Comments on: The Safety of Steak Tartare

By: brent

brent — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:18:53 +0000

I’m not an expert. But, ironically i think your chef is correct. Remember exposure and time are your enemies. I shaved piece of meat that is freshing ground, will get exposed just salt it and eat right away..

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:38:52 +0000

Andrew, you “tard,” it was Elaine that made the comment regarding evolution. If you are going to call someone retarded, then at least have the mental capacity to name the correct person. There should be some sort of “Boy did I put my foot in my mouth” medal just to award you for your comment! The actual poster made no mention of Cornell, either, something else you got from the wrong post, wow! Some people should simply not continue to receive oxygen priviliges…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:40:26 +0000

Juen — You tard. how long do you think man has been aware of cooked meat? The idea that the reason for safety is evolutionary is just lazy on your part. I hope you have fun at the Cornell Club discussing other fanciful and seemingly educated guesses as I’m quite sure those are the only sort of false erudite folk who will listen to your nonsense.

By: EPOC

EPOC — Mon, 31 May 2010 23:31:23 +0000

That is true, irradiating with beta waves or gamma rays should do the trick!

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:04:17 +0000

Well, how about irradiating meat? You can kill all the bacteria or other icky tiny things without cooking it. Once it’s irradiated, the risk introduced by grinding it or chopping it with clean utensils is roughly similar to the risk introduced by cutting a cooked-but-cooled piece of meat, namely: barely any at all, provided the food is consumed quickly.

I’d not hesitate to try raw meat if it had been irradiated to kill microbes, then properly stored and prepped in a clean manner.

By: June

June — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:07:52 +0000

Ha, I mistyped my own name in the earlier comment. Anyway, tensai’s comment has a minor mistake - corn feed *lowers* cow rumen pH.

This page has a nice explanation about why giving a cow grass to eat even for a week before slaughter can help reduce E. coli counts:
http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/9_19_98/food.htm

I think the Cornell study that tensai refers to is this one:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/281/5383/1666

By: jwsharrard

jwsharrard — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:01:37 +0000

Hear, hear—exactly why I recommended eating grass fed, but with the statistical information I didn’t have at my fingertips!

By: tensai

tensai — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:57:47 +0000

“E. coli is naturally present in a cattle’s digestive system”

This is true, as it’s true of most mammals including humans. One interesting fact though is that grass fed beef have far fewer (300x fewer, according to a Cornell study) E. Coli than grain fed beef and of those that are found in grass fed beef, they are much less likely to survive the human stomach. The reason is that corn feed raises the pH level of a cow’s stomach more closely matching a human’s. That in turn means that the E. Coli who survive a cow’s stomach, will survive in yours.

Just another example of how traditional farming methods, you know the ones that sustained our race for thousands of years, are better than modern industrial version.

By: jwsharrard

jwsharrard — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:08:22 +0000

Juen—That’s a different situation entirely. But if you’re grilling a strip steak, a porterhouse, a tenderloin; basically any steak that’s naturally tender, there’s no need for mechanical tenderization techniques. That would be something along the lines of a salisbury steak, which is a different situation altogether and more along the lines of ground meat because, as you point out, you’re introducing the surface bacteria into the center through the tenderization process.

Elayne–that’s why you get the choice of how well done you order your meat. No one is going to foist a medium rare steak upon you if you prefer medium-well or well. If you prefer a more well done steak, order it more well done. Just don’t complain that it’s dry and tough afterwards. I once cooked for a banquet of people that all ordered their steaks either “well done” or “extra well done” and then were upset when the steaks arrived to their table in the condition that they requested.

By: dan h

dan h — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:10:33 +0000

I often eat raw beef, both ground like beef tartare, or just sliced thin like a carpaccio. It hasn’t caused me any digestive problems yet, but I only buy beef from the local butcher.