Annoyed by those seeking attention

(Alec) #21

I gave up on Saladino when he turned to fruit and honey. He clearly is not carnivore. But he can eat what he wants.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #22

Yeah, a lot of that is cultural conditioning. But eating cooked meat has two purposes: it helps minimise bacterial infection, and it improves the nutritional profile of meats by breaking down proteins and making them more digestible.

Plant foods often require special processing as well as cooking. I was just reading about maize corn, which the native Americans used to soak in lye for several days, to convert the niacin content into something digestible. When the Europeans brought this grain to Europe, they did not bring the processing knowledge with them, and poor people who relied too much on maize as their primary grain (it was very cheap) started developing pellagra, from lack of niacin.

The reason your grandmother used to cut the eyes out of potatoes, peel the skin, and throw away green ones was to avoid the solanine content. Then you boil them for a long time to destroy any remaining solanine.

Cassava must be carefully prepared by long soaking to get the cyanide out. Improperly processed cassava kills.

Prolonged cooking tends to destroy lectins and break down oxalic acid, which is why my grandmother used to cook broccoli till it was grey (well, that, and the risk of typhoid). Broccoli al dente still contains these toxins.

So the race has good reasons for discouraging the eating of raw foods.

(Geoffrey) #23

I’m with you there. I’ll eat my steaks rare and I’ve even eaten them blue but I really do want some kind of sear on them.
Other that fish, the only time I’ve eaten raw meat that I can think of was some steak tartare at a hockey game in Germany.

(Bob M) #24

@PaulL This guy has been visiting primitive cultures and determining what they do, primarily to make plants edible (remove toxins mainly):

We definitely should be processing things like corn, beans, legumes, etc., but not many people do anymore, because it’s been beaten into our heads that these are good for us.

@Geezy56 I’ve been ordering my steaks rare for a while. You rarely get “rare”, though. :wink: (I’m not sure anyone knows how to cook rare.) I have some raw fish and even raw ground beef, but not often.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #25

We eat some raw fish in Sushi, also is Smoked salmon kind of raw? Do you guys know Rollmop Herring?
They’re pickled so I guess that’s not raw either :thinking:

But no, Steak I refer Medium, pink in the middle. I once heard a guy tell a waiter how he wanted his steak. ‘Just tear of the horns and wipe it’s ass’ … he actually said that lol

#26

I only ate raw fish in Japanese restaurant and raw smoked pork (yum! I even appreciate the chewiness but if it has much fat, I need to cut it up, I don’t have the teeth for it).

Yeah, the thing that always has sugar AND sweeteners nowadays :sob: Once I have found one with sugar only, that was full with vegs. I have very fond memories of pickled herring but I can’t have them :frowning: Not fair.
Pickled is raw, not cooked, pickled :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t think I ever ate steak, I probably will order medium, my SO something else and we compare and hope for the best. Beef is special, it respongs to a shorter time surprisingly well according to my very tiny experiences (I don’t eat beef every month). I cook the hell out of everything else. My fried liver must be brown through and through :smiley: Except beef because beef is just that special. But I had no organ meat from other ruminants, maybe they are similar.

#27

I love sushi and steak Tartare. I would make steak tartare if I trusted my sources more. My mom had a butcher who would run the steak through the grinder several times for her when she wanted to make steak tartare (once a month or so) and he would use the freshest meat, from his own animals. (Yes, he had a farm, too.) I loved her steak tartare; it was always a special treat. But I don’t trust supermarket meat, it’s been through too many hands and places.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #28

That’s true here too, like everything. They use crappy shortcuts. Pickling is a form a preserving I guess, I’d always thought of it as a kinda chemical cooking process but maybe that’s not right.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #29

Andsteak tartare and carpaccio are “cooked,” so to speak, by being marinated in acidic liquid.

The acid and the heat both have the effect of pre-digesting some of the proteins and making them easier to assimilate.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #30

No, but I have some Scandinavian friends who rave about lutefisk.

#31

My mom’s steak tartare was just the meat, chopped onions and raw egg yolks. That’s it. And that was the usual way to prep it in the region.

#32

Rollmops, yes, grew up with it. Loved it. Can’t find it here.

#33

I only heard about that version too - except no onions :slight_smile: I love simple, 1-2 ingredients dieshes a lot… Never tried steak tartare though but I barely ever ate beef to begin with. I probably will try it one day.

Germans have something similar with pork and I still don’t understand how they dare to eat raw pork… It’s something I never would do but it’s true I don’t feel any desire to eat raw beef either. But I might one day. There is a beef farm I trust, with super fresh meat (a few times a year only and one needs to write in a few hour window to get the meat. the animal will get butchered later and people pick the meat up very soon afterwards).
But cooking still is a safety thing so I prefer that. I love thoroughly cooked meat anyway. I am into raw eggs, not meat. Except fish in Japanese restaurants, that is great. I find raw fresh salmon way nicer than the cooked version.

#34

I’m German and I never head of raw pork being eaten. Nor have I ever heard of boiled lettuce, I assume that’s another myth.

#35

I have heard it from several Germans. I am pretty sure it is a thing, maybe not in the whole country.
I googled it, the dish is called Mett and Poland has it too.

What is about boiled lettuce? That was a thing in our household though I have found it a weird idea :smiley: (It was actually lettuce soup. With garlic AND sugar. Crazy combo but edible. Mom didn’t do it often and I didn’t mind but I ate it.)

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #36

Not only that, but until modern intensive inspection methods were developed, eating raw pork was extremely dangerous. Trichinosis is not a fun disease.

#37

I definitely wouldn’t try raw pork out. But it’s a popular German dish, apparently. There is lots of info about it. Mett aka Hackepeter.

(Geoffrey) #38

It’s my understanding that trichinosis has been pretty much eliminated in the US and that it’s safe to eat our pork medium instead of well done and that’s how I now cook some of it like pork chops. They are so much better that way.
Now wild pork I still cook thoroughly.

#39

Maybe because it’s a very lean cut so it dries out easier… :thinking: Little experience with it, my SO isn’t choosy and I like my meat at least a bit fattier.
I eat green ham (but prefer fattier cuts, I eat those too), 2 hours in the oven or 30 minutes in the pan, it’s lovely! The roasted one is in way bigger pieces so it needs the long time. (Of course it depends on the oven and the temperature too. And our tastes. And the actual slab of meat…)

(Bob M) #40

We went to a restaurant in the US where the owner was/is from Ukraine. She had dishes from there, and gave some of the proceeds to a charity doing work in Ukraine. One of the dishes was steak tartare, completely with raw beef and raw egg. I had that and it was great. I could eat that every day.

When I get the time, I grind my own burgers with a number of different meats. Then I weigh them to 6 ounces each, and grill them. I cook these lower in temp than regular burgers, but that’s because I ground everything myself. I’m still not able to eat that raw though.