Bob B wrote:krunchie wrote:Bob the following information is correct and you can google it for confirmtion.
Red meat like beef ( and less so lamb) does not carry bacteria inside the meat.
Only on the outside where it has been handled, and exposed to the environment.
This is why you can sear a steak both sides then eat it basically raw, without harm.
Ground beef however ( hamburger ) must be cooked through, as all the meat has had the oppourtunity to become infected.
White meats like chicken and pork ( and some fish ), can carry nasty bugs inside the meat such as bacteria and also worms, and as such should never be consumed even slightly undercooked.
I am not privy to why you wont get bacteria inside red meat, its just fact.
however i do know that kangaroo is a different "animal" again and in regards to worms should be thoughly cooked through.
Hi again Krunchie. It's getting a little bit late, nearly 2am and my son happened to be going to the loo LOL. So, I just asked him why it is better to cook say a rib eye or scotch fillet to a medium rather than a medium rare or straight rare?
The simple answer was if you cook the above cuts to a medium it has a much better flavour when it breaks down the internal fats in the meat. Otherwise you can still taste the uncooked fats and it's not nice.
The steak will still be tender as they are very good cuts and will remain tender but have a much better flavour once break down the internal fats.
I just remembered something from my youth where a mate of mines brother was lacking in some minerals. So, the doctor recommended he ate raw steaks to gain whatever minerals were was in the meat.
I must admit I am on the slight side of rare when I cook mine but that's how I like it. When I'm out I only ask for medium rare so the missus doesn't throw up on my steak when the blood oozes out sometimes LOL.
Bob have we got 2 discusions going on at once, i asked you about the health dangers that are present when cooking red meat and you come back with the above which is to with fat break down for flavour, not that there is anything wrong with that, i find this topic of interest as well, but all of a suden its not a health issue but a tast one.
I under stand the above and it is sound advice however, this method depends alot on the fat content of the beast in question, most australian mid to high quality beef is actually quite low in marbled fat, even though it is actually a good thing for the reasons you out lined above.
The reason why most of our meat is this way is because consumers have wrongly driven our producers to produce the meat this way.
Our poor Mum/Dad every day type consumer sees the lovely marbled fat that is actually desired in most countrys (particlarly japan) and goes ohh no thats fat and its bad for me, i wont buy that !!!.
So ingnorance in consumers choice has lead us to having our every day meat with much lower internal fat content than it should.
I would be interested to know if your son cooks with a higher quality/grade of beef, i wouldnt be suprised if he does.
But most people wont have the access to the verry highest quality cuts with high marlbed fat content and so would acually be overcooking if they went to medium, because the fat is just not there.
and 40 to frown 
