How the 6+2+2 method will help you cook perfect pork every time

Think you've been cooking pork the right way all these years? Well think again. 

According to New Zealand Pork, the average consumer tends to overcook their meat out of fear of getting sick if it's under done. 

The industry is now sharing a "gold standard" for how pork chops and steak should be cooked - to give people confidence they are producing perfect pork every time.

NZ Pork chief executive David Baines says it's called the 6+2+2 method.

"Essentially you have a two centimetre pork steak or pork chop and you have a medium to high heat pan," Baines told Dominic George on Magic Talk's Rural Today on Wednesday.

"You cook it for six minutes on the first side, flip it for two minutes on the second side and then rest it for two [minutes]. 

"This method has proven that you can get some really tasty, succulent pork in just 10 minutes, and it pretty much is a fail-safe method."

Baines says many people have a perception that pork must be cooked "until the juices run clear", however, that is incorrect.

"The best eating pork is cooked similarly to the way you'd cook red meat - so a little bit pink in the middle, and that's perfectly safe," he said.

"If you overcook pork then of course you cook all the juices out and it's tough."

The industry is now on a mission to spread knowledge of the method to consumers "so that people feel confident cooking perfect pork every time"

Because the 6+2+2 method is designed to work with pork that has a thickness of two centimetres, Baines says the industry has been working with supermarkets and butchers across the country to ensure two-centimetre thick pork steaks and loin chops are now industry standard - "because obviously if it's thinner than the two centimetres then it's going to cook more quickly".