Medium Rare Burgers?

[Mad Cook]

Are they (grocery stores) doing something different when they grind burger these days? Why was it OK to eat a rare burger as a kid, but not now?
If it's just a "don't eat red meat, least of all rare" thing OK, those people and groups live among us, but is there something that actually makes today's hamburger less healthy that the burger of yesteryear?

I think we didn't bother back then. We ate all sorts of things that are now considered injurious to health - butter, coffee, red meat, rare meat, soft cooked and raw eggs - and because we didn't have 'fridges I expect we used to eat food that wasn't as fresh as we insist on now. I noticed at the recent food festival in the village that the game (pheasant, wild boar, venison, etc) from the local supplier wasn't as strongly flavoured as it used to be 20-30 years ago. When I served up a roast pheasant to a friend the other night he thought it was free-range chicken.

I suppose, too, it could have something to do with the mad cow disease panic there was a few years back. There was a connection found between meat from cattle infected with Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and the variant form of Creuzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans.

Burgers are not the gorgeous things in the UK that they are in the USA and usually come cremated with no choice for the customer. You can buy a steak in restaurants rare, medium, well done, or, as I like mine, still moo-ing but you never get the choice when it comes to burgers. When I see burgers on "Triple D" I despair of British ones. They are basically at the lower, cheap, end of convenience food and a friend who was visiting from America and insisted on having a McDonald's meal was appalled at the difference in style and quality between yours and ours. (Yours was better!)

 

[Mad Cook]

Also, in years past, most beef came from local sources, and you knew your butcher. The butchers took great pride in their work,


With both pork and chicken, nasty microbes and parasites live in the muscle tissue. This why they have to be cooked to sufficient internal temperatures to kill the critters.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

"Also, in years past, most beef came from local sources, and you knew your butcher. The butchers took great pride in their work, "
I'm lucky to still have this. An independent "proper" butcher, run by the 3rd and 4th generations of the family, using meat from named farms within no more that 40 miles away and they buy their meat as carcasses rather than buying it ready cut as many chain butchers do.

"With both pork and chicken, nasty microbes and parasites live in the muscle tissue. This why they have to be cooked to sufficient internal temperatures to kill the critters." I was appalled to see a (well-known, both here and in the States) chef claim that it is perfectly OK to eat under-cooked pork because the health of meat animals is better nowadays!!!! What planet is he living on? Incidence of tapeworm infection from meat or fish is very rare in the UK but I still wouldn't want to risk it. Unfortunately a couple of other less well known ones have parroted the same nonsense on television.

 

[jennyema]

"With both pork and chicken, nasty microbes and parasites live in the muscle tissue. This why they have to be cooked to sufficient internal temperatures to kill the critters." [/COLOR]I was appalled to see a (well-known, both here and in the States) chef claim that it is perfectly OK to eat under-cooked pork because the health of meat animals is better nowadays!!!! What planet is he living on? Incidence of tapeworm infection from meat or fish is very rare in the UK but I still wouldn't want to risk it. Unfortunately a couple of other less well known ones have parroted the same nonsense on television.

Even the overly-cautious USDA says its ok to eat pinkish pork. Its safe at 145 degrees.

Trichinosis (roundworm, not tapeworm) hasn't been around in years.

The USDA safe cooking temperatures for meat:
145 for all whole cuts of red meat
160 for ground red meat
165 for poultry

 

[mmyap]

I like my burgers a bit pink, just not bloody. Ironically we seem to have more recalls of contaminated vegetables lately. Things like spinach. I try and stick with locally grown produce if at all possible just for the freshness factor and trying to keep or local farmers in business. Believe it or not, local produce is more expensive then the stuff shipped in from off island. Go figure.

 

[Mad Cook]

Even the overly-cautious USDA says its ok to eat pinkish pork. Its safe at 145 degrees.

Trichinosis (roundworm, not tapeworm) hasn't been around in years.

The USDA safe cooking temperatures for meat:
145 for all whole cuts of red meat
160 for ground red meat
165 for poultry

It hasn't been reported in the UK for over 20 years but there were 71 reported cases of tapeworm infection in 2005. Not a lot but 71 too many.

In the UK, government still advises against the consumption of under- cooked pork (among other things) despite regulations imposed to protect the food chain.

 

[jennyema]

It hasn't been reported in the UK for over 20 years but there were 71 reported cases of tapeworm infection in 2005. Not a lot but 71 too many.

The 71 was food bourne tapeworm or all cases ?


At any rate , 71 cases out of 60 million people is a pretty safe bet.

 

[taxlady]

Even the overly-cautious USDA says its ok to eat pinkish pork. Its safe at 145 degrees.

Trichinosis (roundworm, not tapeworm) hasn't been around in years.

The USDA safe cooking temperatures for meat:
145 for all whole cuts of red meat
160 for ground red meat
165 for poultry

Looks like the NHS in GB is even more overly cautions than the USDA. They say that tapeworm can be killed by freezing to -10C for at least 48 hours, but you should still cook meat and fish thoroughly.

From Tapeworm infections - Prevention - NHS Choices

According to the Mayo Clinic, "Thoroughly cook meat at temperatures of at least 125 F (52 C) to kill tapeworm eggs or larvae." At least that is a description of "thoroughly cooked" that doesn't mean it has to be cooked to dry.

Tapeworm infection: Prevention - MayoClinic.com

 

[pacanis]

Interesting. Do you know a dog can eat tapeworm eggs/segments and NOT get tapeworm? Impossible.
The only way a dog can get tapeworm is from eating a flea that has the tapeworm larvae living inside it, from the flea that ate the eggs. I wonder why we humans can contract it easier?
On the plus side though, heartworms die in our blood. I guess it's a trade-off.

 

[jennyema]

If tapeworm is killed at 125, then rare meat of any sort is fine.

Not that I'll eat it (not out of fear of tapeworm... which would be a good addition to my weight loss program at this point. )

I can't eat mooing oinking meat

 

[mysterychef]

Several years ago there was a big movement to Irradiate all meats and fresh vegetables. I remember taking a Serve Safe class that said this was our future, particularly poultry. I believe through the years it was thought that the minute amounts of radiation would be more dangerous than the bacteria it killed. I remember when the first [Radar Range] Microwave ovens first came out, the same thoughts prevailed then.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

It's interesting to note that the radiation they were talking about was gama radiation. It's high energy photons moving at a precise frequency. As they pass through living organisms, if strong enough, they kill that organism. But they are photons, simply passing through, just like ultra-violet, or infra-red radiaton. There is no residue left that can radiate us.

When someone is working in a nuclear facility, the danger is that there may be radio-active dust particles on their clothing or skin. This dust will continue to bombard its surroundings with dangerous radiation that can injure us at the cellular level.

The difference, gamma radiation passes through, destroying things as it goes, and leaves no radioactive elements behind. Like xrays, once the emitter is turned off, there is no danger. Radioactive materials continue to emit dangerous radiation from the residual elemental particles that are still present.

Gamma radiation, IMO, would have been a good way to make foods shelf stable.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[pacanis]

Not to mention its effect on man in the moon marigolds.

 

[Mad Cook]

The 71 was food bourne tapeworm or all cases ?


At any rate , 71 cases out of 60 million people is a pretty safe bet.

Not if you're one of the 71.

 

[jennyema]

Not if you're one of the 71.

True enough.

But's its about the same liklihood as being struck by lightening.

And, as pointed out above, tapeworm risk is pretty much limited to raw and very under meat.

 

[GotGarlic]

When I go out with friends for our Wednesday night dinners, one friend and I occasionally order the burger. She orders hers rare and I order mine medium-well, so it's juicy but cooked through. I can tell in an instant when I taste it if the center is underdone. I don't like the texture. But I will take my steak a lovely medium-rare, please.

 

[Addie]

All of this fuss with med-rare beef started with Jack In The Box and their undercooked burgers. Then the Mad Cow jumped on the band wagon. MR is fine with me. As long as it isn't shoe leather.

 

[CharlieD]

Med. rare is the way to go. And when I grind meat myself, I can even go rare. Today for dinner I simply had raw meat, ok it was marinaded overnight. I cooked for everybody else, mine was perfect as is.

 

[Andy M.]

OK, the logic goes like this:

A solid piece of meat can be contaminated but any contamination would be only on the surface. So if you cook a steak, the surface temps are high enough to eliminate any danger. You can leave the interior rare or medium rare with no risk.

If that piece of meat is ground for you, any surface contamination is mixed into the entire mass of ground meat so you have to cook all of it to a safe temperature.

Some have said they grind their own burger meat to be safe, but that assumes the piece of meat you bring home to grind in your kitchen isn't contaminated to begin with.

So you say that's why you buy your meat from a local butcher who has a good reputation and proper meat handling practices.

Where did he get that meat?

 

[CharlieD]

I do not buy from a store or the butcher. I get meat thru the manufacturer.

 

[Addie]

I do not buy from a store or the butcher. I get meat thru the manufacturer.

You have a cow in your back yard?