Thoughts on Red Meat

My mom always made me, as a kid, send beef back that she felt was “too rare,” meat she felt I could get sick from since it could almost get up and walk away from me. The thing is, I love rare meat.

There is nothing more satisfying than a seared piece of red meat that is crisped perfectly. I love everything about it, the texture of rare meat is so much softer, but also firm so it doesn’t get mushy in your mouth. The juices, when seared in, give the meat a much richer taste. I’ll even order my meat blue rare if I’m out at an especially nice restaurant and feel very confident in the cleanliness of their kitchen and quality of meat.

“You’re like your great grandfather Harvey.” I hear that a lot from my dad, supposedly Harvey also loved rare meat, but I never knew him. When we grill at home I make sure that my dad cooks my piece absolutely at the very end of everyone else’s so that I don’t get stuck with something that’s medium well, dry and chewy.

At the table they all have a different reaction; my brother comments, “You’re going to get worms,” my mom asks, “Don’t you want that cooked a little more?” and my dad just acts like he is watching a train wreck and just can’t look away because it’s both amazing and disturbing.

On average though, most people cite health risks as the main reason they don’t like to eat rare meat, or at least medium rare meat. Most people think that if not cooked well through meat has a risk of giving you terrible illness that you could potentially die from and sadly this is partially true. But it isn’t the fact that the meat is cooked rare that causes the illness, it’s the unsanitary conditions it is either cook on or if the quality of the meat is poor.

In a study done by the University of Nottingham, scientist injected E.coli bacteria samples into various kinds of red meat they then cooked the meat rare and tested for the E.coli. The scientist’s results, no E.coli. They found that the E.coli only contaminated the meat on the outside and not the inside, thus the bacteria is destroyed when it is cook regardless of how done it is.

One of the main ways cuts of red meat can become contaminated though, is through re-contamination with cooking utensils. By making sure you have clean utensils that are disinfected between touching the meat, even if you had contaminated meat it won’t become re-contaminated. Since bacteria are on the outside of the meat, red meat that is ground is at a higher risk because it has all been exposed to air. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and patties, these should all be cooked through because the risk of bacteria is significantly higher.

Regardless, a steak should be cooked no more than medium rare, especially if you have a nice cut of meat or are at a fine dining restaurant. In fact, most fine dining restaurants won’t cook red meat past medium rare and most cook it rare. I’ve even heard stories of tourists in France who ordered steak and upon requesting it well done were told that the chef would not cook it that way.

Moral of the story, be more concerned with the overall cleanliness of your kitchen or a restaurant’s and you can have your meat done rare without much worry. Make sure to have good quality meat in your home and to practice safe meat handling. To my family, keep glaring, I’ve already warned you on what you’re missing.