat beyond and is that estimated?

Best Answer

For slow cooking you don't just want to achieve a specified core temperature. You want to hold the meat at that temperature (usually about 70 degrees Celsius / 160 Fahrenheit) for several hours until the connective tissue starts breaking down. The temperature of the oven / whatever is usually kept low (although it has to be at or above the desired core temperature, otherwise the meat will never come up in the correct temp) to prevent the meat from burning while it's cooked. Just bringing the internal temperature to 70 degrees will not produce pulled pork. Keeping it there for 2+ hours will.